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 Columbia College, Stephens College and MU keep close tabs on growing enrollment numbersBy KLARISSA OLVERA
COLUMBIA – As the 2007-08 school year wound down, Columbia College, Stephens College and MU began keeping close tabs on their enrollment numbers for fall semester 2008. For MU and Columbia College, it may not be just another semester.
After the enrollment fee became nonrefundable May 5, MU had 14,247 applications, compared with nearly 12,000 the year before, and more than 5,700 of those had paid the enrollment deposit, said Ann Korschgen, vice provost for enrollment management.
Since enrollment at MU isn’t capped, students can apply for the fall semester until classes start in August. At MU, two residence halls will have been closed by December 2008 because of renovations, but Residential Life is watching room registration closely and has been studying potential solutions, said Frankie Minor, director of Residential Life. Schurz Hall, which has been closed for renovation since December 2006, will reopen fall semester. Freshman Interest Groups and learning communities affect where students will be housed at MU, but shouldn’t be a problem next semester, Minor said. “FIGs and learning communities are very popular with our freshmen, and we try to accommodate every request,” Minor said. “We typically fill a majority of our FIGs and learning communities every year and use the trends from previous years to try to increase our supply for the following year.” There have been discussions about the implications of an increase in student enrollment, Korschgen said. The university has talked about adding sections and classes and about hiring more faculty if needed. “We will do all we can to ensure students are able to get the classes they need,” Korschgen said. Columbia College also is expecting record enrollment this fall. As of early May, the college’s applications were up 38 percent from last year, said Terry Smith, executive vice president and dean for academic affairs at Columbia College. “It’s a record number for us,” Smith said. After enrollment fees became nonrefundable last year, Columbia College had 953 applications for admission, Smith said. This year, the college had 1,258 applications. They will accept applications until classes start in August.
“Every year we grow between 30 to 35 students. We expect to be well over 1,100 this fall, and our goal is to reach 1,250 by 2012,” Smith said. Korschgen offered a possible explanation for the high number of students enrolling in colleges next fall. “Many flagship universities are reporting an increase in applications, and so students may be applying to more schools than usual. Thus, the final enrollment could be smaller than one would normally expect,” she said. At Columbia College, on-campus housing will be full. “We’re expanding into an apartment building next to campus where we house some students, and we have overflow housing available,” Smith said. She added that they will have to build more residential housing units in the next few years. Columbia College added three full-time faculty and 15-20 more classes in anticipation of more students, Smith said. “We added math, English and biology courses and have been adding sections to other courses here and there,” Smith said. “Classes are capped here at 35 seats, some even lower at 24 or 20. When they fill, we add more sections.” Columbia College also has an eight-week freshman orientation course that will feel the strain of a larger than usual student body. “It’s just kind of an introduction into college life, in sections of about 15 students,” Smith said. “We’ll add more sections to that course as well and ask faculty to pick up those sections as we need them.” Stephens is expecting higher enrollment as well, but not as significant as Columbia College’s or MU’s.
“Our fall 2008 enrollment is slightly higher than last year, and last year we experienced record enrollment” said David Adams, dean of enrollment management at Stephens. “We check our numbers every week, and we’ve improved. I can tell you we’re about 3 percent ahead of last year, but we don’t usually give out those numbers until we have a census count in September.”
Two residence halls, Columbia Hall and Wood Hall, closed in 1990, were recently renovated and reopened in anticipation of greater enrollment, said Amy Gipson, vice president of marketing and public relations at Stephens. “Wood Hall opened in fall of 2007, and Columbia Hall is complete and will be ready for students this fall,” she said. Columbia College official (total day campus) enrollment: Columbia College official (freshmen day campus) enrollment: MU official (total) enrollment: MU official (freshmen) enrollment: Source: registrar.missouri.edu/statistics/index.php
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