LOS ANGELES — California legislators are fast-tracking a rescue effort to help the University of California, Berkeley avoid slashing its in-person fall class by more than 2,600 students to meet a court-ordered enrollment freeze, just as the university prepares to release admission decisions this month.
Under legislation introduced Friday, the state's public colleges and universities would be given 18 months to complete any court-ordered environmental review before being subject to a mandatory reduction or freeze in campus population.
If passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the legislation would take effect immediately and retroactively — allowing UC Berkeley to proceed with its original plans to enroll more than 5,000 first-year California students, according to state Assemblyman Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, who leads the Assembly Budget Committee and drove the legislation's development.
