Despite the projected 11 percent decrease in student enrollment this upcoming fall semester, the burgeoning University of Tampa population can no longer be ignored.
Dennis Nostrand, vice president of enrollment at the University, and Eric Cardenas, director of public information and publications, assert that schools nationwide are struggling with attaining accurate enrollment predictions in these troubled economic times. The price of attending college will rise or fall according to the fulfillment of these predictions.
“If the final number of students deciding to attend UT is more than our planned number it will be because UT is in greater demand and that demand also would be exceeding our historic yield levels,” said Cardenas.
“To keep the cost of college as reasonable as possible, it is the fiscal duty of each college to be on full capacity on the average for a full academic year. If the college can’t accomplish that balance it puts the institution in the position of having to raise costs significantly—something that UT has worked very hard not to do over the years.
Apart from monetary woes, other growing pains are being felt by the University in the form of classroom and dormitory overcrowding.
Krystal Schofield, director of residence life at UT, maintains that the precise number of required dormitories for incoming freshman and continuing students will remain uncertain until the school-wide completion of the housing selection process. Any overflow of housing accommodations at that time will be designated to the nearby Howard Johnson hotel.
In terms of academic pursuits, UT Provost Janet McNew asserts that classrooms are fast overflowing, particularly those devoted to the disciplines of science and chemistry.
“We are very squeezed for classroom space in general,” said McNew, “but especially for our science courses.”
She attributes this uneven growth of colleges within UT to the amount of lab space required to fulfill the needs of science-related courses. To meet the growing needs of UT students, numerous renovation projects are being performed to expand preexisting buildings on campus. In addition, the school is searching to fill 34 additional faculty positions, 15 of which are new and 19 of which are replacements.
“We’re honored to have so many brilliant new students want to attend UT,” McNew affirmed. “And now we seek to maintain and improve upon our existing accommodations.”