As many as 933 more students, including 464 additional freshmen, are expected to register next week at the University of California, Davis, than registered last fall. A student body of 24,025 -- the highest fall enrollment in the campus's history -- is anticipated, up from last fall's 23,092. The previous high was recorded in fall 1990, when 23,898 students were enrolled. Since then, fall enrollment has dropped as low as 22,442, but started growing last year as part of a four-year funding agreement with Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature. About 433 more new freshmen likely will register next week; the number of new advanced standing students will remain about the same as last fall. Total undergraduate enrollment is expected to rise by 870. Upper-division students are likely to total 60.4 percent of the undergraduate student body in 1996-97, compared to 61.4 percent last year. New graduate students are expected to increase their ranks by 60. Health science enrollments should remain unchanged. More than 14 percent of the admitted freshman class are students from underrepresented ethnic groups, compared to 18 percent two years ago and 17 percent last year. About one-half of all new transfer students will have participated in the Transfer Admission Agreement program with 55 community colleges throughout the state. Here's a snapshot of what this fall's students will find as they arrive next week: • Course availability. Students this fall should find a good number of open course sections and classroom seats -- almost 700 sections with some 13,000 seats. Departments have fine-tuned their planning, streamlined majors and, where appropriate, expanded class size. "We're in reasonably good shape, considering the large entering class of students," said Fred Wood, associate dean of the College of Letters and Science. "The potential hot enrollment spots are cooler than we might have expected, with relatively slim waiting lists for seats in introductory chemistry and math and in English 57. We're still working on offering enough seats to meet the needs of our students, but we have almost all the potential enrollment holes filled." Wood says he's confident that seats will open up in winter quarter for those unable to obtain desired classes this fall. Students may also request "simultaneous enrollment" in a course at another college when its equivalent at UC Davis is full. For example, students electing to study Spanish might choose to enroll in a Sacramento City College Spanish class until a course becomes available at UC Davis. Most students were able to enroll in a full load of 12 or more units: 84.7 percent of freshmen; 80.7 percent of sophomores; 81 percent of juniors; and 73.9 percent of seniors. Improvements in the telephone reservation system are enabling students to be swept from waiting lists into high demand classes as seats become available. • Finish in Four. This past year, 122 students participated in this pilot program designed to help undergraduates complete their degrees in four years. The program's thrust is to encourage more students to take advantage of academic advisers on campus. Faculty and staff advisers explain which courses are required, and in what sequence, for completion of majors and for graduation. The graduation rates of students who enter UC Davis as first-year students are among the highest in the University of California. At the same time these rates have climbed, however, the percentage of students taking more than 12 academic quarters to graduate has increased in recent years, a trend experienced by the UC system as a whole. The expected time to degree is 12 quarters, with three quarters each year. Currently the average time to degree at UC Davis is slightly more than 13 quarters. • Financial aid. Some 55 percent of the student body has already been awarded some form of financial aid for 1996-97. Fifty-eight percent of all students had been given financial aid by the close of the 1995-96 school year. Last year, $120 million was awarded to 13,409 students. So far this year, $111 million has been disbursed to 13,158 students. Some 300 students have not yet completed the financial aid application process and others may have only partial funding because they have not signed promissory notes. Loans now comprise as much as 60 percent of all aid, with the average indebtedness of a new graduate climbing from about $10,000-$12,000 a year ago to about $12,000-$15,000 this year. Seniors graduating from UC Davis last June collectively owe more than $43 million in educational loans. • Housing. Family housing is expected to be full and undergraduate residence halls about 100 students beyond normal capacity when the quarter begins. To accommodate the extra undergrads, fully furnished suites will be created out of lounges and libraries, apartments will be tapped in family and other student housing, and students living in large rooms will be asked to consider accepting a third roommate with a significant reduction in rent. "In the Davis tradition of trying to ensure that our incoming students feel welcome and attended to, every student without a regular housing assignment and/or his or her parents will be personally called in advance of fall opening and given a full description of the current situation and the options available to them," said Carol Wall, vice chancellor for student affairs. "These options include immediate release from the housing contract without penalty if they request a release anytime through Sept. 22, the day that all the residence halls open. Our experience, however, suggests that this situation works itself out once students get here." • Building construction and renovation. Construction of the life sciences addition to Briggs Hall will be completed this December. Laboratory equipment will then be moved into this 119,000-square-foot facility, which will be occupied by the Division of Biological Sciences. Funding for this $31.8 million building project comes mainly from a state bond measure passed by voters. The renovation of North and South Halls, finished this summer, has upgraded the seismic safety of the buildings and brought them into compliance with health and safety requirements now mandated for state buildings. The $11 million project, including the upgrading of the Memorial Union, was funded by a special student fee. The two-year Memorial Union seismic tower project begins this fall, designed to reinforce the four-story facility by adding stiffening elements along the south side and a new elevator tower along the north entry. Repairs for seismic deficiencies found in Wyatt Theatre, Veihmeyer Hall and three water towers are also under way. Most of the work at Veihmeyer and Wyatt will be on the exterior, minimizing disruption to the buildings' occupants. In an effort to bring student affairs administrative units closer together, a new East Hall is slated for construction beginning in the spring quarter on the site of the original building that was demolished in 1974. The construction cost is expected to total $7.8 million. The three-story building will provide 31,000 square feet and will be similar in appearance to North and South Halls. A new 28,000-square-foot building designed for drug testing, forensic toxicology and other research programs related to horses will be built north of the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Construction of the Equine Analytical Chemistry Laboratory will begin in the spring at an estimated cost of $7.2 million. Construction will also begin this year on the $8.9 million Center for Comparative Medicine, a two-story laboratory and office building located at the California Regional Primate Center, west of the central campus. An 8,000-square-foot animal quarters facility and a 17,000-square-foot office and laboratory building will allow for additional teaching and research space. Construction of the Environmental Services Facility will begin this academic year west of Highway 113, replacing the existing hazardous waste handling facility. This 30,000-square-foot building will receive low-level radioactive, chemical and biological/medical waste materials from various research and service departments, and will be able to hold, process or transport chemical wastes to appropriate off-campus facilities. Funding for this $11 million project comes from a state revenue bond passed by voters. • Parking and transportation. This year, the campus's parking system, entirely funded by user fees (which again won't increase for long-term parking), should be able to handle parking demand, according to transportation and parking services director Brodie Hamilton. A new lot north of the in-line skating facility will be constructed this fall, adding 240 spaces. To accommodate peak winter demand, attendants will be available to coordinate a "stack" program parking cars in aisles of already-full lots to expand lot capacity. Many lots were repaired and resurfaced over the summer and new parking permit dispensers that accept currency, coin and credit cards were installed in major visitor lots. The lunch-time downtown shuttle will be expanded and a new compressed natural gas fueling facility will be available this fall, enabling more clean-fuel vehicles to be added to the university's automotive fleet. Forty-three more high-security bike racks were installed across campus this summer and bike lockers for intercity commuters are now available for rent at Recreation Hall and Hickey Gym. Improvements to the Russell Boulevard bike path were also completed this summer. Bicycles at bargain prices will be available at the campus's annual bike auction, held Oct. 12 at 9 a.m. behind the Fire/Police Building on Kleiber Hall Drive.