Now that the dust has settled after the CSU-declared system-wide impaction last month, the details are in: applicants will need better grades, and favor will be given to those who apply to their local school.

The move, made official on Nov. 19, will allow SF State and the 22 other CSU campuses to admit fewer students next semester and help address nearly $100 million in proposed cuts to the system’s budget.

The Board of Trustees, the CSU’s highest governing body, recommended stricter admission standards for both freshmen and community college transfers. These include higher GPA, giving priority admission to local residents, and moving up the application deadline for freshmen and transfers.

Incoming freshmen will be most affected, as more priority will be given to transfers from community colleges and other universities.

“We are taking this step to ensure the academic quality of the institution,” said CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, who approved the impaction resolution proposed by the system’s academic senate.

“The system as a whole is severely overenrolled,” said CSU Executive Vice Chancellor Richard West. “Impaction provides tools to take off some of the burden that students, faculty and staff take up when schools are overenrolled.”

Darlene Yee, the SF State representative to the senate, said that they wrote the resolution in response to recently proposed midyear budget cuts and in consultation with CSU faculty, staff and administrations, who, she said, were all “very concerned.”

“Campuses can’t serve students excellence and quality education if we’re not careful with how many students we enroll,” she said.

SF State’s application deadline was moved up to Dec. 10 for first-time freshmen and to March 2 for upper-division transfers. This was announced at a time when applications were up by 21 percent the last academic year, according to the CSU Web site.

SF State will automatically grant admission to residents of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties who complete all requirements by the deadline.

“We want first-time freshmen and upper-division transfer students from San Francisco, San Mateo County and Marin to know that nothing has changed in our admissions policy and they should continue to apply as normal,” Jo Volkert, associate vice president for enrollment management, said in a news release.

Students from beyond these counties will need to meet more difficult admission requirements such as higher GPA. Volkert said that the school will be announcing the specific requirements, including the specific higher GPA, sometime in early December.

This process ensures that students who are unable to relocate or have family or employment commitments will be guaranteed admission to their local campus, provided they meet eligibility requirements, CSU trustees said.

According to the Office of Budget and Planning, SF State currently takes about a quarter of its undergraduates from San Francisco County, with 4,539 students living in the area. San Mateo County is the current top-third area of residence for SF State students.

Under impaction, SF State and other CSU campuses will also be ranking prospective students according to admission qualifications like GPA and SAT scores (for freshman admissions).

After the number of freshman admissions meets the school’s quota, other applicants will be placed on a wait list. Transfer students will be required to complete more than the minimum number of units.

Currently, freshman applicants need a 3.0 GPA, or at least 1300 on the SATs if their GPA is between 2.0 and 2.99, to get into a CSU. Transfer students need a 2.0 GPA and 60 semester units. The different CSU campuses’ administrations have yet to announce how much they are raising these transfer requirements under impaction.

The limit on freshman admissions comes in contrast to the fact that SF State now has its biggest freshman class ever, with 3,614 freshmen enrolled for 2008-2009 academic year, according to the Office of Budget and Planning. The quota for 2009-2010 freshman admissions is yet to be announced.

Some CSU trustees are concerned about the impact this will have on graduating high school seniors. “It worries me that not all high school students will be able to go to college,” said trustee and former high school principal Margaret Fortune.

Another trustee, Lou Monville, was concerned about the effect on community college students planning to transfer. “We need to make sure that counselors are aware of changes and help students adequately prepare for transfer to CSUs,” he said.