By LAUREN ROSENHALL, Sacramento Bee

A packed board meeting inside the Sierra College theater last week offered a glimpse of the many kinds of students California's community colleges serve:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposals to shorten the school year and increase class sizes will force California teacher unions to make the same tough decisions that other employee groups have faced recently:
Cut salaries to maintain workers' jobs, or maintain salaries and lose workers.

Tuesday was a day of drama for high school students who applied to the nation's most exclusive private colleges.
At 2 p.m. they logged on to Ivy League and other college Web sites and learned: Yes, no or maybe.