Students who had been ambivalent about enrolling for classes at the U in early August will now find themselves out of luck, after U President Bernie Machen issued a challenge to administrators last spring to keep this year’s enrollment numbers nearly identical to last year’s. The challenge comes in response to the near-total lack of funding the U received from the state to support enrollment.
With the state more than $15 million behind in enrollment growth funds, the enrollment “freeze”-as designated by Machen-is designed to prevent that deficit from increasing, though it may not make it disappear altogether.
“The problem is, we just haven’t had the funding from the state to keep up with the demand,” said U Associate Vice President for Budget and Planning Paul Brinkman.
Though Brinkman asserts state legislators are “sympathetic to what we’re trying to do,” he said tuition alone can’t carry the costs of running an institution like the U.
U junior John Talbot also sympathizes with Machen’s decision.
“From what I’ve read, I don’t think the U had much of a choice…it really had its hands tied because of the lack of funding,” he said.
With 28,369 students receiving an education from the U last year, Brinkman acknowledged that meeting Machen’s challenge could be difficult.
“If you were to ask me would we hit the enrollment number this year on the nose, probably not…it’s a challenge to make that come out OK,” Brinkman said.
One way in which administrators have been able to quell the number of potential students has been to enforce the Aug. 1 enrollment cutoff date.
“We’ve been easygoing about that in the past, but this will definitely have an impact on students,” Brinkman said.
Additionally, tougher admissions standards have kicked in, including a minimum ACT score of 18 and a minimum GPA of 2.6 for incoming freshmen. However, some students who meet these requirements may still find themselves frozen out of the U.
Brinkman said students should view Machen’s decision as an “enrollment pause,” rather than a cap.
“We don’t want to water down the soup, but that’s what would happen if we allowed enrollment numbers to rise. We need to worry about those who are here right now,” Brinkman said.
As a result of the total lack of enrollment funding from the state, Machen was left with little choice but to pull the trigger on enrollment numbers, Brinkman said.
“I think the funding is the main reason for the decision…I think he [Machen] made up his mind at the end of the legislative session in the spring to go ahead with this cap,” he said.
Though Brinkman is confident that the U will be able to meet Machen’s challenge, the success of the enrollment cap won’t be known until mid-September, when an official count is taken.
“There are students coming and going for a number of reasons, but right now, we’re up around 28,000 students. When the dust settles, we hope we’re somewhere around that 28,369 figure,” he said.
Brinkman said one way students can assure themselves a seat in a U classroom is to make up their minds about enrollment earlier in the year to ensure they qualify before the Aug. 1 deadline.
“If students can make up their minds a little earlier, it will help us put a better product out there for them,” he said.
According to Brinkman, the U’s infrastructure could readily support a few thousand more students and as of now, overcrowding did n“n our physical structures yet but that could become an issue in the future,” Brinkman said.