Wilson Calls for Reforms in College System : Education: He suggests that students should be guaranteed a chance to earn degrees in four years--or get a fifth year free.

SACRAMENTO — Kicking off a historic joint meeting between University of California regents and Cal State trustees, Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday called for reforms in higher education that would guarantee full-time college students a degree in four years--or else give them the next year free.

Saying it was time the state treated students and their parents like “customers,” Wilson offered the idea of guaranteed degrees as a way to “find out what’s broken and to fix what must be fixed” in a higher education system that has seen its state funding shrink while student fees skyrocket, class offerings are trimmed and faculty positions are eliminated.

In part because of those changes, California college students--much like their counterparts around the country--have been taking longer to earn their undergraduate degrees. While UC students average 4.3 years, those at Cal State are now up to 5.5 years, college officials say.

Wilson said it is “fundamentally wrong and terribly unfair” for full-time students to wait five years, especially when they and their parents traditionally put aside money for four. He said it is the state’s obligation to offer a “coherent curriculum” that allows students to obtain a degree in four years.

“Perhaps we should guarantee full-time students that either we get you through in four years or the fifth year’s on us,” said Wilson, who also suggested discounts or rebates for students who earn degrees in three years.

At a news conference, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) called the governor’s proposal a “fascinating concept” but said it would work only if the universities could offer a “full program” of courses and enough professors to teach them.

Brown also said such a plan should not discriminate against part-time students who must work to pay their way through school.

Wilson made his proposal at the beginning of a joint meeting of regents and trustees in the Assembly chambers here. Brought together by three successive years of deep state budget cuts, the boards convened the unusual summit to grapple with the future of higher education. Much of what they heard was grim.

Bank of America economist John O. Wilson said spending on higher education has not only created jobs but has also primed the pump for technological breakthroughs. Both areas, he said, could help lead California out of its economic slump.

But former state Budget Director Tom Hayes said it will be increasingly difficult for higher education to get its share from Sacramento. Proposition 98, mandatory sentencing laws and other mandates now mean that elementary and secondary schools, prisons and welfare automatically get 85% of the state budget--and that share will continue to grow as state receipts drop.

“Higher education, when it comes to fighting for available funds, is in a knife fight without a knife,” said Hayes.

Meanwhile, UCLA demographer Leo F. Estrada warned that California colleges will be faced with dramatically increased pressure for admissions, with the high school graduating class of 2000 expected to be 43% bigger than that of 1990. And unlike today, the students hoping to attend college will be predominantly members of minority groups; 50% will be Latino.

“The strains upon the institutions have just begun to show,” said Estrada. “Between 1995 and the year 2000, the strains should become quite severe.”

Estrada also warned that California’s college system could become stratified, with minorities filling up community colleges and Anglos dominating UC, if admissions officers fail to “reinterpret” eligibility requirements in the face of such an influx of students.

Former UC President Clark Kerr on Wednesday dubbed the influx “Tidal Wave II, the Grandchildren of GIs” and said the surge was not unlike the days when he helped write the 1960 Higher Education Master Plan in anticipation of baby boomers. The plan, considered a national landmark in higher education policy, said the top third of high school graduates would be eligible for Cal State and the top 12.5% for UC schools.

Hayes told the joint boards that the master plan is obsolete. “Quite frankly, it’s not functioning in the world we live in today and it needs to be totally redone,” he said later in an interview.

But Kerr said abandoning the plan would be breaking a promise to Californians. “To slam the doors now would be, I think, a moral, economic and political tragedy for this state,” he said.

Rather than slamming the door, Kerr suggested drafting a “resource” master plan emphasizing efficiency by turning campuses into year-round enterprises. He also embraced the idea of a three-year degree.

But Kerr said the idea of suspending Proposition 98, which guarantees that about 40% of the state general fund goes to public education, “ought to be looked at” so that the governor and Legislature would have greater control over the state budget and higher education officials could win more funds through lobbying.

Wilson, who is running for reelection, also took the opportunity Wednesday to take another swipe at federal policies requiring the state to pay benefits to illegal immigrants and their California-born children. After his speech, he urged the regents and trustees to join his campaign to change the policies and shake more money loose for colleges.

“It pains me when in fact we are compelled to spend almost $3 billion a year in state taxpayer money providing services for people who are not legal residents,” Wilson later told reporters. “This is a classic case of how that money could be . . . more fairly spent.”

Times staff writer Carl Ingram contributed to this story.