As a result of recommendations by the UC president to expand the university campuses nearly a year ago, UCSD is in the process of designing a new large expansion set to completely open by 2004.
“”We have taken more students than we had contemplated,”” said Director of Campus Planning Nada Borsa. “”We expect more to be graduating from high school and going on as well.””
Borsa said expansion will soon be in the works at UC Irvine and UC Riverside as they too have room to expand their campuses.
Currently, over 15 large expansions are in the design or construction phase at UCSD and should be completed within the next five years.
Of substantial consequence to UCSD students will be the opening of the new Eleanor Roosevelt College on the north side of campus in 2002. The possibility of seventh and eighth colleges are currently being discussed, although the likelihood of their existence has yet to be determined.
“”We aren’t sure how many colleges we are going to have,”” Borsa said. “”The problem is that we can’t build that far to the North because it will be hard to get to class within 15 minutes.””
For this reason, classes in Galbraith Hall were canceled because students walking from there to Warren Lecture Hall could not walk to class on time.
In addition, construction starts later this month on the new Natural Science building while a new computer science building is currently in the process of being designed. There are plans for a new theater between the Mandell Weiss Theater and the dance facility, as well.
“”As the growth of students continues to occur, new facilities like housing will have to be expanded,”” Borsa said.
The number of undergraduates is expected to grow from 17,000 to 23,000 in the next 10 years, and the number of students in total will climb to 31,000.
Some students, however, are opposed to this large increase in students on campus.
“”It could make upper division classes harder to enroll in,”” Muir sophomore Steve Reis said. “”At the same time it will spread out the very talented faculty that we have right now among more people.””
However, the Medical Center only stands to have an increase in services available on this campus.
Currently, the new Brain Imaging Center in the Medical Center is set to open in 18 months, the Eye Center will be expanded next year, the new Cancer Center with the new, state-funded pharmacy school will open in 2004. In addition, designs have been made for a new medical research center.
“”The med school’s already great — the expansion will make it even better,”” Revelle sophomore Eisha Christian said. “”This may put us in the top 10 med schools in the country.””
New temporary parking lots in the Medical Center and in East parking will be built to help ease the parking problems that may be associated with the construction of new structures.
Borsa said these interim lots might become full structures in the future once the funding has been allocated.
An outside consulting firm has been hired to determine the sources of the parking problems on campus. Borsa said one possible solution would be the construction of new parking structures, although this is currently unlikely.
“”We need to determine how many spots we will need and what kind of policies we will need to adopt,”” Borsa said. “”We also need to figure out how many we can afford to make before permit prices become too high.””
