UC Santa Cruz Students Protest Crowded Classes

Students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, fed up with packed classes that often meet in dining halls and seminar rooms, boycotted classes Friday to bring attention to the overcrowded conditions.

Estimates on the number of students who chose to skip class ranged from hundreds to thousands at the campus, which has a total enrollment of 8,500.

About 2,000 students attended a “teach-in” organized by student activists to protest what many students call “unbearable” overcrowding that is hampering the quality of education at the school.

The administration, however, says the student-to-teacher ratio does not exceed 19 to 1, the ratio stipulated by the Board of Regents for the nine-campus University of California system.

“My sense is that the quality of education here has not deteriorated,” said Bruce Moore, vice chancellor of student affairs. He added, however, that “overcrowdedness is a valid issue” because the school has not been able to build classrooms fast enough to accommodate the growing student population.

Long-range plans call for the university to nearly double its student population by the end of the century. The plans have drawn widespread criticism, both on campus, where students and faculty have expressed concern that the small-college atmosphere of the school is in jeopardy, and in the surrounding community, where officials say the growth will cause congestion and have adverse environmental effects.

Moore said administrators are planning to build several new buildings to increase classroom space, but the classrooms will not be ready before next September, when an even larger number of students is expected to attend.