In an effort to reel in extra financial compensation for the budget gap, UCSB officials are planning to admit additional out-of-state residents and international students.

According to Financial Aid office statistics, the 2009-10 estimated nine month student budget for undergraduate California residents living in university residence halls totals $27,257, while the nine month student budget for undergraduate non-California residents living in university residence halls is estimated at $49,926. Since non-California residents bring in over 1.8 times the amount of money as locals, out-of-state applicants are now being viewed as valuable fundraising assets.

Currently, 95 percent of UCSB undergraduate students are California residents, leaving a 4 percent slot for out-of-state students and 1 percent for international students. Of the 23,187 applicants offered admission into the Fall 2008 entering class at UCSB, 6.4 percent are non-residents.

Admissions Director Christine Van Gieson said UCSB plans to enroll around 150 more non-California resident students next year.

“Yes, the campus is looking at enrolling more out-of-state and international students, that is very much true,” Van Gieson said. “In order to not lose money, we should be enrolling 150 more non-resident students, so if we don’t enroll that number more we will actually be losing funding.”

Associate Vice Chancellor of Public Affairs Paul Desruisseaux said if implemented, the process would be a gradual one that would not substantially affect UC admission rates for California citizens.

“I don’t think it will be a dramatic change at first,” Desruisseaux said. “I think this would be done in an incremental way over the years, so I don’t think this will negatively impact the chances of getting admitted for residents of California.”

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau announced last Tuesday that Cal will admit up to 600 fewer unfunded Californians per year to be replaced by out-of-state applicants. Additionally, UCLA and UC San Diego, which both attract a large number of non-California resident applicants, are reported to also be integrating the idea into their admissions processing.

Ricardo Vazquez, UC spokesman at the UC Office of the President, said California resident and non-resident applicants are reviewed for admission based on entirely different standards, given the integral role state funding plays in the education of California locals.

“The number of California resident students we admit is tied to state funding, but out-of-state students are a completely separate universe — they pay the full cost of their residence, so they’re not subsidized by the state,” Vazquez said. “Over the past two years we haven’t received funding for growing California resident enrollment growth; in fact, we’re overenrolled. So in a way, out-of-state students do not compete directly for spaces with California students.”

Van Gieson said decreased admission for California residents will be proportional to decreased funding, not increased non-state resident admission.

“We will enroll all of the California residents for whom we receive funding, so we wouldn’t be reducing that number,” Van Gieson said. “What we would see is an increase in out-of-state students in relation to previous years.”

Vazquez said even if UC admissions increase for out-of state students, the numbers would remain low in contrast to other American universities.

“As a point of comparison, California has historically had a very small proportion of non-residents as compared to California students,” Vazquez said. “Many institutions in other states enroll up to 30 percent, so our percentage would remain below the average of comparable institutions.”