Undergrad enrollment declines

Kayla Webley
2004-10-13
The Daily

Fewer undergraduates are enrolled at the UW this year, bringing the UW nearer to its goal to only enroll as many students as the state will pay for, according to statistics released by the Office of Enxrollment Services yesterday.

Autumn-quarter enrollment numbers show the total of undergraduate enrollment has decreased by 270, reversing the trend of more students entering the UW every year. The UW is now on track with the University's plan to lower undergraduate enrollment to the funded level by next year.

"We are making good progress. Our plan is moving forward. We expect that by the beginning of next fall the University will be at our funded level," said Tim Washburn, assistant vice president of enrollment. "All of our enrollment levels this fall we're where we wanted them to be, so we are in a good position for next fall."

The decrease in enrollment is primarily due to a decrease in the amount of new incoming freshmen admitted, according to Washburn.

The total number of undergraduate students enrolled for autumn quarter is 26,041, which has decreased from 26,311, according Washburn.

Last year the UW hoped to enroll 4,800 freshmen for fall 2004. A total of 4,870 freshmen are actually enrolled for classes this quarter, but that number is a decrease of 107 from last fall.

While the total undergraduate enrollment is down, the total enrollment for autumn quarter is up to 39,199, an increase of 63 students from last year, when total enrollment was at 39,136, said Washburn.

Last November, the UW and WSU governing boards jointly met and decided that they would not increase enrollment, despite demand from incoming students and the state legislature.

"It's a challenge. We have a lot of students, and we really don't have adequate funding," said Norm Arkans, associate vice president and executive director of University relations. "It's a challenge to get students the courses they need when they need them."

The state only gives the UW funding for 25,312 full-time enrolled students, not including evening degree classes. Last year the state gave the UW funding for 428 more students than this year.

Transfer student enrollment has also changed from last year's total. The number of transfer students from community colleges has increased from 1,172 to 1,202, and the number of transfers from four-year colleges has decreased from 314 to 258.

However, according to Washburn, transfer enrollment will not be affected by the new policy until spring quarter 2005.

Earlier this year, the UW decided to not accept any applications for winter 2005, because of the large number of community college students who applied for fall who were deferred until winter.

The change in the enrollment of transfer students has not yet been affected by the rush of community college students applying to the UW this quarter because of the cancellation of the Direct Transfer Agreement.

"We have for a long time had a commitment that 30 percent of our incoming students would come from community college transfers. There's no change in that commitment," said Arkans. "What we change is the method by which their applications are reviewed."

The Direct Transfer Agreement allowed students who earned an associates degree from a Washington state community college with higher than a 2.75 grade point average to automatically be accepted to the UW and other state universities.