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Thursday, March 3, 2016

Come One; Come All

From the UC-Berkeley Daily CalifornianDespite absorbing 750 additional in-state students this fall, campus administrators (at Berkeley) have no concrete plans to expand teaching faculty or campus infrastructure, including health resources, custodial services and dining halls... 

The enrollment increase is part of a budget agreement between the state and the University of California last year to admit an additional 10,000 in-state students to the UC system in the next three years in exchange for $25 million in state funds.

“We have the responsibility to accommodate as many students as we can within the limits of our resources,” said Carol Christ, director of the campus Center for Studies in Higher Education“Thinking of ways to increase capacity without degrading the quality of undergraduate education is critical.”
Each of the university’s nine undergraduate campuses will play a role in the increase: 750 additional students are expected next academic year at UCLA,with about 1,100 at UC Davis, 650 at UC Irvine450 at UC Merced, 300 at UC Santa Cruz, 750 at UC San Diego and 997 at Riverside.
Several other UC campuses — including Los Angeles, DavisSanta CruzMerced, Riverside and Irvine — plan to increase infrastructure such as on-campus housing capacity as well as teaching faculty and support staff in response to their respective enrollment increases...
Because the campus has no clear plans to expand the number of faculty, popular and often overbooked introductory courses may have to offer extra sections in response to the enrollment increase, according to Ben Hermalin, a campus economics professor and chair of the UC Berkeley Academic Senate. He added, however, that conversations between administrators, deans and department chairs are ongoing.
With more students on campus, there will be larger classes and fewer faculty to go around...

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