The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the University of California, Berkeley, must cut its enrollment by close to 3,000 students in response to a lawsuit from local citizens over the environmental impact of planned academic buildings.
The court’s 4-2 ruling upheld a lower court ruling last month that ordered the university to freeze its enrollment at 2020 levels. The university will now have to withhold 5,000 acceptance letters it had planned to send out.
In a statement responding to the ruling, the university said it was “extremely disheartened” by the court’s decision and claimed that the ruling will “prevent thousands of students who would have been offered in-person admission to the University of California, Berkeley, this fall from receiving that offer.”
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The university continued, “This is devastating news for the thousands of students who have worked so hard for and have earned a seat in our fall 2022 class. Our fight on behalf of every one of these students continues.”
The ruling is not the final say in the case. The university had sought to have the lower court ruling blocked while the case was appealed.
Last month, UC Berkeley had projected that the enrollment freeze would result in the university losing $57 million in funding from tuition, fees, and state funds, “which would impact our ability to deliver instruction, provide financial aid for low and middle-income students, adequately fund critical student services, and maintain our facilities.”
The lawsuit had been filed by a group of local citizens who claimed that the university had not adequately accounted for environmental effects while planning the construction of two academic buildings needed to accommodate the additional students without providing new on-campus housing, meaning the students would have to find local housing. The plaintiffs cited the university’s obligations under the California Environmental Quality Act.
The group, Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods, wants the university to build more on-campus housing before expanding the academic buildings and admitting more students.
The university is backed by a number of high-profile California politicians, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who, after filing a brief supporting the university, said, “We can’t let a lawsuit get in the way of the education and dreams of thousands of students who are our future leaders and innovators.”
A bill introduced last month in the state Legislature would exempt the UC and California State systems from the environmental act, which the university noted in its statement responding to Thursday’s ruling.
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“We are engaged with state leaders to identify possible legislative solutions that could address the significant impacts of the lower court’s ruling on enrollment decisions at UC Berkeley and other campuses,” the university said. “We know that access and opportunity for prospective UC students remains a priority not just for the university but also the state’s policymakers, as reflected in the recent state budget proposal for enrollment at UC.”
