Citing budget cuts, UW turns away spring admits

SEATTLE – Spring quarter at the University of Washington in Seattle has been closed to new admissions because of budget cuts and excess enrollment.

All spring applicants except athletes are covered by the decision, which is being explained in letters to be sent next week to about 325 applicants who normally would have qualified for spring admission to the main campus, Admissions Director Philip A. Ballinger told the Seattle Times.

“I hate to do this,” Ballinger said. “It’s just an unavoidable situation.”

He said those students, almost all of them transfers and typically two-thirds from community colleges, were given three options:

•Keep their applications pending for fall admission.

•Enroll for spring quarter at the Bothell or Tacoma branch campuses.

•Seek a refund of the $55 admission fee.

Another 200 to 250 students who would have been rejected will get letters saying they have been denied admission but are not entitled to seek refunds, Ballinger said.

The deadline for spring applications was Dec. 15, and the decision to close enrollment was made within the past week, he said.

Besides transferring athletes, some exceptions are being made for a handful of students in engineering programs that typically start in the spring and for some students enrolling in an early entrance program for gifted youngsters.

Meanwhile, the state’s largest university remains on pace to break fall freshman application records. The mark set last year was 20,000 applicants for 5,500 slots.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed a 13 percent cut for the university in the next two-year budget, which translates to a $116 million reduction in state support following a $17 million cut in the present budget cycle.

“We decided to be very conservative with new admits this spring, not knowing what the budget situation is going to be next fall,” university relations vice president Norman G. Arkans said.