Cramming them in

Two from the San Diego Union-Tribune: UC San Diego, already struggling to handle years of explosive growth, saw enrollment leap by nearly 1,900 this fall, pushing its headcount to a record 45,273...

The La Jolla campus also experienced a 270-student increase in its so-called self-supporting graduate program, whose participants do not receive financial help from the state. UCSD now has 1,436 self-supporting students, part of a systemwide program that annually generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the UC.

The preliminary fall enrollment numbers typically drop a little later in the year, after the UC refines its early headcount.

The new figures don’t reflect how the school intended for things to turn out when it published a long-range plan back in 2018. Enrollment was then expected to top out at 42,400, and not until 2035...

Full story at https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/10/18/uc-san-diego-bursting-at-seams-as-enrollment-soars-to-record-45273/.

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...In interviews with about 30 students, many told The San Diego Union-Tribune the school is so obsessed with raising enrollment and polishing its reputation that it pays insufficient attention to the social side of the college experience. The university often communicates in a chilly, impersonal voice, they said, which leads them to tune out rather than engage, making building a sense of community harder.

“Chancellor (Pradeep) Khosla wants students to survive with the bare minimum,” said Adalia Luo, editor of The Guardian, the campus newspaper. “Eat, drink, some housing and pretty much nothing else.”

Engineering student Charlotte Dong likes her classes and research — the vibe less so. “Sometimes I feel like this campus is soulless…” she said. “I’m a fourth year student and I just got my first (school T-shirt).” ...

Full story at https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2024/10/20/isolating-and-soulless-how-ucsds-breakneck-growth-is-alienating-some-of-its-students/.