CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / POMONA

Citing “catastrophic” funding cuts, Cal Poly Pomona has canceled its summer sessions, offering instead pay-as-you-go classes that could cost students more than twice as much as regular summer courses.

In an e-mail Sunday, Cal Poly Pomona President J. Michael Ortiz told students that the governor’s proposed $20-million to $35-million cut to the university left him no choice.

The alternative classes will be offered through the campus’ extended university at a cost of $220 per unit for lecture courses and $280 for lab sections. Under the regular state-supported summer rates, a Cal Poly Pomona student taking 12 units would have paid $1,200. Under the extension rates, a summer student taking a mix of 12 lab and lecture units could pay $2,880.

-- Gale Holland