br>
No Qualified Students Turned Away as WSU Surpasses 20,000 Student Headcount For First Time
The demand for WSU programs in the upcoming biennium remains worrisome. The state`s high schools predict to graduate about 2,900 additional students in 1997 over 1995. By 1998, Washington high schools will be graduating 59,600 students compared to 52,400 in 1995. Also considering additional demand for advanced workforce training, WSU and other state higher
education institutions are requesting additional student enrollments from the 1997 Legislature.
WSU officials had feared they would be substantially "over-enrolled" this fall and were prepared
to spread higher education dollars among many more students than the Legislature funded and
perhaps turn qualified students away. The over-enrollment level in Pullman caused concern last
year when it reached 650 students over the Legislature`s budgeted level, and fears heightened
when the state`s high schools graduated 1,000 more students this year. But a dip in entering
freshmen and 1996 legislative appropriations for more enrollments allowed WSU to meet
demands this fall without turning away any qualified students. We estimate that WSU Pullman
will end up enrolling approximately 200 more students this biennium than the Legislature funded.
The overall growth in the Pullman enrollments this fall was due to substantial expansion of the
"Extended Degree Program," a distance learning program leading to a bachelor`s degree in
social science that is done in partnership with community colleges and the new WSU "Learning
Centers" across the state. There are now 263 full-time equivalent (600 "headcount") students
participating in the program across the state receiving instruction from Pullman-based professors
using video tape, electronic mail, and other technology based delivery methods. Without the EDP
increase, the WSU Pullman instructors might have been teaching roughly the same number of students
that they taught last fall. Figures indicate the Pullman enrollment pattern is due to fewer freshmen
students than WSU had anticipated, about 3,852 for Fall, 1996, compared to 4,095 in Fall, 1995
(headcount.) Sophomore and junior classes are up from previous year with the Junior class up
nearly 11 percent from last fall. It should be noted, however, that Pullman enrollments have
been increasing rapidly until this year, and this year`s Pullman enrollment is 1,300 students
more than 1991. Higher Education analysts disagree as to the causes of the drop in WSU
freshmen but agree that its a temporary situation. Possible explanations include:
() There was a drop in undergraduate out-of-state students from the 14 percent non-resident
tuition increase imposed by the Legislature - and that accounts for some of the decline in
freshman enrollments. Non-resident student enrollments uncharacteristically dropped by
174 students.
() WSU graduated 150 more students than expected in the 1995-96 fiscal year, indicating
that WSU incentives to get students through their degree programs quicker was paying off,
but that caused the estimate for continuing students to be high by a like number.
() The percentage of high school graduates enrolling in college was unusually and inexplicably
low for 1996, according to the state Higher Education Coordinating Board. Some speculate
that a robust state economy was creating jobs that were attracting high school graduates.
Perhaps many decided to work to earn more money before college.
() There have been delays in expansion of capacity for WSU`s interactive electronic transmission
of courses (the programs WSU teaches to thousands of students through the "WHETS" system
and is intended to be expanded under a proposed "K-20 network" which is still taking bids from
contractors. When this system is ready, WSU expects to immediately reach 1,200 more
place-bound students.
() For the first time in years, virtually every four-year institution in this state requested and
received substantial increases in enrollment last biennium, a development which took some
pressure off the WSU system.
This update is shared by broadcast fax and electronic mail to friends of Washington State University as state government developments occur. Contact Karen Fischer, WSU State-wide Affairs, 509/335-6665. Larry Ganders: 360/438-7552; Fax: 360/438-8104) Bill status and other legislative information visit our web page at (revised to www.olympia.wsu.edu)
|
