April 30, 2007
 Spring is a time for growth, and we’re definitely growing here at UC San Diego. We once again received a record number of applications for fall 2007, and we admitted more than 19,000 students for the Fall 2007 and Winter 2008 quarters. Over the next decade, our campus undergraduate and graduate enrollment is expected to increase about 20 percent, to more than 30,000 students. One of the ways we’re meeting the needs of our growing population is the addition of our new Student Services Center, which will serve as the new gateway to our university and a one-stop service center for current and prospective students. The new center will be one of the most visited facilities on campus; each year, more than 40,000 visitors will begin their campus tours from the Student Services Center.
Students, faculty, staff and even community members are attracted to UC San Diego for a variety of reasons. Current students report choosing our campus because of the breadth of our academic programs, the nice balance of small colleges in a larger university setting, and the prestige of our university. UC San Diego once again ranked quite high in the U.S. News and World Report graduate education program survey. We also have a stellar faculty, and we’ve been able to stay competitive in attracting and retaining leading scholars in part because of the recent increase in the number of academic chairs offered campus-wide. And, of course, our beautiful grounds, cutting-edge facilities and near-perfect weather are also top reasons students, staff and faculty love UCSD!
Special Town Hall Meeting
I want to thank everyone who participated in our special Town Hall meeting to discuss emergency preparedness on our campus. The safety of our students, faculty and staff is our priority, and we’re constantly working to update and further develop our security measures. We are in the process of evaluating our emergency response procedures, reviewing the lessons learned from the tragedy at Virginia Tech, and applying those lessons to our campus. Specifically we’re looking to establish an instant message alert system that would text message and/or call students, staff and faculty if there were an emergency on campus. We’re hoping to have this alert system up and running by the end of May; right now we’re still in the testing phase. This will be a voluntary alert system, meaning individuals will need to sign up to receive the emergency notifications. We will send out more information about the system and how to register as soon as the system is in place.
I appreciate your suggestions and feedback regarding campus safety; your valuable input enables us to contemplate all potential concerns and responses to emergencies. We will look into providing a CERT training session before the summer, if we recruit enough new volunteers; we are exploring the idea of installing sirens on campus, although right now we believe there are more effective communication methods we could employ; and we will investigate whether or not there should be locks on classroom doors. We also encourage you to locate phones on campus so you know where they are in case of an emergency and test phones in classrooms to make sure they work. Improving campus safety is a team effort. We rely on our campus community to be alert and report suspicious behavior. By working together, we can improve campus security and ensure that we have the safest campus environment possible.
Student Services Center Open for Business
Located in the heart of campus, this new five-story building will be the welcome center for visitors and prospective students. It will also be a central resource for students to take care of all their student-related business and receive support services. The new facility is now home to Admissions and Enrollment Services, Financial Aid, Student Business Services, the Office of Graduate Studies, Student Policy and Judicial Affairs, and the Triton Center, among other service departments.
The building was also designed to be a place for students, staff, faculty and visitors to relax and soak up our campus atmosphere. On the upper levels, the building offers panoramic views of campus and University City. In the quad, there is plenty of open space with trees, shade and seating. There are two restaurants in the building, in addition to offices, conference rooms and one large Triton multipurpose room. The Triton room can be reserved by student organizations, and the community can also rent the room for weekend events. We are excited about our most recent addition to campus, and look forward to greeting new students here and also serving our current students.
Freshmen Admitted for Fall (and Winter)
UC San Diego admitted 19,133 freshmen for the Fall 2007 and Winter 2008 quarters, which is actually about a 10 percent decrease from Fall 2006. We offered fewer admissions this year because our Fall 2006 freshmen class enrollment was larger than expected last year. This year’s admitted students were selected from more than 45,000 applications, the second highest application rate in the UC system. We’re pleased that we continue to attract the best and brightest students to our university. The mean high school grade point average of admitted students is 4.06 and the average SAT Reasoning scores are 633 for Critical Reading, 669 for Math, and 639 for Writing. About nine percent of the newly admitted freshmen are from San Diego and Imperial Counties. Forty-four percent, the largest percentage of the admitted freshmen, are from Los Angeles. Nearly 25 percent are from San Francisco. The most popular majors chosen by this class are biology, chemistry, economics, bioengineering, and mechanical and aeronautical engineering. Admitted freshmen have until May 1 to indicate whether they will attend UCSD.
Chancellor’s Chair Challenge
As our student enrollment grows, so does our need to recruit and retain top faculty members. It’s estimated we’ll need to add 200 new faculty positions in the next decade, in addition to filling about 350 positions of faculty who retire or leave our campus. To help UCSD remain competitive in attracting and retaining distinguished scholars - such as Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer Prize recipients - I recently challenged alumni and friends of the university to help us increase the number of academic chairs campus-wide. I’m happy to report our first Chancellor’s Chair Challenge was a huge success. Our generous donors contributed more than $5 million to establish 15 critically needed endowed faculty chairs. The Chancellor’s Chair Challenge brings the total number of UCSD endowed faculty chairs to 132. While state funds provide basic faculty salaries, these permanent endowed funds support chair holders’ educational and research costs associated with academic projects. Since our need for faculty support is so great, I was able to commit Chancellor’s discretionary-use gift funds to offset the minimum amount of private support needed from donors seeking to establish an endowed faculty position, which can range from $500,000 to $2 million, depending on the department.
Fiesta de las Estrellas
In April we celebrated the 10th year of Fiesta de las Estrellas, the university’s annual Hispanic scholarship benefit that recognizes the achievements of today’s Hispanic leaders and supports deserving students by raising money for undergraduate scholarships. This year, eight outstanding alumni from across the country were recognized for their achievements in business and/or their contributions to the community. Over the last decade, the Hispanic Scholarship Council has raised more than $700,000 to provide support to 54 stellar undergraduate students at UCSD – students who may not have been able to attend college without the extra funding and many of whom are the first in their families to obtain a college education. As higher education leaders, we have an opportunity and an obligation to shape future leaders, and recruit students who truly reflect the culture we live in. About 35 percent of the people living in California are of Hispanic or Latino descent. Here at UCSD, Mexican-Americans and Latinos total about 12 percent of our undergraduate population, up one percent from last year. We must ensure that this population, and all underrepresented populations, has access to education at UCSD.
Great Graduate Programs
U.S. News and World Report once again recognized several UCSD graduate education programs - including medicine, science, engineering, and social sciences and humanities - as being among the nation’s elite. Some of the highlights include the UC San Diego School of Medicine ranking as 14th in the nation for research medical schools. UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering ranked 13th among 191 engineering schools, and 7th in the nation among public universities. The Jacobs School’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering was ranked 9th in the nation for computer systems, and 13th for the overall category of computer science. We’re very proud of these rankings that reflect our strong academic and research work and accomplishments. Click here to see how other UCSD graduate education programs were ranked by U.S. News.
Whether you’re sharing a concern at a Town Hall meeting, attending a university benefit event, or visiting our campus for the first time, I appreciate your involvement with UC San Diego. Every day I feel a stronger sense of community building among our students, staff and faculty, and with the creation of our new downtown neighborhood, our community will continue to develop and flourish. It’s no wonder UCSD has become a popular campus among prospective students, current students, staff, and faculty. We’re happy to have you all here, as part of our UC San Diego family.
With warm regards,
Marye Anne Fox
Chancellor
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