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Gov. Gavin Newsom signed emergency legislation late Monday that lifted a controversial, court-ordered enrollment freeze at UC Berkeley, raising the hopes of prospective students who feared they might be among 2,600 who otherwise may not be admitted this fall.

The governor’s action, which came just a few hours after the Legislature unanimously passed Senate Bill 118 and Assembly Bill 168, immediately modified the decades-old California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that spawned the freeze.

The bills removed CEQA’s provision that an increase in student enrollment by itself could be considered an environmental impact just like any other university project on the community.

Instead, the legislation now gives California’s public universities and colleges 18 months to address potential issues that enrollment growth might create under CEQA before a court could cap the student population. Lawmakers made it clear that California’s public, higher education campuses’ long-range development plans still must undergo environmental impact reviews, however.

The Assembly unanimously supported its version of the legislation in a 69-0 vote and the Senate in a 33-0 vote.

Because the legislation is retroactive as well as immediate, freshmen and transfer students waiting to learn whether they’ll be admitted will see their chances markedly improve. UC Berkeley now will extend admission offers to more than 15,000 incoming freshman later this month and to more than 4,500 transfer students in mid-April, according to university spokesperson Dan Mogulof.

He said all admission offers will be for in-person classes only, as originally planned, and approximately 400 graduate school enrollment slots will be reinstated.

The governor’s signature wasn’t a surprise; he previously filed an amicus brief opposing the enrollment freeze and urging the California Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that enacted it.

Senate Budget Committee Chair Nancy Skinner was thrilled by Monday’s votes, stressing that the court ruling would have unfairly made students the unintended victims of an environmental law.

“Students were never intended to be considered pollution,” Skinner said Monday, adding that expanding access to the “life-changing benefit” of higher education has long been a priority of the legislature.

“SB 118 ensures that California environmental law does not treat student enrollment differently than any other activity in our UC, CSU, or Community College long-range development plans,” she said.

The original freeze stemmed from an August 2021 ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman, who agreed with with a group of Berkeley residents who sued the university that student enrollment growth could adversely impact the off-campus community. As a result, Seligman froze enrollment at 42,347 — the same number as in 2020-21 when the pandemic kept thousands of students from attending — pending a resolution of the suit.

The group alleged the university’s plan to add more than 200 housing units for graduate students and faculty in Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy would violate CEQA by failing to account for traffic, housing, noise and other impacts.

An appellate court upheld the decision in February, and the California Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal despite requests from state lawmakers, housing advocates and the university to overturn the lower court’s ruling.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ praised the Legislature immediately after Monday’s vote.

“At Berkeley we are, and will remain, committed to continuing our efforts to address a student housing crisis through new construction of below market housing,” Christ said in a statement. “We look forward to working in close, constructive collaboration with our partners in Sacramento in order to advance our shared interest in providing California students with an exceptional experience and education.”

But Phil Bokovoy, president of the Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods group that sued the university, said the emergency legislation is “poorly drafted and confusing, attempts to admit a small number of additional students to the UC Berkeley campus in 2022 but does nothing to solve the dire situation that UC has created for students in California.”

Before Newsom signed the bills, Bokovoy complained they would allow the university to continue its rapid enrollment unfettered.

“We hope that Governor Newsom recognizes that SB118 will hurt students more than help and not sign this bill.” Bokovoy said in a statement. “UC Berkeley does not have the capacity to handle more students, and more than 10% of current Berkeley students suffer homelessness during their education. In addition, more than 15% suffer from food insecurity… We don’t want new students to have to live in cars, campers and hotel rooms like they are in Santa Barbara.”

But state Sen. Scott Wiener sees SB 118 and AB 168 as the first step in the state’s work to “modernize” CEQA so it not only focuses on climate action but also corrects the act’s history of stalling and stopping environmentally friendly projects such as bike lanes, public transportation and dense housing. In February, he introduced SB 886, which would allow the state’s three public college systems to build campus housing without conducting full CEQA reviews.

“CEQA is an important law. I don’t agree with the people who think it needs to be repealed,” Wiener said Monday. “But I do agree that it needs to be changed so it actually achieves climate action rather than impeding climate action by giving anyone with enough money to hire a lawyer the power to delay or kill environmentally sustainable projects.

“When it comes to CEQA, this UC Berkeley train wreck isn’t a bug. It’s a feature,” he added.