As a key component of a UC-wide plan to accommodate an unprecedented surge of 52,600 students over the next decade, UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara are embarking upon an ambitious expansion of their Summer 2001 sessions. The six other UC campuses are not far behind.

"The pressure to expand summer is real and intense," said analysts from the Office of the President in a report that preceded a presentation by the executive vice chancellors of the three campuses to the UC regents' meeting March 15 at UCLA. Summer expansion is especially crucial to UCLA in order to minimize traffic, parking and other physical impacts during the regular sessions, the report added.

"We want to get summer to a 40% increase in full-time enrollment (at UCLA, students who take eight units over six weeks)," said President Richard C. Atkinson.

As a critical underpinning of this effort, Gov. Gray Davis and the state Legislature have provided $13.8 million to reduce summer fees to UC students. Previously, the state helped fund fall, winter and spring sessions only, while summer students paid higher fees. This summer, fees have been reduced by about 40% across all three campuses. At UCLA, summer 2001 fees are $76 to $100 per unit, depending on the class, compared to $100 to $160 per unit last summer. The state is currently considering additional funding to hire more ladder faculty and provide student financial aid.

Foremost in all three campuses' plans, said UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Paul Gray, is the "elemental principle that quality will be maintained."

The two main components of an "educationally enriching experience" are courses taught by UC ladder faculty and a wide-ranging curriculum, explained UC Santa Barbara Executive Vice Chancellor Ilene Nagel.

Up until this year, Summer Sessions planners were reluctant to recruit ladder faculty; non-ladder faculty were available at lower compensation rates. And ladder faculty have been reluctant to sign on because they do not receive full credit toward retirement and other benefits in the summer if they have already taught three sessions during the school year. But planners are trying to remedy this. Another challenge is that many faculty attend conferences and conduct research during the summer.

"We are a great research university," said UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor Wyatt R. Hume. "The research we do is important to California's economy and to our own economy. We can't see that compromised."

Still, the faculty picture looks promising: Projections for all three campuses already show a 48% increase in ladder faculty teaching this summer at the three campuses - 291 ladder faculty compared to 197 last summer. In addition, 16% more courses will be offered this summer: 1,547 at the three campuses, compared to 1,335 last summer.

At UCLA, said Hume, "increasing enrollment will give us the opportunity to do things differently." For example, lower-division general education clusters to be offered this summer will help students - including growing numbers of transfer students - satisfy requirements.

Enrollment for Summer Sessions is now open at UCLA. Early indications show more students enrolling as well as registering for more units.

Hume added that expanded summer session must be balanced with important summer programs traditionally held on campus, from outreach programs for the children of migrant farmworkers to international academic conferences.

"We're optimistic, but we realize that there are problems that aren't going to be solved in a year or two," Gray said. "There are still a lot of unknowns. We're going to build it and see if they come."