Long Range Development Plan (UCSC)

University of California, Santa Cruz's Long Range Development Plan (LRDP for short) is a plan to accommodate up to 19,500 students if it becomes necessary by 2020. . UCSC administrators and the UC Regents have stated that they are approaching the LRDP in a sustainable manner. The LRDP also contains an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which addresses some potential impacts to the surrounding environment in water supply, ecology, traffic, housing and more. The EIR is required by the California Environmental Quality Act.

Reasons for growth

California’s population of University of California-eligible high school graduates is continuing to grow. UCSC, along with the other UC campuses, is expected to meet the growing demand to get into a UC. This also includes the expected transfer students from the state’s community colleges.

The expansion of the campus has been deemed necessary by the UC Regents to satisfy the demand from qualified high-school graduates in California. The faculty-led Strategic Futures Community (SFC) stated that having 25,000 students would be needed in order to have every program rank in the top 25% of public research universities. The enrollment top was reduced to 21,000 in light of community concerns. Chancellor George Blumenthal further reduced the potential maximum enrollment to 19,500.However, members of the SFC, the Academic Senate and the Santa Cruz Faculty Association (SCFA) were highly critical of the logic of the SFC, the LRDP and the EIR,...
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