CSUN OPENS WITH 33,000 STUDENTS.

Byline: Lisa M. Sodders Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - An estimated 33,000 students started the fall semester on Monday at California State University, Northridge, where a 35 percent hike in fees helped fund classes for the booming campus.

Unlike community colleges, which have borne the brunt of the state cutbacks in public higher education, CSUN officials said they did not have to reduce the number of course offerings from previous years.

And students seemed to take the tuition increases in stride, grumbling more about parking and long lines than higher enrollment fees or expensive textbooks.

``I can't believe the huge lines for all the financial (aid) stuff,'' said Michael Vidal, 21, an art major from Moorpark.

A full-time undergraduate student now pays $1,389 a semester, compared with $1,023 last year. Graduate school tuition jumped from $1,128 to $1,632 a semester.

Many students said they spent a good part of their first day of class hunting for elusive parking spaces on the sprawling commuter campus - which serves students from as far north as the Antelope Valley and as far west as Ventura.

A 2,063-space parking garage is being built atop an existing parking lot on the west side of campus and will be completed next spring. Until then, parking spaces are even more scarce.

Jessica Nernsuan, a child development major, has a tip for students looking for the best parking spots: Sign up for morning classes.

``If you try to get (classes) later, you'll have to get here 1 1/2 hours earlier to find parking,'' said Nernsuan, 21, of Arleta. And when your classes are done, ``people will be waiting for you at the edge of the parking lot and give you a ride to your car, because they need that spot.''

To ease the burden of getting to and from class, CSUN has added two 55-passenger trams to shuttle students from remote parking lots.

Campus President Jolene Koester said the university would focus this year on improving graduation rates and working on Envision 2035, a project to determine what the campus should look like in the future.

Koester said another high priority is to secure funding for a $100 million performing arts center.

``To have a performing arts center at Cal State Northridge will not only cement the university's role in providing and tending to the cultural spirit of life in the Valley, but it will become an icon and cultural center for the San Fernando Valley,'' Koester said. ``This is as much for the community as it is for the university.''

Students will notice a brand-new Los Angeles Unified School District high school academy in the northeast section of the campus. The high school, still unnamed, will open Sept. 9 with 870 freshmen and sophomores and is designed to train future teachers, health care workers and artists, as well as serve as a resource for CSUN education majors.

Students also enjoyed one of the coolest opening days in recent memory.

``Normally, this first week is really, really hot. This is a very pleasant way to begin the semester,'' Koester said, joking that it was the first time in her four years at CSUN that the university didn't open with 104-degree heat.

Northridge saw a high of 81, but for much of the day temperatures were in the mid-seventies.

Monday also was the first day of classes at several other CSU campuses and the University of Southern California. Classes in the nine-college Los Angeles Community College District begin Aug. 30. At the University of California, Los Angeles, the fall quarter will begin Sept. 27.

Lisa M. Sodders, [phone]

lisa.sodders(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) CSUN freshmen Gloria Rivas, 18, and Nancy Ochoa, 18, walk past construction of a new parking garage.

(2 -- color) Students leave the CSUN bookstore on the first day of school, with about 33,000 students on campus.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer