September 19, 2005

Fall quarter brings changes in and out of the classroom

By Jim Burns

Students began moving into university housing over the weekend in anticipation of the 2005–06 school year.

Chancellor Denton, right, welcomes new and returning students to campus on Friday. In a stop at Kresge College, she met, from left, seniors Rachel Restani and Zoey Taylor, and Kresge freshman Daniel Malament. Photo: Tim May

The first day of instruction in the fall quarter is Thursday, September 22.

Here are some facts and figures about this year's student body, new academic programs the campus is offering, changes in parking regulations, and new buildings under construction:

Enrollment

UCSC is expecting an average 2005-06 enrollment of 14,995 students; the projection for the fall quarter alone, historically the quarter with the most students, is 15,510.

Of those students enrolling in the fall, 14,010 are expected to be undergraduates; 1,500 are projected to enroll in graduate studies. Of the 14,010 undergraduates expected to enroll, approximately 4,050 will be new students (3,100 freshmen and 950 transfer students). These 4,050 new undergraduates were admitted from among nearly 23,000 applicants to UCSC.

Profile of new freshmen

The most popular majors among freshmen who have already declared are in the many areas of the biological sciences, in business economics, and in psychology.

Approximately half of the freshmen have declared a major. The other half have expressed interest in a more general academic area of interest, having selected one of the following clusters: business and economics; education; environmental sciences; human psychology, culture, and society; information sciences, engineering, and technology; languages, literatures, and communication; liberal arts and area studies; life and health sciences; physical sciences and math; and visual and performing arts and media.

Of the 3,100 freshmen expected, more than 1,200 (39 percent) identified themselves as African American, Chicano, Latino, American Indian, or Asian/Asian American. The average grade-point average (G.P.A.) of admitted freshmen is 3.69.

Academic changes

• The Education Department has added an Ed.D. in collaborative leadership (with San Jose State University and California State University, Monterey Bay)

• The name of the B.A. program in "women's studies" has been changed to “feminist studies.”

• Film and Digital Media has added a B.A. concentration in critical studies

• The Jack Baskin School of Engineering--Applied Mathematics and Statistics has added a new undergraduate minor in statistics

• The Jack Baskin School of Engineering--Computer Engineering has added a new undergraduate minor in computer technology, and new B.S. concentrations in computer systems, digital hardware, multimedia systems, networks, and systems programming.

• Latin American and Latino Studies/Literature has added a new B.A. combined major.

• The name of the music undergraduate minor has been changed to “Western art music”

Parking changes

The new academic year also brings some changes in parking regulations. Nighttime parking permits are now required on campus, as of September 1, and some parking fees have increased.

Metro bus passes will remain free to those faculty and staff who do not purchase any type of parking permit. Those who wish to receive a bus pass in addition to their parking permit or scratch-off packet, however, will need to pay an additional $24 for their annual bus pass, a payroll deduction of $2 per month.

More information is available at www2.ucsc.edu/taps and in a July 25 Currents Online article, "Nighttime parking, other parking changes near."

New buildings

A number of construction projects are under way on campus and will continue through much of the 2005-06 academic year. The projects include:

• McHenry Library Expansion: After 10 years of planning, the McHenry Library Addition and Renovation Project will take a giant step toward reality as construction begins this fall. The expanded and renovated McHenry Library will provide increased space to better serve library users. Site preparation began last week with ground clearing in or very near the project footprint. The project, scheduled for completion in 2009, will provide the campus with an outstanding, architecturally designed building in a setting of terraced reading gardens, redwoods, and cherry trees. (See Currents article)

• Kerr Hall: To prepare for the relocation of administrative offices resulting from the McHenry Library project, construction is occurring on Kerr Hall's interior and in its parking area. The relocation of offices is scheduled to take place by the beginning of January.

Other projects include the Emergency Response Center, the Hahn Student Services retrofit project, the Humanities and Social Sciences Facility, and the Physical Sciences Building. Details on construction projects throughout campus are available online on the Construction Plans web page.

 

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