CAL POLY - The twice-delayed dormitory project at Cal Poly will more likely open its first phase in four years rather than three, according to university President Warren Baker.

His comments come two days after other Cal Poly officials announced a delay to 2007, at the earliest, to complete the first phase of a 2,700-bed project.

"The first phase is not likely to come on until 2008," Baker said.

He called the earlier projections a bit optimistic but noted they had left open the possibility of a later date.

Finishing the first phase by 2007 would be difficult, Baker said, even if the university already had all its plans approved and a financial plan in place.

It will likely take until 2008 before enrollment begins to climb again, he said, and before planned classroom construction projects are completed.

The CSU Chancellor's Office ordered the one-year delay that the university announced Wednesday out of concern that the state budget cuts to higher education will not only reduce the number of students universities can accept but also the number who will reside in on-campus dorms.

"Our hope is we might be able to do it earlier, in 2007, but we would phase it in, if we're able to stabilize enrollment," Baker said.

Cal Poly reduced its enrollment by nearly 600 students this quarter to 17,540 to account for state spending cuts. Baker said the university needs to cut between 600 and 800 more students by next fall to offset more state cuts anticipated in the coming months.

The university may be headed toward a cycle of declining enrollment it last saw a decade ago that took years to recover from, he said. In the early 1990s, a nationwide economic slump resulted in falling revenues to the state's universities, which in turn had to reduce the number of students they accepted.

At Cal Poly, enrollment fell to 15,440 in 1994 from 17,758 in 1990.

Baker said that coincided with a significant drop in the number of students living in dormitories on campus and forced the closing of two residence halls. From the fall of 1990 to the fall of 1992, the number of students living in dorms fell more than 600 to 2,162.

The CSU Chancellor's Office is concerned that this scenario is about to repeat itself systemwide, leaving its student housing fund relying on reserves at a time when universities like Cal Poly are preparing to provide more space for students to live.

"We're all in this together," Baker said. "If they have vacant rooms in the residence halls at San Francisco State, or at San Bernardino, it affects us."

Such a situation would begin to drain the CSU housing fund, complicating any CSU campus' effort to begin building new dorms, he said.

While Chancellor's office spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler was confident this will help preserve the fund so money will be there when Cal Poly needs it to begin construction, she said there are no guarantees the money will be available.

University officials said Wednesday the money would be available when the project eventually begins, but Baker acknowledged Friday that the spokeswoman was correct that no money is guaranteed.

Another factor influencing Cal Poly's timing for the dorm is the planned construction of classroom space for the colleges of science and engineering.

Those had to be phased in over a longer time period than originally planned, Baker said, and could be delayed if voters don't pass the school construction bond measure, Proposition 55, on the March 2 ballot.

The university would like the new dorms to coincide with the expanded enrollment that new classrooms would allow, provided that the state money is available.