With enrollment at record levels throughout the University of Hawai'i system, and campuses struggling to cut a total of $76 million from their budgets, officials have been scrambling for the past several days to prevent a class shortage as the semester begins today.

As the last group of UH-Manoa students — mostly incoming freshmen — began registering last week, college deans and department chairs were forced to increase class sizes and find instructors to teach additional class sections to prevent students from being shut out of high-demand prerequisite courses.

Officials indicated late last week that it was unlikely their efforts would be enough to accommodate all students in their first choices of classes. Hundreds of students may have to wait until next semester to get into courses considered introductory-level or prerequisite.

"We are within our capacity right now," said Joseph O'Mealy, dean of the College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature at UH-Manoa.

"Most required 100 and 200 level courses are filled up. ... We just don't have as many lecturers as we used to, so that's going to be a problem for us," he said.

The college has added sections of English 100, for example, the introductory writing course required for most degree programs. They've also increased the class size in English 100 from 20 to 23 to accommodate more students.

"We've just about reached the saturation point right now," O'Mealy said.

According to data collected Friday, the 10-campus UH system's enrollment had increased by 10 percent over the same time last year, with the bulk of the increase on the community college campuses. Maui Community College posted the highest enrollment increase at 28 percent. Manoa's registration growth was smaller — about 3 percent.

EFFECTS OF BUDGET CUTS

Much of this year's class shortage at UH's flagship campus is because of about $45 million in budget cuts. Earlier in the summer, Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw announced that the university did not renew more than 150 instructors and nontenured faculty because of the budget reductions. More than 500 class sections were then placed on hold, increasing competition to get into the remaining courses.

Thomas Bingham, dean of the College of Arts & Humanities, said the university dropped about 20 lecturers in his college. That means full-time faculty had to pick up the additional load or classes were cut. Most of the classes that were cut were classes "where students had other options," Bingham said.

"For instance, some of the general education classes, where students had other choices they could make. There shouldn't be anyone left without choices," he said.

Bingham said the College of Arts & Humanities was monitoring the online registration system last week and responded by increasing class sizes for some courses.

"The entry-level class for architecture and art majors — 'Drawing and Painting' — we had to add additional class sections to accommodate the demand," he said.

In the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature, O'Mealy said about 30 lecturers had been let go.

"It limits our opportunity to offer a lot of those first-year courses. ... What we're trying to do is have faculty at the upper level ... take the slack in the lower-level classes," O'Mealy said.

Hinshaw said many students may have to wait a semester if they can't get into the classes they needed in the fall. She said many full-time faculty members are offering to teach additional sections to ensure that students get the classes they need.

"A lot of times, students want to get all their classes in the first semester. But many of them are planned to be taught in the second semester. We don't want to load everything in the first semester," Hinshaw said. "Typically everyone wants to take that first English class, but we do plan it over two semesters and we have opened up some extra ones."

Paige Jinbo, 24, transferred from Kapi'olani Community College to UH-Manoa this semester. Even though she has enough credits to be considered a junior, she was forced to register for classes with freshmen last week.

Jinbo was able to register for a media ethics class, which she needed to fulfill her journalism degree requirement — but many of the other classes she needed were full.

"I really couldn't find any other class I could take that would fulfill any type of requirement. I'm registered for Latin 101. It doesn't fulfill anything ... It's kind of a waste," Jinbo said.

"What I need are writing-intensive and non-introductory classes. All the classes are closed ... I was a little frustrated," she said.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES

The situation is similar on the community college level, where enrollment is the highest it has ever been. John Morton, vice president for community colleges, said the system provided about $1 million extra to the seven campuses to keep class shortages from reaching crisis level.

"If we stay on this pace, we will probably be in the neighborhood of 32,000, 33,000 students (in community colleges)," Morton said.

"We've provided that additional money so campuses can add classes, assuming they have the time and the space and the instructors. Where there is demand, they've been trying to respond to that demand," he said.

At Kapi'olani Community College, registrations were up 14 percent as of Friday.

"Last fall was historically the highest ever enrollment. Now we're 14 percent higher than our historic high," said Louise Pagotto, vice chancellor for academic affairs at KCC.

Pagotto said departments have been cutting classes that were not filling quickly and adding in areas with more demand. They've also added sections and even hired more lecturers.

"We're not in the unfortunate position where we're looking at cutting faculty or instructors. We're managing the enrollment and growth through lecturers. Our budget reductions are being made in other areas," Pagotto said.

The increase in the number of students registered for classes at UH this year, coupled with the bad economy, has brought more financial aid money into the system, said Karen Lee, the vice president of student affairs.

Lee reported last week that the UH system disbursed more than $27 million in financial aid to students. That's up from about $18 million last year.

"The economic downturn is probably playing a big part, with more students now eligible for financial aid," Lee said.

The amount of money given out in federal Pell grants for economically disadvantaged students is double what it was last year, Lee said. The university disbursed about $7.6 million in Pell grants last year, compared with $15 million this year.