As the county’s largest university, UC San Diego exemplifies its strength in numbers—as shown by the ever-growing student population. UCSD reportedly surpassed its enrollment record with over 39,000 students when classes began on Thursday, September 26. This number exceeded last year’s student enrollment of 38,798 students.
To accommodate the large student population, UCSD is undergoing its largest expansion, which will cost an estimated $1.5 billion. UCSD Associate Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management Adele Brumfield claims that UCSD plans to accommodate even more students once the campus’ expansion is complete.
UC San Diego is also in the midst of transforming into one of the nation’s largest residential campuses. This year they had a number of around 11,730 students living on campus. With the future expansions in mind, UCSD claims that they plan to extend to 2,000 more students by 2020, 1,300 more in 2022, and 2,000 more in 2023.
In the end, UCSD plans to accommodate a number of around 42,000 enrolled students, with around 22,000 students housed in their residential buildings. Along with a seventh residential building built by 2020 and an eighth in the near future, the university is building a large student union, an innovation and design building, engineering complex, a grand plaza at the base of Blue Line Trolley Station, and a $627 million house-office-retail and dining neighborhood.
However, UCSD’s massive campus expansion has caused some inconvenient problems for pedestrians, students, and automobile traffic. The ongoing construction is blocking the flow of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Many students and pedestrians share the sidewalk along with the construction workers, which could be a potential hazard.
Along with their campus expansion, UCSD plans to have a shuttle system that will take students to off-campus ethnic supermarkets, increase the seating of their two libraries to 4,229. Lastly, to reduce the collection of their mass-market books the UCSD Bookstore will be condensed into the first floor in the Price Center to accommodate a Target on the second floor.
Photo by Michael Huling
