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Tuesday, June 28, 2022

UC-Santa Cruz History: Development Boom Forecast

On October 4, 1964, a story in the San Francisco Examiner forecast a boom in the area of the then-under-construction UC-Santa Cruz campus. Included is a projection that by 1975, student enrollment at Santa Cruz would be over 33,600. 

In fact, the most recent data available show an enrollment of under 20,000. Nonetheless, the basic idea that locating a UC campus in an area - under the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Ed - would stimulate economic growth and development was in general true. 

The Examiner story goes on to note that the area is served by the new freeway system that was at the time expanding in the state. The concept of campus = boom in development had worked for the area around UCLA when it moved to Westwood in the late 1920s. And when the idea of the most recent UC campus at Merced was still in the gestation phase, state legislators vied to have the new campus located in their districts.

Interested readers with UC library access can find the article above through ProQuest.

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