UC Davis has been asked to judge the feasibility of growing to more than 30,000 students by the year 2010, as the University of California plans how best to accommodate an expected 63,000 additional students across its nine general campuses over the next 10 years. UC regents were to be briefed at yesterday's board meeting on possible campus enrollment numbers. Each campus is to evaluate the feasibility of its suggested growth. The Davis campus has been asked by the UC Office of the President to consider the possibility of growing to a combined general campus and health sciences enrollment, averaged across three quarters, of 30,343 students. Enrollment totaled 25,092 in fall 1999. (Office of the President planning targets were issued in general campus full-time-equivalent [FTE] students rather than headcount because the university requests funding from the state using FTE, which reflects the course load students are taking. The targets also excluded health-sciences enrollments. UC Davis' suggested general campus FTE target of 26,400 is the equivalent of 28,185 headcount; with the addition of 1,898 health sciences graduate and professional students and 260 working-professional M.B.A. students, UC Davis' proposed combined headcount totals 30,343.) "We will do our best to ensure an open door for the next generation of young people who have earned a place in the University of California," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef. "Our fair share, when the numbers shake out over the next 10 years, could even take us a bit higher, up to 31,000 students. We will be prudent in planning our future and collaborative in engaging the leaders of the city of Davis and other neighboring communities in a broader discussion of the values to be preserved and the opportunities to be explored as we evolve together over time." An Office of the President fact sheet indicates that the proposed enrollments "are planning and feasibility numbers, and as such they are likely to change somewhat" to reflect changing demographic conditions. "What is NOT likely to change is the need for the university to accommodate in the neighborhood of 63,000 additional FTE students between 1998-99 and 2010-11, and for each campus to play a role in providing the extra capacity for those students." The expected enrollment surge-"Tidal Wave II"-is the result of a growing college-age population and anticipated increases in college participation rates, among other factors. UC Davis is proposed to grow an average of 2.2 percent per year, compared to a 3 percent annual average growth rate across all of UC's general campuses (which don't include UC San Francisco). Annual general-campus growth rates and suggested general campus budgeted FTE totals: Berkeley, 1.1 percent (31,800 FTE); Davis, 2.2 percent (26,400 FTE); Irvine, 4.8 percent (27,600 FTE); Los Angeles, 1.2 percent (32,900 FTE); Riverside, 6.3 percent (19,900 FTE); San Diego, 4.2 percent (27,600 FTE); Santa Barbara, 1.7 percent (21,900 FTE); Santa Cruz, 4.1 percent (16,900 FTE). UC Merced is expected to open in 2004 or 2005 and to enroll 5,000 students by 2010. The suggested enrollment increases were distributed proportionally across the campuses, based on existing Long Range Development Plans. UC Davis' LRDP, prepared in 1989 and updated in 1994, projects 26,850 students by the year 2005. After the campus analyzes the feasibility of its new enrollment proposal, it will update its LRDP, considering growth scenarios to at least 2010 and including appropriate environmental and public review. "The process would involve broad representation from our external and internal constituents on those issues of community impact," said Marj Dickinson, director of government and community relations. Each campus's feasibility analysis would include consideration of the most academically responsible ways to accommodate the proposed additional students; resource planning and analysis to make the best use of limited funding, particularly for capital projects; and consideration of the campus's physical capacity to accommodate an increased population.