Summer Semester enrollment figures are up more than 6 percent when compared to numbers from this time last year.
“This year could grow significantly. But we won’t have final numbers until the end of summer,” said Paul Brinkman, associate vice president for budget and planning.
Last year, Summer Semester enrollment figures topped 12,500 students. This year, 11,100 are already enrolled, and there is still another class session starting in late June.
An annual 1 percent increase?about 250 to 300 students a year?is ideal, Brinkman said in an earlier interview.
According to Brinkman’s statement, the last two years at the U have been extremely abnormal.
Fall Semester enrollment figures for 2001 jumped more than 5.6 percent. Spring Semester figures rose again by 2 percent?pushing enrollment to record high.
Officials said the slow economy was responsible for the large increase, and with Utah’s economy unable to climb out of trouble, “It is hard to know where we will be by Fall Semester,” Brinkman said.
The largest problem created by the increasing number of students in the classroom is that for the last two years, lawmakers have only funded a portion of the growth, leaving university administrators across the state wondering whether or not accepting the new students is a sound idea.
The state Board of Regents discussed limiting enrollment at the April meeting.
But Dave Pershing, senior vice president for academic affairs said he hopes to keep the doors open for all, pointing out that students do provide more money through tuition revenue.
In fact, Pershing said increase in summer enrollment is part of the U’s masterplan to expand Summer Semester offerings.
For the fall, Pershing said he won’t plan on adjusting the admittance policy until he sees what the situation looks like in September.
“There is always a large surge in enrollment the first week of classes. If necessary, we could make changes to the policy at that time, if the growth looked drastic,” Brinkman said.
Administrators are also waiting to see how lawmakers’ changes to the admission process will affect enrollment.
This year, hoping to raise funding, legislators approved a measure to make it twice as difficult for out-of-state students to attain residency tuition status.
Students from other states are now required to pay two years of out-of-state tuition at nearly three times the cost before being eligible for residency status.
State fiscal analysts estimated the change would create more than $1 million for the U.
If the law change forces out-of-state students out of Utah’s colleges and universities, the U will ask the government to make up the difference, Pershing said.
“We are relying on that money, we have to,” he said. “There is no guarantee that just because they say the new law will create more state funding that it will.”
U administrators say the cloudy enrollment picture will clear up quickly in the fall.