Classes at UC Santa Barbara get underway Thursday morning, later than usual for a fall quarter start. In fact... this will be the latests start for the UC system since a new policy was instituted back in 2007.
The policy was put in place to make sure the period of Jewish High Holy Days between Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah didn't overlap with move-in weekend or the first day of classes.
The lunar-based Jewish calendar shifts quite a bit making this the first time the conflicting dates forced a UC start date change since the policy was instituted.
UCSB says there are about 4600 incoming freshman and transfer students this quarter, a couple hundred more than last year.