The Haas School of Business Undergraduate Program
Expansion of the Business Major

Rationale Memorandum

TO:	All Parties Interested in the Undergraduate Program at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley
FROM:	Dan Himelstein, Executive Director, Haas Undergraduate Program
DATE:	November 25, 2002
RE:	Rationale for the Expansion of the Undergraduate Program at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley

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The Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley is expanding its Undergraduate Program (haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad) as part of a broader long-term strategic planning process related to expanded enrollment Campus-wide and throughout the entire University of California system. This system-wide expansion effort comes in response to the changing demographics in the state of California and the nation, often dubbed "Tidal Wave II", which shows a sharp increase in the number of college bound students through the year 2010. For example, the University of California system is expected to add up to 60,000 students by that date, roughly a 40 percent increase for this already highly impacted university system. Given the high quality of the applicant pool to its Undergraduate Program, the Haas School is confident that this expansion can be accomplished without affecting the academic quality of the Program. As a first step, the Haas Undergraduate Program intends to increase the total number of majors in the Program to 700 (up from the previous target for many years of 550) over a three-year period as recommended by the Campus’ Near-Term Planning Committee (NTPC), reaching this steady state of 700 students by the 2004-2005 academic year. In addition, the Undergraduate Program will consolidate admissions for both Continuing UC Berkeley students (currently admitted for both the Fall and Spring semesters) and Transfer students (currently admitted only for the Fall semester) into a single application cycle for admission at the start of each academic year. However, Continuing UC Berkeley students and Transfer students will still be evaluated in separate applicant pools. Beginning with the 2003-2004 academic year, when admissions is consolidated into a single cycle, the Undergraduate Program will require that all 350 incoming majors take two specific upper-division core business courses during the second six-week session of Summer Sessions to initiate their tenure at Haas. For the 2003-2004 academic year, that start date will be July 7, 2003. By requiring all incoming majors to take these two classes, the School will be utilizing Summer Sessions in the fashion required by the NTPC's recommendations and also will be creating significant synergies that will enhance both the academic quality of the Undergraduate Program and provide numerous additional community building opportunities for the Program's students. To the extent possible, the schedule that the Undergraduate Program has developed for this required Summer Sessions scenario has been devised to minimize the impact on students. Students will be required to attend Summer Sessions only at the beginning of their tenure at Haas so they will be free to pursue Summer internships, other educational opportunities, etc. during the Summer between their junior and senior years. In addition, they will attend classes on only two afternoons/evenings per week during the six weeks they are required to attend Summer Sessions, providing them with the opportunity to engage in other Summer activities. The expansion of the Undergraduate Program will also require an increase in the number of courses offered during the Fall and Spring semesters to not only accommodate all of the new majors, but to also continue to make approximately 50% of the seats in Undergraduate business courses available to non-majors during these semesters. In addition, the Undergraduate Program intends to continue to expand its open enrollment Summer Sessions program, which is currently the largest on Campus, since one of the stated expectations of the NTPC is that enrollment in Summer Sessions courses still be open to non-majors and because the demand for the Program's courses continues to grow. There are also a variety of administrative and student related issues (e.g. - financial aid, housing, etc.) connected to the Summer Sessions component of the implementation plan where the Haas School will be working with the Campus to devise solutions since many of these issues do not fall under the School's direct control. As a note, these are all issues that the Campus-wide Summer Session Regularization Task Force is wrestling with as it considers Summer regularization as part of the longer-term strategic planning process. With so many significant changes resulting from the expansion of the Undergraduate Program, particularly in the areas of admissions and required Summer Sessions courses, the Program made a number of public announcements, beginning in May 2002, to notify both Continuing UC Berkeley students and Transfer students and other interested parties of the expansion. All updates regarding the expansion will continue to be posted on the Undergraduate Program website at haas.berkeley.edu/Undergrad as soon as they are available. The Haas School of Business is confident that it can successfully implement this expansion and looks forward to not only offering significantly more spaces in its Undergraduate Program during a time of both constantly increasing demand for the major and expanded enrollment Campus-wide, but also to providing increased opportunities for academic integration and community building amongst its Undergraduate students.