FULLERTON – Megan Martins was so excited to begin her freshman year at California State University, Fullerton, that she made sure to register and pay her tuition early so she could get the classes she wanted and fit her cashier's job around them. But she was kicked out of school before her first class began for failing to pay a fee increase she says she knew nothing about.

Jaimee Fletcher hoped to graduate this year with a degree in broadcast journalism. But her registration was canceled, too, while she was traveling in Italy. On Monday, she signed up for three exercise classes this fall, instead of the journalism courses in which she had enrolled in July.

Cal State Fullerton's registration office has been bombarded with telephone calls and visits since Thursday, when letters began informing 904 students that they had been ejected from their classes for failure to pay fee increases imposed July 16.

"This is the most unfair thing I ever heard," Martins' father, Frank, said as he stood in line at the CSUF cashier Monday to pay an extra $262, including a $25 late fee, so his daughter could re-enroll for the fall semester. "How can they do that to people right in the middle of registration?"

California State University trustees imposed the 30 percent increase statewide, effective this fall, to cope with state budget cutbacks that slashed CSU services and classes. Each campus was given authority to determine how to put the increases into effect.

Fullerton officials gave students until July 25 to pay the extra fees or be kicked out of their fall classes. The 904 students who hadn't paid by 5 p.m. Aug. 5 had their registration canceled, campus spokeswoman Paula Selleck said.

Students whose registration was canceled lost their reserved slots in classes and must scramble to find new classes once the fee is paid.

Selleck said Cal State Fullerton made every attempt to warn the students. Campus officials used a telephone voicemail system and campus e-mail over three days, July 18-20, to notify some 19,000 students who had already paid their fees that they owed additional money.

Officials decided to remove the 904 students from classes, Selleck said, because another registration period was scheduled to open Aug. 6, with a new group of students seeking to fill some of the same seats.

Every year, she said, the university cancels the registration of students who don't pay their fees in full, after notifying them in advance.

"Some students are not letting the university know when their contact information changes," Selleck said. "You need to tell us when you move, so we can find you."

David Dowell, vice chancellor for enrollment at Cal State Long Beach, said he was "a little surprised" to hear about Fullerton's policy.

"The way we are going to handle it is we are going to notify students, and then if they haven't settled their account, they won't be able to re-enroll in the spring," Dowell said. "Many of our students have gone away for the summer so it made sense to give them more time."

At Cal State Northridge, students who haven't paid the increase will receive invoices due by the end of September, spokeswoman Carmen Ramos Chandler said. No students have been kicked out for failure to pay.

While most Fullerton students paid in time, others say they were not notified that they were in arrears until they got a letter last week saying they were no longer registered.

The confusion was exacerbated because the campus's Web-based payment system, Titan Online, told some students that they didn't owe anything - apparently because their registration had been canceled and they no longer had any classes for which to pay.

Tom Jones of Laguna Niguel said he was mystified when he got the letter saying his daughter, Colette, had been disenrolled. After calling the campus, he was told the computer tried to contact his home phone three times July 30, and all three times the line was busy.

"I said, 'My wife is in real estate. She's on the phone a lot.' They also said they e-mailed her, but we changed computers and she doesn't use that e-mail account any more," Jones said. "Why couldn't they just send us a letter?"

Jones said he drove to Fullerton after both the Web- and phone-registration systems kept telling him that his daughter didn't owe any money.

After calls from the Register, CSUF's Selleck said the university would refund the $25 late fee charged to disenrolled students and that 108 graduating seniors would be given help to enroll.

She said any student who needs help can call (714) 278-2495 or e-mail sfs@fullerton.edu. Seniors will receive extra attention. "If they contact us, we will work with them to make sure they get the classes they need to graduate on time," Selleck said.

Quy Truong, who had hoped to get his master's degree in computer science in December, could use the help. Now that he's been ejected from his most important class - and can't get back in - he doesn't know when he'll be able to graduate.

"They said they called me at my home in Baldwin Park to tell me about the fee increase, but I have been working this summer in Irvine," Truong said. "I never got the message."

CHRONOLOGY
CSUF fee-hike chronology
July 1-17: The first group of Cal State Fullerton students begins registering for fall term.
July 16: California State University trustees raise fees by 30 percent for the upcoming school year.
July 18-20: CSUF uses a telephone voice-mail system and campus e-mail to notify students that they must pay fee increases averaging $230 within the next few days.
July 25: Deadline for students to pay the additional fees or risk losing their registration.
Aug. 5: Students who have not paid the additional money lose their registration, including classes for which they signed up.
Aug. 6: CSUF sends letters to 904 students who have registered but haven't paid the increase, saying they have been removed for the fall term. The letter does not explain the fee boost, only that the students haven't paid their accounts.
Aug. 7: Irate students and parents begin calling and coming to campus to complain.
Aug. 11: The Web-based registration system, Titan Online, continues to tell students who haven't paid the fee increase that they don't owe any additional fees, even though they have been kicked out of school for failure to pay them. In response to Register queries, the campus waives the $25 late fee imposed on all students who did not pay the increase and agrees to help graduating seniors get the classes they need to finish their degrees.
Aug. 25: Classes are scheduled to start.