The freshmen class at the University of Tampa has increased again this semester, and this time in record-breaking quantity.
Vice President for Enrollment Admissions Dennis Nostrand said that due to the current state of the economy, the number of students that were expected to enroll this year was unknown at the beginning of last semester.
However, officials were attentive to the academic value of the incoming students. Sixty percent of the accepted students enrolled for the fall 2010 semester.
The number of full-time undergraduate students increased from last year’s 5,289 students to 5,443 this year. This 154 additional students have created a growth rate of 2.9 percent.
Norstrand said that the strategic market plan for the University of Tampa is to grow at a slow rate, allowing the university to gradually upgrade its facilities.
The increase in revenue from a slow growth rate would offset the energy costs, as well as cost of outdoor renovation, new technology, clubs, etc.
It is a three to four year plan and is intended to follow a similar to this year’s and to eventually level off at a total enrollment of 7,000 students.
There are currently 6,432 students, including undergraduate and graduate students.
Eventually the increase will allow the university to build a new residence hall (the goal is to have it completed by 2013).
This semester, the income from the increase of students went towards improvements in the chemistry building, the Student
Health Center and other classrooms.
Twenty-nine new full-time faculty members are teaching this semester, according to Nancy Wietholter, administrative assistant at the Provost’s Office.
Norstrand says that this has brought the student-to-faculty ratio back to what it was in 2008 (which according to the university profile on ut.edu is 16:1).
Students have mixed reactions to the increase.
“I don’t really notice it much. Parking is the only real [issue] I have noticed.
I have come in before and [driven] around for 20 minutes and still not found parking. This never used to happen,” said senior Chris Campo.
Most students say they have noticed that there are more people on campus and agree that it has made a big difference in parking.
“I have seen several people late to classes because they can’t find parking,” said junior Cassie Monsees.
“I am sure the number of parking tickets have increased as well, since students can’t find parking anywhere since there are so many new people,” said Nathalia Pirpla.
Freshmen are mainly unaffected by the enrollment growth. As for most, it is their first experience in college.
“The dorms are not so crowded. I grew up with a big family so I am used to living with people,” said freshman Brianna Simon.
“The classes are about the same size I had in high school.”
Many freshman are enjoying the relatively small class sizes and number of students on campus, and were not aware that this numbers has been smaller in the past. A lot of freshmen say that they chose to come to UT due to its small numbers. The goal is that more students will choose UT for the same reason in the future.
Shivani Kanji can be reached at shivani.kanji@spartans.ut.edu.
Parking is a huge problem with so many more students; I hope the additional income from the increase of students addresses this issue.
When is a new gym going to make it’s way into the conversation? My dorm room is bigger than that gym.