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UC Prepares For Large Increase In Student EnrollmentPrevious UC predictions estimated that by 2010, 186,000 students would be enrolling at UC campuses. Currently there are around 150,000 students enrolled and more recent estimates by the Department of Finance (DOF), the California Postsecondary Education Committee and the University of California, place the number of students enrolled in 2010 at approximately 210,000 - a growth of 43 percent. In the 1960s, when the original Tidal Wave - the baby boomer generation - hit, the university had increases in enrollment of about 6,000 students a year for seven years. But, at that time, three new universities were introduced to absorb the increase. In the next 12 years, the university will be absorbing 5,600 more students a year with only one new campus. What makes this increase significant is not only its size but that historically, every great increase in enrollment, has been followed by a period of decrease, during which the university was able to catch up, according to Sandra Smith, assistant vice president for planning and analysis. But projections after Tidal Wave 2 seem to show that no such decrease will occur. "At no point in the university's history have we dealt with these kinds of numbers," UC President Richard Atkinson said. Though the addition of UC Merced, the tenth UC campus set to open in 2005, will have some effect, students throughout the UC might have to contend with even more overcrowding as university administrators struggle with the problem of what to do. Possible solutions include expanding current campuses, more fully integrating the state community college system, adding off-campus locations and integrating the summer term into the normal academic year. According to estimates by the UC Office of the President, the university will need $50 million on top of the $2.7 billion the state of California already gives to the university annually in order to triple the number of students who currently attend summer school in an effort to lighten the load on faculty and campus space during the year. Atkinson also suggested that incentives such as large financial-aid packages or even lower fees will be enough to lure students to enroll. Other institutions such as the University of Florida system have opted to make summer attendance mandatory. The university will also have to deal with an even more exaggerated housing problem. With the influx of students, the university is looking to increase study-abroad programs as well as find housing off campus near public transportation systems. Currently, administrators are looking into such a solution at UC Berkeley. |
UMichigan To Display Letters From The UnabomberUniversity spokesperson Joanne Nesbit said the collection of letters addressed to and from Kaczynski is being processed by staff in the University's Special Collections Library. The letters date from April 1996 to 1999 and when stacked together measure "four of five linear feet." "It was known this was going to be a controversial issue," University President Lee Bollinger said last night from his residence in Vermont, adding that he became aware of the acquisition about six months ago. University spokesperson Julie Peterson said the material arrived at Special Collections several weeks ago. Kaczynski was linked to 16 bomb attacks that occurred between 1978 and 1995, injuring 29 and killing three people. He plead guilty to 13 federal charges in January 1998 and was sentenced to four life sentences in prison in May 1998. Kaczynski's materials are being added to the Labadie Collection area of Special Collections - one of the world's most extensive collections of works of anarchism and social protest. |
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