Cal Poly officials have all but cancelled summer school, giving thousands of students time off but also deferring graduation plans for many.

The move to not require individual colleges to offer classes over the summer is in response to the state's budget crisis and is meant to save further cutbacks this fall.

"There will be almost nothing in summer," said Linda Dalton, the university's executive vice provost and chief planning officer.

For third-year architecture student Tracy Clarke, no summer school means graduating at least a quarter later than she had planned. The 20-year-old from Benicia said she intended to take 16 units during the summer, but now she may work full-time or return home to take classes at a local community college.

"It's upsetting and it's disappointing," Clark said. "We know how great Cal Poly is, and it's upsetting to see this is having to happen to our school. It makes you wonder what else is going to happen."

With a 5-percent, across-the-board enrollment cut ordered by the California State University Chancellor's Office for each of the 23 CSU campuses, Cal Poly would have to cut about 900 full-time students this fall if summer enrollment remained the same.

Nearly eliminating the summer program still leaves the university with having to drop enrollment by about 400 students from last fall, to a total of 17,900.

The summer program is more expensive to operate, Dalton said. By trimming it back, "we've kept the academic year stable," she said.

About 3,300 students - nearly one in five at Cal Poly - took summer school courses last year, Dalton said.

Two years ago, Poly officials had moved to expand offerings in the summer to help students graduate faster. That initiative was curtailed in 2003 in response to state cutbacks.

Dalton said the decision applies just to this summer, and that it is up to college deans to determine what, if any, courses they will offer.

The university's Continuing Education program will offer more courses than normal this summer, Dalton said, since it is paid for by student fees instead of state funds. It won't, however, begin to make up for the courses lost campuswide.

Harry Hellenbrand, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said he hoped to offer about as many classes as last summer through Continuing Education. He said some CSUs offer their entire summer program by such means.

Another exception is the College of Agriculture, which will use money from student fees to cover costs. Dean David Wehner said this summer's offerings will include about 22 courses, the same number as last year, thanks to an earlier vote by agriculture students to use student fees to pay for summer school.

Classes at Cuesta College will not be able to make up the gap. Officials there expect their summer school will not be able to expand to meet the greater need and that it will remain the same size as it was last summer, if state Propositions 57 and 58 pass on the March 2 ballot.