UCI Students May Be Forced Out of Crowded Classes

Fire officials will turn away some UC Irvine students from their required courses today unless university officials can solve the problem of overcrowded classes held off campus at an Edwards Cinema, Orange County Fire Inspector John Moore said Wednesday.

University officials say lecture classes with as many as 452 students enrolled have been held in two theater auditoriums at University Town Center across the street from the campus for a year because of a space shortage on campus. Under the city’s building code, occupancy in those auditoriums is limited to the 350 and 380 permanent seats, Moore said.

“It is just plain flat overcrowded. . . . It’s got to be stopped now,” Moore said.

Accepting Responsibility

“We’re accepting responsibility for solving the problem,” said William Parker, UCI associate vice chancellor. “We’re still trying to identify what the problem is. Statistically, I don’t understand it.

“The registrar will not enroll more than the capacity. What happens is the instructor adds additional students. We do not, through the enrollment process, put more students into class than there is capacity.”

Moore said that if Edwards Cinemas and the university--which uses the auditoriums under a lease agreement--could not resolve the problem by 9 a.m. this morning, he would be forced to evict those students who had not found legal seating in permanent seats. “Once all seats are filled, no one will be admitted.”

The situation at Edwards Cinema is only the most recent of problems related to overcrowding that have plagued the UCI campus in recent years. Students complain about the sizes of classes, the availability of instructors and classes, housing, traffic jams at the entrance to the campus and parking.

“I didn’t expect so many people,” said Carmen Lebron, a freshman. She said she was able to get the classes she wanted, but at inconvenient times. As a result, she sometimes runs to class.

“Boy, is it crowded in writing classes,” said Robbi Nester, a teaching associate in the composition program. “In my composition class, we could accept 23 people. We had a waiting list of 26. Somebody else had 60 on the list.”

In the School of Social Sciences, the total number of undergraduate students enrolled in all classes grew from 8,695 last year to 9,206 this year, but the total number of courses fell from 107 to 101.

‘It Was Ridiculous’

Computer science major Glen Fujimoto, a sophomore, said he wanted to take Management 5, a prerequisite for a management minor. There were 80 spaces. Three hundred students applied. “It was ridiculous,” he said. He tried to petition the instructor at the first class. So did scores of others. Only five or six made it, he said.

In the biological sciences department, one peer academic counselor said: “I have parents calling me, saying how come Johnny or Jane can’t get into their classes when I’m paying $455? What can I say?

“It makes us feel bad as academic counselors. If all prerequisites are closed, I’m forced to push students into upper division classes, over their heads, or into a class in which they have no interest. I feel helpless.”

This year, the university has enrolled 11,880 undergraduates--1,380 more than last year. Freshmen accounted for 500 unanticipated students as a result of a new system of multiple filing--the practice of allowing applicants to make simultaneous applications to different schools within the University of California system.

“This fall, we admitted more freshmen than we should have,” Parker said.

As soon as it was learned that UCI would be 6% overenrolled, 6% more total course offerings were added, Parker said. More of the required writing classes were added to keep class sizes manageable, he said. Several classes also are held in trailers, and some administrative offices have been moved into nearby office centers.

This year, 50% of the freshmen didn’t get classes they requested during registration; 64% of all undergraduates did receive all courses requested, or a complete schedule, according to university figures. The rate is higher than the 61% of the past two years.

Alternative Courses

By now, most students have settled into alternative courses, Parker said. “My sense is (that) students who talked to advisers in their departments have generally been accommodated. Students who don’t do well are the passive students who accept the decisions of the system. “When I’m advising students, I advise them never to allow the machinery of the system to determine their life. There are always alternatives. You have to go out and find them.”

The overenrollment problem is no worse this fall than it has been the past “four or five years,” said Parker, who teaches physics and whose 63-seat quantum mechanics course has 70 students. “In the last three years, undergraduate enrollments have increased 24%, and the number of seats in classrooms has increased by about 23%. So we’re somehow keeping up.

“We have had to deal with a decade of minimum investment when no physical facilities were being built. . . . Enrollment pressures at UCI are the highest in its history. More students are wanting to come at a time when we’re barely getting started on physical facilities,” he said.

UC Santa Barbara is also overenrolled by 6% and UC San Diego by 5%, he said.

At UC Irvine, 50% of the undergraduates commute from home and 20% from apartments in the surrounding area. Student dorms house only 30% of UCI undergraduates, and they have waiting lists of hundreds, said Bob Erickson, a vice president in the Associated Students office.

‘Horror Stories’

“You hear horror stories about UCLA and Berkeley. You hear UCI is better, but it’s not,” said Jenny Doh, a freshman. She said she was put on a waiting list for Mesa Court, a campus dormitory, then reserved a one-bedroom apartment in Dartmouth Court, a new apartment building nearby. Since construction was delayed, she is now commuting from Buena Park where she shares an apartment with a friend. Erickson said parking has become an issue with many students. Some bicycle, take the bus, park at broken meters or park illegally. “Four of five associated student body officers park without permits,” said David Kuehn, news editor of UCI’s student newspaper, New University.

So far, most evidence about campus problems are anecdotal rather than statistical, Kuehn said. Nevertheless, an editorial in the student newspaper urged students to attend a sit-in in Chancellor Jack Peltason’s office Oct. 9 to protest overcrowded campus conditions.

“At the end, there were only 50 people there. They tried to say, ‘one, two, three, Hey Jack!’ But it didn’t really work out,” said Noreen O’Connor, a junior majoring in English and social sciences. “At a campus like ours, people don’t know how to get involved with issues that really affect them.”

“I think the students care, but they don’t have time to hound-dog the administrators to do their job,” said Steve Kerr, opinion editor of the New University. Basically, the protest was to get the “chancellor to admit publicly there is a problem.”

A cartoon in the Oct. 6 issue of the New University showed a tall Peltason with his elbows on a cloud, standing in a hillside of problems such as “more apathy, classroom overcrowding, housing regulations and parking.” In a front-page story, the chancellor was quoted as saying, “UCI has adequate space. I personally don’t think it’s a problem. . . . we’re planning.”

In an interview, Peltason said, “Yes, I think it’s a problem. To the student who has a problem it’s a major problem. . . . We don’t have a crisis. We have some problems. We are dealing with them as quickly as we can.”

Peltason said the university would continue to pursue growth, estimated in a recent report to the Board of Regents at 41% by the year 2000.

“This campus was planned from the very beginning to grow,” Peltason said. “That is why we have 1,510 acres. We’re doing exactly what we said we were going to do 24 years ago. As resources come available, and buildings come on line, we will provide an education to those who want it and are qualified.”

Even with new financial commitments from the state for more construction to relieve the crowding, additional campus classrooms will not be available until the fall of 1988, Parker said.

“How do you balance the needs of those who want to enroll with those already here?” Parker said. “There is no perfect solution. We’re trying to push the capacity of the campus as hard as we can to provide education to many on a reasonable basis. For some students, it’s inconvenient. But to be denied admission would be worse.”