STATEMENT OF GOALS AND PRINCIPLES
The primary academic goal of the University of California at Santa Cruz is to become a fully developed teaching and research institution based upon a residential college concept with the number of faculty and amount of facilities that the achievement of such a goal requires and with the enrollment expected to result from the fulfillment of such a goal. By pursuing this goal, the UC Santa Cruz campus is fulfilling its responsibility to serve the public as a center of higher learning and as a repository of organized knowledge through its programs of teaching, research and service.
Within the University of California system, a Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) is a broad framework that expresses Regental policy governing the future physical planning and development of a UC campus or other University property, such as a field station. This LRDP defines a building program and land use map, which are intended to serve as a comprehensive planning framework for the capital construction, infrastructure, and land use programs that will enable the University of California at Santa Cruz to achieve its primary academic goal. The LRDP reflects the following principles that have guided planning of the UC Santa Cruz campus since its inception:
- recognition of the importance of the UC Santa Cruz colleges as centers of intellectual and residential life on campus;
- establishment of a core containing primarily academic uses and centralized academic resources, developed with sufficient density to promote pedestrian convenience;
- placement of colleges surrounding the core, within a reasonable distance, so that the concept of the residential and academic college, key to UC Santa Cruz, can be successfully realized; and
- preservation of the natural physical setting to the maximum extent feasible, consistent with the programmatic requirements of the University.
The accompanying text outlines the academic rationale and planning context that established general parameters for the development of this LRDP. Detailed discussions of the potential environmental impacts of this LRDP, proposed mitigations, and an exploration of alternatives are found in the Environmental Impact Report published as a separate document.
This LRDP is not an implementation plan; adoption of the LRDP does not constitute a commitment to any specific projects, construction schedules or funding priorities. Each building proposal must be approved individually, after appropriate review, by the Chancellor, the President's Office and/or The Regents. The LRDP does not treat remodeling, renovating, upgrading, or maintaining existing buildings.