Though the total impact of Tidal Wave II, an influx of 60,000
students to the Universities of California, won’t be felt
until 2010, it appears the tsunami will hit UCLA housing sooner
than that.
The admissions increase occurred two years ahead of what UCLA
Housing had been preparing for, and living conditions on the Hill
will be even more crowded than housing officials expected.
Three residence hall buildings, North Hedrick, North Rieber and
West Rieber, set to begin construction next quarter, are planned to
provide 2,000 additional bed spaces and are still set to be
completed sometime in 2006 or 2007, said Director of Housing
Michael Foraker.
However, these new residence halls will not be ready to house
the influx of students entering UCLA next year.
Karen Rowe, a professor in the English department and Chair of
the Faculty Executive Committee, which deals with policy,
curriculum, and planning for enrollment growth, said the FEC had
been hoping admission increases wouldn’t occur until 2006,
when the new buildings are projected to be completed.
The Chancellor’s enrollment advisory committee’s
number one concern is dorm crowding, said Keith Stolzenbach, Chair
of the Committee of Undergraduate Admissions and Relations with
Schools.
With 200 more students accepted to UCLA than expected, and the
lack of additional dorm spaces, the number of students living in
the residence halls next year is expected to increase. This will
result in more students living in triples.
“We are concerned that the housing available will be
severely squeezed. We feel that it’s not optimum that
students will be in triples,” Rowe said.
“Nobody is happy about triples and the possibility that
the number of triples will increase. The Housing Administration is
working very hard to solve this, and they are still trying to house
all the freshmen,” Rowe said.
However, if UCLA plans to continue to house all the incoming
freshman and second-year students who desire to remain in the
residence halls, more triples are inevitable.
Foraker said the number of triples is expected to increase, as
well as the length of time UCLA will have to use triples.
Though the 200 additional students to be accepted next fall are
expected to crowd the residence halls, Rowe and Foraker said there
has been no talk of having quadruple rooms.
The unforeseen influx of freshmen admitted to UCLA also extends
to all UCs.
The UCs were instructed by the state legislature and the UC
president’s office in early February to accept more students
than they had originally planned for fall 2003.
The UC regents initially proposed an increase of 800 students
last November, but Gov. Gray Davis later proposed 1,300 additional
students be admitted next year, said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor
of budget and finance.
This admission increase applies to all UCs, with UCLA
specifically accepting between 130 to 200 more students than the
4,255 students admitted this fall.
“We were worried that the admissions number was that high.
… The acceleration came as an unexpected cramp,” Rowe
said.
The need for the UCs to accept more students stems from the
increasing number of high school graduates who apply to the UCs and
other universities.
A new study was done that shows the number of graduating
students who want to go to college is increasing faster than was
predicted two years ago, said Assistant Vice Chancellor Thomas
Lifka.
Also contributing to the admissions increase is the number of
college students graduating from the UCs.
“In recent years, university students have made more
progress in college and have been getting their degrees more
quickly. As a result we can admit more freshmen,” Olsen
said.
On the Web, www.housing.ucla.edu, www.ucop.edu