Citing "catastrophic" funding cuts, Cal Poly Pomona has canceled its summer sessions, offering instead pay-as-you-go classes that could cost students more than twice as much as regular summer courses, it was reported.
Cal Poly Pomona President J. Michael Ortiz, in an e-mail Sunday, told students that the governor's proposed cut to the university of $20 million to $35 million had left him with "no choice" but to shut down the early and late summer sessions, the Los Angeles Times reported.
"I've spent the weekend reading with great concern your numerous messages of distress over the cancellation of summer classes," Ortiz told The Times. But he said the "huge cut" was the equivalent of shutting down three of the university's eight regular colleges.
"The state budget crisis is real and much greater than previously predicted," Ortiz said.
