Monday, February 10, 1997
College enrollments mixed bag: some are up,
some down and some barely changed
By BRIAN BETHEL / Staff Writer
Enrollment figures at area colleges are a mixed bag this spring:
Some are up; some are down; and others have barely changed either
way.
And even among schools that enjoyed gains or suffered losses,
there's not a lot of practical variation in the numbers.
"I think we're all sort of in the same boat, really,"
said Olin Odom, registrar at Cisco Junior College. "We're
all just holding in there."
Spring enrollment numbers are inherently different from the
closely watched fall figures many schools tout.
For the most part, spring enrollment represents students who
managed to actually survive the college experience to enjoy a
second semester.
"Some get put on academic suspension; some are part-time
students who don't take classes in the spring; some leave for
a variety of other reasons," said Dr. Craig Turner, vice
president for academic affairs at Hardin-Simmons. "There's
a lot of reasons students leave."
Thus, without fail, the number of students left behind is usually
a few percent less than in the fall.
Colleges realize that, and that's why many of them place more
emphasis on first-semester enrollment instead of spring figures.
"Obviously, returning students are important - retention
is a concern at every college," said Russ Watjen, vice president
for enrollment management at McMurry. "But speaking for McMurry
personally, we do put more emphasis on new students, and that's
what we get in the fall."
For the most part, campuses that did see a decline this spring
were nonchalant about the loss, which usually amounted to a percent
or two.
"We're really not down far enough for us to be worried,"
said Ann Galyean, registrar at Western Texas College. "In
fact, we're really quite pleased."
The school's enrollment dropped about 10 students compared
with last year's spring semester.
Howard Payne was another school where a semester-to-semester
comparison revealed a minor drop - a whopping two students.
Some of the schools that gained did note substantial differences.
Texas State Technical College's West Texas group posted its
highest total enrollment in six years, with record-breaking enrollment
at each of the school's extension centers, said Jeff Waite, director
of marketing.
"Both the number of new and returning students in the
winter quarter increased across the board," he said. "Here
at the Sweetwater campus, our industrial electronics programs,
such as automations/robotics, semiconductor manufacturing and
telecommunications, showed the greatest increase."
Waite said the need for the sort of high-tech programs TSTC
offers in industry accounted for the increases in many program
enrollments.
Abilene Christian University continued an upward spring trend,
with the school posting an increase in enrollment for the fifth
consecutive year.
"We look forward to serving more and more students by
offering an exceptional value in education," said Dr. Royce
Money, university president.
Overall, most schools said they were pleased with their enrollment
figures - although some admitted they wouldn't have minded a few
more students to help line their school's coffers and classrooms.
But for the most part, they also admitted that a small loss
here and there - or a moderate gain - was better than a torrential
tide of students.
"You don't want to see too much of a rise too quickly,"
Watjen said. "Everyone likes to see their enrollment grow,
but it's best to have it do so gradually, rather than have a huge
increase you can't control."
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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