Jordan Hindenach spent his first night in Emmons Hall with an uninvited guest.
Hindenach’s two-person room included a third roommate for one night after 300 more freshmen came to MSU this fall than expected.
Enrollment exceeds official estimates by almost 500
MSU has seen an increase in fall enrollment for the fifth consecutive year, according to a preliminary enrollment report released at the Sept. 12 MSU Board of Trustees meeting.
According to the report, fall enrollment increased about 1 percent from fall 2007 and has increased more than 9 percent since 1997.
The administration discussed the growing demand and admittance to MSU for several years before the conversation became a focal point for Provost Kim Wilcox within the last year, said June Youatt, senior associate provost.
“That’s been of some concern and it’s actually been part of the conversation that Provost Wilcox has been having with the deans,” Youatt said. “We can’t continue to accommodate growth each year.”
Original projections for the fall semester estimated 46,069 students would attend MSU, but preliminary figures from the report showed about 500 more students enrolled than expected.
With enrollment increasing throughout the past five years, university departments and colleges have responded to the new demands.
About 150 campus rooms were overassigned after initial fall freshman enrollment estimates came up short, but that number has been cut to less than 40, said Angela Brown, director of University Housing.
University Housing adjusts room pricing for students living in over-assigned rooms.
“We did realize there were some transitional housing over-assignments, but we were able to resolve that fairly quickly,” Brown said.
“A good number of those (still over-assigned) are students who wish to remain over assignment or want to stay in that particular hall and wait until space opens up.”
The College of Social Science, College of Natural Science and the Eli Broad College of Business led the way with the largest projected enrollments, but the high university enrollment projections won’t strain college professors just yet.
Only a percentage of the estimated 46,500 to 46,700 students enrolled this fall will become part of the colleges, said Thomas Summerhill, the College of Social Science’s acting associate dean for academic and student affairs.
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“When you talk about a 500-student increase, that’s not a lot if the students are distributed across the university,” Summerhill said.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t have to make adjustments, but it’s not a real shock to the system.”
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