There are currently 23,675 graduate and undergraduate students enrolled full-time at UCSD. According to Long Range Development Plan estimates, 29,900 students will be attending the school by the 2020-21 school year, and a total of 49,700 staff, faculty and students will be on campus. This means more facilities will be required to accommodate everyone.
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The expansion of UCSD lies in the hands of the Building Advisory Committee, which oversees design, planning and construction. The committee is composed of two-thirds students and co-chaired by a student.
At the moment, the committee has in the works a full-service post office, more diverse food offerings (including healthy places to eat), convenient retail services (including a bank and hair stylist), more social lounge spaces, additional student events and programming spaces and a student-run recruitment and retention center.
A recently approved plan for the expansion of Price Center has the building area extended between 60,000 and 85,000 gross square feet of indoor space (the size of half of the current Price Center).
The expansion will occur behind the existing Price Center, which will require the relocation of both police station and the shuttle stop, according to A.S. Presidential Chief of Staff Jared Feldman.
Since Price Center is at the heart of campus life, the administration feels it is essential to focus on adding beneficial resources that will fulfill the academic, consumer and social needs of students.
The Price Center Advisory Committee’s idea is to create a subterranean level behind Price Center that would include both parking and space for retail stores, more late-night restaurants and a grocery store. The committee feels that such businesses are in high demand at UCSD.
“The businesses will attract more people to Price Center and make it more of a social center to hang out,” said A.S. President Jenn Pae.
The A.S. offices will be expanded and a 24-hour study lounge with a computer lab, group study rooms and commuter student resources will be constructed for students’ convenience.
An alumni center is also being considered, along with another fitness center complete with showers, recreation rooms and food vendors. The committee reasons that this location would be advantageous to Sixth College students and commuters who have to trek farther to get to RIMAC or Main Gym in John Muir College.
The committee is also in favor of building an interfaith center. This building would house the Office of Religious Affairs and provide a place for groups to worship and hold meetings. It would be funded privately, in adherence to the separation of church and state. Price Center development plans will be finalized by Jan. 9, 2005.
Student Center is currently in phase two of the expansion process and will continue to be renovated until the predicted end date of October 2006.
The goal of Student Center expansion is to create a place where people can gather and socialize, but not feel secluded from the rest of the campus. In the past, students have felt that Student Center and the surrounding buildings are cut off from such popular social hangouts as Price Center and Ché Café.
To address this complaint, contractors are attempting to improve the “park presence” and create inviting meeting places for people.
Furthermore, the BAC plans to make other changes such as increasing the General Store area by 50 percent, providing interior seating at Grove Caffe, introducing a Thai restaurant and study lounges, improving Soft Reserves, renovating the student organization offices and increasing the size of new office space. In addition, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex Association will be given a larger area to set up its headquarters.
Expansion projects are scheduled to begin within individual colleges as well. Each college was designed to hold 2,500 to 3,500 students, but with growing enrollment, a more efficient expansion program is necessary.
“Several housing projects are in the mix,” Feldman said. “East Campus will be turned into medical graduate school housing. North Campus parking lot will be gone and replaced with housing for transfer students.”
The growth of the school also indicates the necessity for more parking on campus.
“There will be no more surface structures,” Feldman said. “They are working on a number of new parking structures. They are currently looking to turn the grassy knoll behind the Social Science Building into a leveled parking structure.”
RIMAC will also be expanded in the near future. according to Pae, the committee wants to add food vendors and retail outlets to increase the appeal of the facility.
The growth projects will take time and patience. Expansion projects for nonacademic buildings like Price Center do not receive funding from the state and must wait to receive money from sources like Student Affairs, the chancellor’s office or student-initiated referendum funds.
According to UCSD’s Physical Plant Services, “modernizing these buildings and providing upgrades to meet fire, life safety, and other code requirements are high campus priorities.” The projects are expected to be completed by fall 2007.
