EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in
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 Vytas Mazeika
 Corey McEleney
 Linh Tat
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 Edward Chiao
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Lurking somewhere out there in the cities and suburbs of
California, they are roaming the halls of their high schools,
playing kickball on elementary school playgrounds, falling asleep
at night with dreams of college and professional glory. They want
to be lawyers, doctors and teachers. They want to paint their faces
blue and gold for UCLA basketball games and graduate magna cum
laude in engineering.
But the university doesn’t have room for them. And if they
only knew that they’d spend their UCLA days in 500-person
classes and live in quintuple study lounges, they wouldn’t
want to be here in the first place.
It’s unfortunate to have to turn away qualified students,
but “they” are Tidal Wave II ““ the expected
increase of over 60,000 students at the University of California
over the next 10 years.
The influx of students resulting from Tidal Wave II will affect
each UC campus differently. UCLA alone will have to expand from its
already tightly-packed community by 5 to 8 percent in order to
accommodate them. This poses a serious conflict given UCLA’s
already problematic housing and parking shortages, and given the
effect the state budget cuts will have on student services and the
quality of academics in general.
In a meeting with Daily Bruin staff last Friday, Chancellor
Albert Carnesale acknowledged the potential problems posed by Tidal
Wave II, stating UCLA is taking the appropriate action by preparing
to do its part in accommodating its share of incoming students
““ even during the current budget constraints.
But UCLA has no room to grow given its geographic location. Are
we supposed to bring lawn chairs to lecture so we can sit in the
aisles of Dickson and Moore 100?
The university has a standard of excellence to live up to, and
if we want to maintain the quality of the UC, we should at least
salvage its two most prestigious flagship campuses ““ UC
Berkeley and UCLA ““ by capping enrollment. Failing to do this
will result in overcrowded schools with watered-down education,
exacerbating California’s already limping education
system.
As the regents and chancellors make decisions over the next few
months, they need to remember the limits of what UCs are capable of
doing. Not only will this salvage the UC’s quality of
education, but also its quality of student and campus life. Maybe
this means that the UC can’t ensure admission to the top 12.5
percent of high school students ““ its current guarantee. But
even if it can, enrollment at UCLA and Berkeley cannot continue to
skyrocket; their prestige cannot be compromised.
Chancellor Carnesale must assure our continued success by
working to not allow enrollment increases beyond what UCLA can
handle. And he needs to do this before the tidal wave hits and
we’re all left out to dry.