Growth Debate Intensifies : Overcrowding, Housing, Traffic Squeeze Hit UC

SANTA CRUZ —  On its spectacular grounds of redwoods and meadows high above Monterey Bay, the University of California’s 2,000-acre campus here seems an unlikely place for anyone to worry about overcrowding, housing shortages and traffic jams. Berkeley or Westwood, this is not.

Nevertheless, such concerns are fueling a struggle between UC and local politicians that both sides say extends well beyond a November ballot initiative pushed by slow-growth advocates. It is a dispute over how, where and when UC--in Santa Cruz, its eight other campuses and elsewhere--should respond to its surprising enrollment boom.

UC is in a squeeze. Its student body has grown 30%, to about 157,000, in the last eight years, and planners expect another 40,000 in the next two decades. As a result, the university is thinking about building a 10th campus, an extraordinarily expensive task that could take 10 years. In the meantime, UCLA and UC Berkeley have no room to expand and several other communities with UC campuses--particularly Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara and Davis--are not happy with taking up the slack.

“It’s going to be very difficult for them to resolve this, given the general lack of resources,” said Kenneth O’Brien, interim executive director of the state Postsecondary Education Commission, which studies such issues.

If the UC physical plant doesn’t grow to meet enrollment demand, the university might have to drop its historic commitment to admit all applicants from the top academic eighth of California high school graduates, UC officials warn. However, if existing campuses become too crowded or large, the quality of UC education and the quality of life in surrounding communities will suffer, say slow-growth supporters and some student leaders anxious to avoid the high-rise anonymity of a UCLA.

“It’s not that Santa Cruz wants to stop university growth or wants to control how it grows, but we are concerned that they grow at a pace so they can mitigate that growth and that the citizens of Santa Cruz don’t get stuck with the high price tag of that growth,” said Mardi Wormhoudt, vice mayor of Santa Cruz, a seaside city of 49,000, including most of the 9,100 UC students and 3,000 UC staff.

Sees Hypocrisy

Joseph Allen, director of admissions at UC Santa Cruz, called some of the growth opposition hypocritical, especially among the many liberal and left-wing voters who still give local politics a lively flavor of the ‘60s in what used to be a sleepy retirement community. “Some of the same ones who oppose growth of the campus would be the first ones to support affirmative action. But in effect, what they are doing is exclusionary,” Allen said.

Tension between town and campus is, of course, nothing new for UC. Yet those problems have now moved to the center of debate about the university’s future.

“We do not take their concerns lightly,” said Edward Birch, UC Santa Barbara’s vice chancellor for institutional advancement, referring to local protests over campus-area traffic and the school’s use of water that UC critics say might otherwise serve new businesses or housing. “On the other hand, we are caught with our needs to admit eligible students. We are caught in the proverbial vise.”

Among recent or upcoming developments are:

* The formation in February of the Assn. of University Communities, a coalition of elected officials from UC host towns; the group quickly urged construction of a new campus. “It occurred to me that the issues confronting Davis and its relationship to the university might be similar to those confronting other cities,” said Dave Rosenberg, the Davis councilman who is chairman of the new association. “The response was dramatic. It was as if I tapped on the shoulder of a long-slumbering giant.”

* The hiring by UC of a law firm and an environmental planning consultant to help it with growth issues, including several legal challenges to UC building projects. A lawsuit involving construction of a new residential college at UC Santa Cruz was settled in December after promises of better communication with the city. Other UC projects recently challenged in court include proposed dormitories in the Berkeley foothills and a new medical research facility in San Francisco’s Laurel Heights.

* The current review by all UC campuses of growth plans in preparation for the October meeting of the UC regents. At that meeting, the regents are supposed to discuss the possibility of a 10th campus. UC has not built a new campus since the go-go years of the mid-’60s when Santa Cruz, San Diego and Irvine opened.

* The November initiative in the city and county of Santa Cruz that urges state legislators to cut UC’s budget if the university does not pay more attention to the effect of its expansion on water supplies, traffic patterns and housing in the area. UC officials contend that the non-binding measure is misleading and really aimed at garnering votes for politicians up for reelection the same day. They concede, however, that the initiative is likely to pass.

“As we assess each campus about to grow, one factor is the community’s viewpoint. It’s just not true to say that community pressure is the main reason to build a 10th campus. But we don’t want to minimize it,” said William Baker, UC vice president for budget and university relations.

To be sure, some UC host cities, especially Riverside and San Diego and, to a lesser extent, Irvine, welcome more students. UC Riverside, for example, has about 7,100 students, the smallest enrollment of the eight general-education campuses, and there is no organized opposition to big increases. UC Riverside’s main campus has 1,200 acres and is expected to hold between 15,500 and 27,500 students in the future, compared to UCLA’s 411 acres, where 35,000 students now are crowded, a UC Riverside spokesman said.

Regional Sentiment

And slow-growth sentiment is not unanimous in the Northern California host cities where environmental concerns tend to be stronger than in the south. Bruce Gallaudet, executive director of the Davis Area Chamber of Commerce, said many residents agree with plans to expand UC Davis from 21,000 students to 28,500 by the year 2005. And their reasons, he stressed, are not just the obvious hopes to sell more houses, T-shirts and hamburgers.

“It is important for research that could solve the world’s problems in agriculture and medicine,” Gallaudet said. “We’re here in tiny, little Davis, meeting a worldwide need. I don’t think it’s 100% our call to say what the growth of the university should be.”

About 25 other communities are lobbying to become locations for a new campus, including Fresno, Merced, Los Banos, Bakersfield, Redding, Visalia, Modesto, Sonoma and Stockton, according to UC Vice President Baker. Those cities want the enormous economic and cultural benefits that even slow-growth advocates acknowledge UC brings. The university is the largest employer in Davis and Santa Cruz.

Campus Resolution

The Legislature recently passed a resolution, introduced by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), calling on UC to investigate a possible 10th campus. But knowledgeable observers say land acquisition and construction could cost between $250 million and $500 million, a sum that legislators and the governor won’t spend unless they are certain that space on existing campuses is being used properly.

UC sources say university leaders privately are delighted with the new association of cities because it will lobby for money for a 10th campus without hurting existing programs. UC is now involved in a dispute with Gov. George Deukmejian and the Legislature about cuts in this year’s budget and UC President David P. Gardner is threatening to limit enrollment unless some money is restored.

Although the pool of high school graduates has been shrinking, countertrends have spurred UC enrollment: steep costs at private colleges, immigration to California, more enrollment of minorities--especially Asians--and a drop in prestige of many community colleges.

New Baby Boom

Five years ago, UC planners estimated that enrollment would reach 150,000 by 1995; it has surpassed that already. As a result, UCLA and UC Berkeley turn away thousands of applicants with perfect high school grades. And, on the horizon are the college years of the so-called “echo boom”--children of people born during the post-World War II baby boom.

Located on what was an enormous ranch and limestone quarry and now considered to be one of the most beautiful campuses in America, UC Santa Cruz was built to accommodate baby boomers and their concerns about education and ecology. Its residential colleges based on academic themes, small classes for undergraduates and its narrative evaluations instead of grades were radical alternatives to what critics called the alienating atmosphere of other UC campuses. The school was very popular in its first decade and the regents expected the student body to eventually grow to 27,000.

But in the more conservative late-1970s, its association with the Age of Aquarius hurt UC Santa Cruz. Applications and enrollment dropped and growth plans were scaled down. More recently, the school has worked to change its reputation by improving economics, science and computer studies, and even offering traditional grades as an option. Applications are sharply increasing and enrollment grew from 6,800 to 9,100 over the last two years.

Reasons to Expand

UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Robert B. Stevens said a student body of 27,000 would be unrealistic, given the city’s concerns. Yet the chancellor said there are academic reasons why the school should expand over the next 20 years to 15,000 students. “Clearly, we need to grow quite significantly in terms of faculty and intellectual diversity,” Stevens explained. “Fifteen thousand would be a critical mass to support that.”

Some city officials want UC Santa Cruz to cap enrollment at 12,000. Others say the actual number is not as important as how the school handles traffic, housing and water issues. Ironically, the environmental protection and political activism fostered by the campus haunts it now as some alumni are active in the slow-growth movement, both sides point out.

Some more conservative voters, including many retirees drawn to the beach life, may vote for the November initiative because they claim that the university attracted hippies and vagrants to town.

Local Frustrations

Around California, residents in UC communities complain that the university often acts arrogantly and secretly. There is frustration that cities and counties have no zoning control over the state-run campuses. “The university could build a munitions factory in an alfalfa field and the city couldn’t do anything about it,” said Santa Cruz Vice Mayor Wormhoudt.

One of the few weapons a city has is to challenge environmental impact statements of UC building projects, as Santa Cruz did last year over the construction of an eighth college on the campus. That case was settled in December; construction proceeded after the university agreed to hold annual public meetings about growth.

“Relations with the city obviously consume a good deal of my time and energy. I am anxious to cooperate because if we don’t cooperate, we both will suffer,” said Chancellor Stevens.

The city alleges that increases in UC students and staff drive up off-campus rents, hurting the elderly and low-income residents. The university says that housing inflation is caused as much by the Santa Cruz area becoming a bedroom community for people with jobs in San Jose and the Silicon Valley over the mountains.

Dormitory Woes

About 45% of students live on campus now, a high percentage compared to other UC campuses but not high enough for the city. However, UC leaders warn that a rush to build more dormitories could produce an unwanted side-effect: Under regents’ policy, the costs of new housing must be paid through the rents of all students on a campus. If too many rooms are built too quickly, the fees may jump very fast, sending students to seek cheaper housing off campus.

Another big issue is water consumption. In Santa Barbara, UC is thinking about building a plant to desalinate sea water, a way to head off complaints that the campus consumes too much of the limited fresh-water supplies.

In Santa Cruz, city officials say they may have to build a new reservoir to meet UC growth. The campus uses about 4% of the water sold by the municipal water system, but that does not include the many off-campus residences and businesses used by UC people and their families.

Water Controversy

Last year, UC Santa Cruz began to look for water under its own property and the results are very promising, according to earth science professor Gary Griggs, campus water coordinator. However, that search produced its own problems. Property owners down slope fear that UC wells will dry up their ponds and streams. And the university reluctantly agreed that it should obtain drilling permits from the city; one test well was capped because the city said it was too close to a sewer line and risked contamination.

Other complaints about UC traffic clogging Santa Cruz are countered by the campus’s listing of its efforts to encourage bus riding and car pooling. A proposed road would link the school directly to nearby highways but faces opposition because it would run through property intended to be a park.

Behind all those debates is a more basic concern among students: that too much growth will destroy the small classes and natural beauty that drew them to Santa Cruz in the first place. So, many students support the ballot initiative, according to student government leader Lisa Adler. “The quality of education is what is being messed around with,” said Adler, a Russian studies major.

Adler said the only way to protect quality and accommodate higher UC enrollments is to build a 10th campus. “The need is obvious,” she said, “especially when you realize we are not accommodating the people of California now.”

GROWING ENROLLMENT

Enrollment at the University of California’s nine campuses is projected to increase sharply over the next two decades, although the size of the existing campuses is not expected to change. UC figures below include undergraduate and graduate students. The numbers may change to meet systemwide needs by the time the UC Regents meet in October.

FALL 1987 PROJECTED 2005 SIZE IN ACRES ENROLLMENT ENROLLMENT Berkeley 1,232 32,055 no increase Davis 3,600 20,847 28,500 Irvine 1,510 15,139 30,000 Los Angeles 411 35,435 no increase Riverside 1,200 6,554 15,500-27,000 San Diego 2,040 16,589 * 21,750-22,200 San Francisco 107 4,075 ** no increase Santa Barbara 815 17,879 22,000-24,000 Santa Cruz 2,000 9,152 15,000

* Projected for the year 2000; later figures not available.

** Offers only graduate and professional degrees in the health sciences.