More people to attend The Beach

By Maria Vega, On-Line Forty-Niner

Wednesday, August 26, 1998

Cal State Long Beach has reached its goal of becoming an in-demand campus of choice, CSULB President Robert Maxson said. However, with freshmen and overall university enrollment at an all-time high, Maxson is looking into forming a group among the campus community to discuss an ideal enrollment number for the university.

"I'm confident that we'll end up between 29,000 and 30,000 students," Maxson said about final fall enrollment during a phone interview Tuesday.

As of Aug. 24, fall enrollment is 26,434 students, but it is expected to rise significantly by the end of late registration next week, according to Sandy Hague of CSULB Institutional Research.

"I would like to discuss what the ideal enrollment number is for the university given the optimal building space, size of the faculty and ability to provide the best education," Maxson said.

Maxson said he believes the university is close to reaching its optimum size.

During his speech at the Convocation on Aug. 21, Maxson said approximately one-fourth of all new applications to the CSU system over the last year were applying to CSULB, as of July 1998.

He said that although the first week of school is hectic, the university does have enough classrooms and proper size faculty to accommodate the present enrollment. Maxson said the university will increase staff, facilities, and bring in more students according to the decided optimum size.

Maxson also said he hopes a new science building or complex will be built two years from now.

"We have a greater demand for science, especially by incoming freshmen," Maxson said. "I'd like to see us get up to date labs, more space and modern equipment."

Maxson does not expect any new buildings, besides the science building, to be built in the next couple of years.

"Long Beach State is a hot campus," Maxson said. "I'm very glad we're in demand."