Enrollment
on campus discussed by Senate
By
Gerry Wachovsky
On-line Forty-Niner
Population: Vice Provost warned A.S. Senate
that CSULB is nearing its maximum enrollment
capacity and may have to build more structures
to accommodate the increase.
The future may hold some significant changes
for the Cal State Long Beach campus, including
more parking and less crowding of students.
Vice
Provost David Dowell gave a presentation
to the A.S. Senate Wednesday on what he
termed, "the campus master plan."
This plan takes into account expansion and
budget process issues that would affect
individual students as well as the entire
look of the campus.
Enrollment
limits was a major point in Dowell's presentation,
and he cited a study saying the CSU system
must be prepared to accept "more than
100,000 additional students by 2011."
The current enrollment ceiling at CSULB
was set in 1972 at a maximum of 25,000 FTES,
or full-time equivalent students This campus
has more students than the 25,000 figure,
but not all of them are full-time. According
to Dowell, CSULB will either reach or be
very near to its limit in 2003 or 2004.
Growth,
however, can be a good thing, and Dowell
noted that having more students would also
mean having more faculty. The down side
to growth, he said, would be more traffic
and crowding on campus.
To
deal with the possible crowding, Dowell
said, new structures would have to be created,
some of which have already been contemplated.
According to Dowell, "this would be
the last major change to the physical layout
of the campus likely to happen for the next
10 to 20 years." Dowell also noted
that the "green space" on this
campus "is the single most important
asset here," and would not be cut down
or affected.
Dowell
concluded by saying that after the proposition
for these changes is made to the president,
there would be a one-year discussion to
determine environmental issues and hear
community input.
In
other news, Renee Twigg, director of the
Student Health Center, spoke to the Senate
on the likely semester fee increase students
may have to pay to continue using the center.
"Students
basically get free care as it is,"
Twigg said, noting the extremely reduced
price students pay at the center rather
than at a local pharmacy or doctor's office.
Twigg continued by saying that since this
school already has a large student body
and because it is only getting larger, it
is essential that students pay a slight
increased fee of $10 per semester to continue
to receive the same benefits.
The
issue, which is set to be discussed by the
fee committee on Dec. 3, will probably be
passed and then sent to the president's
office for further review.
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