Cal State Dominguez Hills’ Enrollment Crisis Exposes Deeper Failures in California’s Higher Ed Funding

California’s sprawling public university system, once a beacon of opportunity, now finds itself entangled in a financial and enrollment crisis that threatens its mission of educating the next generation of Americans. Cal State University Dominguez Hills—a campus serving many first-generation and low-income students—is emblematic of this unraveling.Since 2020, Dominguez Hills has seen its enrollment plummet by 20%, forcing painful layoffs of staff and ravaging its reserves from $46 million to an alarming $10 million projected this summer. This decline isn’t isolated; ten CSU campuses suffered double-digit enrollment drops since the pandemic began, contributing to a staggering $2.3 billion budget deficit...