Sadaf Malik sat near the front of the packed human physiology class at San Francisco State University on the first day of school Tuesday listening to a lecture on body temperature and scribbling to get it all down.

Students who hadn't arrived as early as Malik stood in the corners or sat on the floor with notebooks splayed across the linoleum. But Malik, a senior who needs physiology to finish her major and graduate this year, won't be allowed to stay in the class unless she wins the lottery. Literally.

"I only have three or four extra seats, so I'll have a lottery on Thursday," Professor Jennifer Breckler announced at the end of the class as dozens of students, including Malik, surged to her desk in hopes of being allowed to enroll.

Disappointed, Malik turned away. "There's a good chance I'm not going to get in," she said. A guy standing nearby said simply, "This is cutthroat."

And so begins the school year at one of the most popular and crowded of the 23 CSU campuses, where President Robert Corrigan has just announced he will retire by next fall after leading San Francisco State since 1988.

He has emphasized "social justice and equity" across disciplines, added dorms to the commuter campus and attracted millions in grants and contracts. He has also had to wrestle with devastating funding cuts to the campus.

Shrinking budget

The impact of a withering budget and steadily rising tuition has forced students to consider whether, at $6,422 a year, their education is still a bargain.

"I'm actually very surprised at how well we're doing for students in view of the kinds of cuts we've seen," said Professor Michael Goldman, chairman of the biology department at San Francisco State. "There's been a conscious effort from the highest levels of administration to minimize the impact on students."

Or put another way, it could be worse.

In some ways, it's the campus infrastructure that has taken the worst beating, with a $96 million backlog of needed repairs.

Ancient boilers that take weeks to heat up the buildings after winter holidays force many to wear hats and gloves inside, acknowledged Nancy Hayes, interim vice president for administration and finance. Poor lighting, leaky roofs and misaligned windows are all the price to pay to protect the academics as much as possible.

Which is not always possible.

Roughly the same number of students are being taught by 16 percent fewer instructors than five years ago, and with fewer courses.

The campus has eliminated more than 300 courses in that period, a decline of 8 percent. Gone are 61 tenured or tenure-track faculty members and 216 lecturers. The number of students remains just under 30,000.

San Francisco State has lost $85 million in state funding since 2009, with tuition increases restoring a portion of the money lost.

Student costs

This year, despite a loss of $41 million in funding, the net loss was $18 million because of higher tuition and other mandatory fees. Students are paying 19 percent more than last year, with a third of the increase earmarked for financial aid.

They are also expected to buy books - some of which can cost more than $100 - but often avoid the cost.

In the human physiology class Malik is trying to crash, Breckler offered students this shocking figure: "Only one-third of students buy the book. That means two-thirds of you won't read it."

She urged them to find a way to get the book, even if they have to buy an old edition.

For Malik, coming up with the book mattered little if she can't get into the class. Her friend, Puja Verma, also tried to enroll but hadn't taken the prerequisites, and taking them concurrently wasn't allowed.

Both hope to become doctors. But on Tuesday their dream seemed tied up in budget cuts and bureaucracy.

"I'm gonna crash another class," Malik told Verma. "This is really frustrating."

Frustrating search

They went off to a physiology lab that had been full when they tried to enroll online. But as they got off the elevator, other students told them not to bother: The lab had been canceled for the day.

Then they tried looking for the lab instructor at the biology office. But as a grad student, his whereabouts were unknown.

"This is making me so miserable right now," Verma told her friend.

Fortunately, the requirement for physiology class didn't specify that it be human physiology.

"You might not care about the spider living in the corner," Anne Todgham, a professor of animal physiology, was telling her class as Malik and Verma slipped in and joined the others standing at the back of the room. "But I'll tell you quite a bit about that spider ..."

The friends added their names to the list of students hoping to enroll in Todgham's class.

Malik, hedging her bets, still hopes to win the lottery on Thursday.