The Olympics might be the largest academic disruption the U has ever had, but it wasn’t enough to keep students out of the classroom.
Despite predictions of a Games-influenced enrollment drop-off, student numbers are up?way up.
U administrators admit guessing enrollment figures for a typical semester is difficult, but for “the most unusual semester ever,” it was nearly impossible, said Paul Brinkman, associate vice president of budget and planning.
Final enrollment numbers will not be available until later this week, but early statistics show a 2 percent increase over Spring Semester 2002?amounting to more than 700 additional students.
The enrollment jump makes this semester the largest Spring Semester ever.
“In all honesty, we are pleasantly surprised,” said Barbara Snyder, vice president for student affairs.
Administrators have wondered for years how the Games would affect enrollment. Some feared Olympic-spawned parking woes would discourage students from taking classes. Others feared the long semester break would discourage students and give them an easy excuse to skip a semester.
But that isn’t the case.
“The fact that students were able to come and not feel like they have to take the semester off is a good thing,” Brinkman said.
Fall Semester enrollment figures also jumped considerably?a whopping 5.6 percent.
The Fall Semester increase brought 1,500 more students than the previous year for a total of 27,658 students.
In a previous interview, Brinkman said that a 1 percent increase?about 250 to 300 students?is ideal. Large increases can help the U, if the state Legislature fully funds the student growth.
But for the last two years, lawmakers have not fully funded the new students.
Higher education officials across the state have spoken recently of raising admission standards and creating an enrollment cap to limit the number of new students to ensure state funding for them.
To accommodate the large number of students who enrolled last fall, U departments were forced to offer more courses and additional labs.
But new labs and courses require money.
Sliding tax revenue figures have forced lawmakers to cut the U’s budget twice this year, taking more than $8 million.
The U has already instituted a hiring freeze and cut every department and office budget by more than 2 percent.
“In time, we hope the Legislature funds the large enrollment growth,” Brinkman said.