Judge Orders UC Berkeley to Freeze Enrollment Over Impact on Surrounding Community

Judge Orders UC Berkeley to Freeze Enrollment Over Impact on Surrounding Community
Students walk past Sather Gate on the University of California at Berkeley campus in Berkeley, Calif., May 10, 2018. Ben Margot/AP Photo
Bill Pan
Bill Pan
Reporter
|Updated:

A judge has ordered the University of California–Berkeley, to freeze 2022 enrollment at the 2020 level and immediately pause an academic building and faculty housing project, citing potential negative effects on surrounding neighborhoods.

In the Aug. 24 decision, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman sided with a group of residents living near the UC–Berkeley campus. The neighbors brought the complaint in 2019, alleging that the university failed to take “significant environmental impacts” into account when developing its expansion plan, including displacement of tenants, an increase in noise and trash, an increase in traffic, and increased burdens on the City of Berkeley’s public safety services.