By Vic Cox

Change continues to reshape the campus, a lot of which has happened over the past two months, including robust summer sessions and a record fall freshman class; several buildings completed or nearing completion; a new imaging device for researchers; and new UCSB national rankings.

Summer Sessions set a record enrollment of 8,974 students in 2006; and more than 90 percent of those were UCSB students. The Freshman Summer Start Program jumped to 360 students, 80 more than last year. Student growth was evident in undergraduate enrollment this fall, which reached a new high estimated at 4,100 freshmen, according to the Admissions Office. Final figures will be available the third week of this quarter.

The East Entrance’s remodel—the information kiosk is now housed in the Mesa Structure—is progressing a bit slower than planned, according to project manager Croft Yjader. The contractor this week expects to finish paving one side of the entrance, which did not help last weekend’s Move-In Days. But the concrete outline of the bus stop indicates how the west side of the roundabout will look.

Progress was made on UCSB’s third parking structure, the $22-million, 1,100-space edifice rising on a former west side lot between the Events Center and Isla Vista. It is scheduled for completion this fall, as are the Student Resource Building and the new Snidecor Office Wing. The $14-million Psychology Building addition was completed, except for landscaping, and occupied.

A nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer was added to researchers’ tool kits, thanks to a $2-million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The imaging device will allow scientists to visualize how individual atoms are arranged within molecules.

As UCSB’s infrastructure expanded so, too, did its academic attractiveness. Rankings of universities by U.S. News & World Report placed the campus in a five-way tie for 47th out of the top 248 national universities. UCSB has placed in the top 50 for the past several years. One list that saw UCSB’s ranking decline was Princeton Review’s national rating of party schools. The campus dropped to 10th this year after being ranked fourth the year before.

Systemwide, the UC Regents moved forward on their plan to revamp how the UC Office of the President handles and reports senior administrators’ compensation. They initiated a high-ranking, three-person compensation compliance unit by setting duties and salaries at their July meeting. Searches have been launched for the executive vice presidents for business operations and chief financial officer; and for a chief compliance and audit officer.

Other reports on compensation and actions by the Regents can be found at <www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/compensation>.