The University’s plan to move the application deadline to March 1 could reduce next fall’s incoming freshman class by anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 student compared to fall 2008, officials said.

The plan is part of a list of actions the University could take to cope with significant cuts expected to the 2010 budget.

But Diana Bejarano, a University Student Initiatives spokeswoman, said that even with the new deadline, which is five months earlier than usual, the University still wants all qualified students to apply.

“Hopefully they will [apply], because we’ve never encouraged everyone so strongly before,” she said.

The new deadline only applies to first-time freshman applicants, she said, and not to students applying to transfer or be readmitted to ASU.

A statement released Feb. 10 from Provost Elizabeth Capaldi said applications will be accepted after March 1 in exceptional cases, but those students will only be admitted to the University College.

Jenda Trowbridge, department chair of guidance at Tempe High School, said high-school seniors cannot use the new deadline as an excuse for not applying to college.

“They really should have been doing it, of course, way up before this time,” she said.

Guidance counselors encourage all students to apply before Dec. 1, which is the deadline to be considered for merit-based scholarships, Trowbridge said.

Those who have not yet applied had adequate notice of the new deadline, she said, and still have two weeks to do so if they want.

“I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a hindrance to us,” she said.

But moving the deadline could be subject to approval by the Arizona Board of Regents, ABOR President Fred Boice said.

It is not the aim of the board or the University to restrict access to any qualified student in Arizona, he said, but the budget crisis calls for action.

“By reducing enrollment, it reduces expenditures,” he said.

The ultimate impact is hard to predict, he said, because of uncertainty in the state’s budget.

“The Legislature holds the purse strings,” he said.

Regent Bob McLendon said moving the application deadline is just a part of larger preparations from the university presidents for all potential budget situations. Which ones are implemented depends on the Legislature’s actions for the 2010 budget, he said.

“[The university presidents will] have to move swiftly when we finally get the final figures,” he said. “Then they’ll have to bring this to the Board of Regents.”

McLendon said changing the application deadline is an intelligent approach to managing the situation, but it forces students to make plans well in advance.

Since the options announced were so significant and so recent, McLendon said he was unsure which ones ABOR would have to approve.

“We’d have probably the final say,” he said. “There’s still some hazy things out there on the horizon.”

Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu.