Lawmakers have already said they won't fund enrollment growth for 2004-2005 at the nine-campus UC system, which has about 200,000 students, or the 23-campus California State University system.

Under the Master Plan, drafted under the leadership of former UC President Clark Kerr and released in 1960, the state promises a place at UC for community-college students who meet grade requirements and for the top 12.5 percent of California high-school students. CSU, which has about 400,000 students and is the nation's largest public university system, promises to take the top one-third of California high-school graduates.

The problem is not limited to California; budgets are being cut and tuition raised at four-year public colleges and universities in 49 of the 50 states.

That may be a sign of shifting priorities, said Dr. David Ward, president of the American Council on Education.

"The Master Plan was part of a period of idealism in the 1950s and 1960s which dealt with the idea of providing access to all Californians," Ward says. "What has now happened is that the state may not be able to afford that. The conditions of 1950, when maybe the feelings about the commitment of the public and the tax base could sustain this concept, are breaking down in every state in the union."

Some community-college transfers were able to get into UC this spring — namely the 500 students who had signed contracts with individual campuses guaranteeing them a spot under partnership agreements set up between some UC campuses and community colleges.

— Associated Press