California State University juniors and seniors may be in school longer than than they want, and not because they don't want to grow up and get a job.
Yep, here's another one you can blame on California's budget crisis.
The budget ax is falling at CSU campuses up and down the state, and students are having a hard time getting the classes they need to graduate.
Delayed graduation comes at the same time CSU students know their tuition and fees are going up. On Tuesday, CSU trustees approved a 20 percent fee hike on top of a 10 percent increase approved in May.
Students at San Francisco State University were just told that the final registration period will be delayed by more than a month because the university may not be done cutting classes.
That means students won't find out whether they'll get the classes they need to graduate until about a week before the fall semester.
Even worse, students also found out that classes they signed up and paid for back in April could be cut as well.
One SFSU senior shared the email explanation which said, "Due to the budget problems in the State of California, San Francisco State has reluctantly had to cancel a number of Fall 2009 classes."
Students are having a hard time keeping their student loans and financial aids, because registering for a full course load is required, but is getting more difficult to fulfill.
Some professors and teachers are bending the rules a bit in hopes of helping out. They are allowing student to "crash" or sit in on classes week after week, with the hope that a seat will eventually open up.
These students can be found sitting on the floor and in aisle ways, creating a less-than ideal learning environment.
And come the spring semester, all 22 campuses will have a different feel about them as well because there will be no new freshman accepted. The move is an effort to decrease enrollment by 40,000 students over the next two years.
The budget pain doesn't end with students. The system's 47,000 employees will be forced take furloughs twice a month. They also face pay cuts.
California's budget crisis may end up being one of the toughest lessons CSU students ever learn.
Nicole Ott is an NBC Bay Area intern who will be a senior at San Francisco State in the fall who's hoping she gets into the four radio and t.v. classes she needs to graduate.
