Wait! Those charged with the duty of managing the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems need to take a step back and reflect on the long-term non-economic costs of their recent decisions. Both UC’s and Cal States in response to projected budget costs are lowering the number of freshmen they will admit next year (and probably the following year). At the same time they warn they will need to raise tuition costs.  The next step is obvious. More high school graduates will enroll in community colleges that are already stretched to the limit with only 25% of those students who enter expressing a desire to transfer to a four year university actually making it. As the tail continues to wag the dog, the Board of Regents voted to create a task force to increase community college transfers to UC’s and Cal States (even fewer freshmen?). WAIT! Are we forgetting there is more to earning a college degree than passing classes…are we forgetting the value of the friends we made in our freshman dorm..or the dorm softball games on Friday… or that feeling when you lost your voice as your school’s team beat their rival at whatever sport…the not like home food…changing your major three times…There’s so much more to getting a degree than meeting a-g transfer requirements, finding an apartment in Westwood and finishing up your political science major so you can move on to law school.