Despite widespread campus discussion regarding class size expansion, the Stanford community should not expect any decision in the near future, according to University administrators taking part in the decision-making process.

“This is not an imminent event,” said Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education John Bravman.

Though plans for formal expansion may be far down the road — or may never materialize at all — Stanford recently experienced an unplanned class size increase due to high yield in admission cycles. This year’s class of incoming freshman will total approximately 1,727 students — about 57 more than the 1,670 target. And, at this time last year, 1,745 initially signed with Stanford for the Class of 2011.

Initial interest in the idea arose with University President John Hennessy’s column in the September/October issue of Stanford magazine. Since January, the pros and cons of expansion have been examined by a task force, chaired by Board of Trustees member Jim Canales ‘88 M.A. ‘89 and English Department Chair Ramon Saldivar.

The task force has spent much of winter and spring quarters gathering data and feedback and will continue to examine the issue throughout the summer as it moves toward a recommendation on whether or not to expand class size.

“This is an issue we want to be very careful with and very deliberate with,” Saldivar said. “We want to make sure we’ve covered all the bases.”

Drawing upon the lessons of past expansions, the task force will attempt to be conservative in its planning if Stanford does decide to expand the size of the freshman class. The class size increase would likely be staggered so as to avoid excessive impact.

“If we were talking about an increase, we’d be talking about a phased increase,” Saldivar said. “This wouldn’t happen overnight.”

“Stanford last increased its class size around 35 years ago, and that was a phased hundred person increase per year.

“One hundred to two hundred is a range,” said Jeff Wachtel, senior assistant to President Hennessy and a member of the task force. “That’s put out there to help target analysis.”

A central concern is ensuring that a class size increase would not take away from the quality of student life.

“We’re looking at the quality of the residential life experience,” Wachtel said. “People are concerned about whether or not that will be compromised.”

One benefit of expansion would be the opportunity for more students to pursue a high-quality education.

“We’ve built the finest undergraduate education anywhere,” Bravman said. “If we can offer it to 2,000 more people per decade, we should do that.”

“You can look ahead 100 years, and see the opportunity that education provides for additional, supremely qualified students, and the promise that holds,” Saldivar added.

Any decision to expand the class size would mean addressing an interconnected set of logistical challenges. Providing housing for students is already a concern on campus due to space issues, and any expansion would require the addition of a significant amount of student housing space.

“The first and biggest [concern] on everyone’s mind is housing,” Wachtel said. “We already have enough housing, but things are pretty tight as it is.”

A class size expansion would also require an increased number of faculty.

“We’re always looking for the best faculty,” Bravman said. “But the total faculty size has been growing very slowly.”

“We’d have to do an increase more rapidly, and that’s very difficult to do,” he added.

The expansion would also require funding to accommodate the additional strain on financial aid, on-campus staff, overseas campuses and other needs. This would require a major fundraising campaign and would have to proceed independently from and subsequently to the ongoing, five-year, $4.3 billion Stanford Challenge.

“The president and the Board of Trustees would have to call for a major campaign,” Bravman said. “The scope of something like this can’t be funded on the margins.”

Logistical challenges and planning considerations, however, will be secondary to the final decision. Those involved say the most important factor is choosing the best course for the University.

“No one doubts we could do this if we wanted to,” Bravman said.

“This is Stanford, after all,” Saldivar added. “Think of all the huge things we’ve accomplished here.”