SANTA CRUZ — A campus committee envisions UC Santa Cruz adding 6,000 students by 2020, bringing enrollment to 21,000.

The faculty panel’s recommendation will be reviewed by another campus committee that will consider constraints such as land use, water and housing. That committee will seek public comment before recommending a growth target to undergo the environmental review process. The first comment session will be 6-9 p.m. April 21 at the UCSC Inn and Conference Center; a second will be June 9.

The future of the campus, founded on 2,000 acres in 1965, is a topic of intense interest for city leaders and neighborhood residents, who are themselves working on a long-range plan for the city.

Those following UCSC expansion plans said they hope campus officials would address community concerns even though the city has no authority over university development.

Campus officials called the figure of 21,000 students "a working number" based on faculty aspirations, a desire to add graduate programs and the need to accommodate California high school seniors who qualify for UC admission.

"We’re trying to look at the academic future of the campus," said Earth sciences professor Gary Griggs, who came to UCSC in 1968.

He chairs the "strategic futures committee," which considered four enrollment scenarios: no change from the existing 15,000 students, and increases to 17,500, 21,000 or 25,000.

Faculty in all divisions, from humanities and arts to science and engineering, would like to expand. They also would like to boost the number of graduate students from about 9 percent of total enrollment, to 15 percent.

If the 21,000 became the growth target, the campus goal would be to add 2,000 graduate students and 4,000 undergrads.

Among the new graduate programs contemplated are schools for education and business. Other ideas include an institute on coastal and marine policy and expanding the media and digital arts program.

It could take five to 10 years to create a new professional school, and five to eight years for a new building to come to fruition.

Griggs said the number of college freshmen is expected to grow, and Santa Cruz, the smallest of the UC campuses, must take its fair share of students.

The proposed growth rate, 2.7 percent per year, would amount to 400 students per year, a manageable number, according to Griggs, and represent a slower pace than the 7-8 percent jumps of the past three years.

Two new colleges were built with housing for 826 students, and three apartment complexes with 630-plus beds are slated to open on campus in the fall.

Administrator Tom Vani, who chairs the long-range development plan committee, pointed out enrollment has jumped and dipped in the past and could do the same in the future.

"The state could turn around and say you’ll have flat enrollment," he said. "If the economy picks up, more people might want to get jobs (rather than enroll in college)."

Tamara Belknap, a graduate-student representative on the long-range planning committee, is confident the growth would be handled with care.

"We are not running the risk of turning into UCLA," she said. "This is a special place and everyone who is working toward a plan for the future of the campus recognizes that."

However, some city residents remain skeptical.

Recent enrollment spurts resulted in more students living off campus, driving up the price of housing and increasing neighborhood traffic.

Longtime Westside resident Lynn Robinson said she has noticed that when the university expands off campus, as at Long Marine Lab, certain mitigations for traffic at city intersections are outside its jurisdiction.

"That’s when it becomes a problem for the surrounding community," she said. "It’s not negative if it’s mitigated well."

Mayor Scott Kennedy said he’d like to see the university shoulder the same burden as city residents to provide services. He suggested the city admissions tax apply to productions at Shakespeare Santa Cruz or the city utility tax apply to dorm room phones.

"Why shouldn’t students who live on campus pay the same user’s fees as people who live downtown?" he said. "The university has taken over commercial property, like the Holiday Inn, and bought residential property like Laureate Court. Increasingly, we are a single city, virtually indistinguishable."

Councilwoman Emily Reilly chairs a committee looking at the community impact of campus growth. The panel, which meets Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. in City Hall, is developing a way to describe the "carrying capacity" of the city for water, traffic and housing to campus officials.

People can listen in and comment at the end, Reilly said.

Campus officials shared their plans Thursday with the city’s Planning Commission, the day before announcing the growth target. Scott Daly, a planning commissioner, viewed that outreach with optimism.

"I think the communication has improved significantly over the past few years," he said. "We need to continue on that path."

Steady growth since ’95

Undergrad Grad Total

1988...8,659....737.......9,396

1989...8,883....901.......9,784

1990...9,089....963.......10,052

1991...9,161....975.......10,136

1992...9,264....991.......10,255

1993...9,222....951.......10,173

1994...9,099....1,018....10,117

1995...8,876....1,047....9,923

1996...9,159....1,056....10,215

1997...9,570....1,068....10,638

1998...9,932....1,049....10,981

1999...10,242...1,060....11,302

2000...11,047...1,077....12,124

2001...12,002...1,145....13,147

2002...12,845...1,277....14,122

2003...13,629...1,355....14,984

Source: UCSC Web site