Administration Scrambles to Handle Swollen Enrollment

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Author: Riley Kimball

For the second consecutive year, a larger-than-expected number of new students enrolled in Occidental, exceeding this year’s target by 18 students. While the Office of Admissions aimed to attract 590 students this fall, 608 (573 first-years and 35 transfers) had enrolled as of this week, according to Vince Cuseo, vice president for admissions and financial aid. To manage the larger student body, administrative and academic departments have reorganized and changed policies to do more with the same amount of resources.

Both Cuseo and Dean of Students Barbara Avery expressed a need to intensify the administration’s efforts to cope with the larger student body.

“All of us are going to have to put in longer hours because its important to have as much contact with students as possible,” Avery said. Her office is planning to allocate resources more efficiently and to streamline their efforts in order to manage the unprecedentedly large student body.”Last year’s [student body increase] was really a shock, and I think this year we didn’t expect it,” Avery said.

According to Cuseo, with the recession causing increased difficulties for high school students trying to afford college, the college expected a significant decrease in enrollment, but that turned out to not be the case. “Virtually all colleges’ admission offices expected the economic downturn to depress their yield on admitted students, especially at private colleges. With that in mind, they offered more students admission in order to ensure making their class target,” he said. “Our yields have been counterintuitive ­- they’ve actually increased, resulting in larger than expected classes.”

To cope with the larger student body over the past two years, more classes have been made available to first-years and the number of sections being taught for introductory surveys have increased. According to the head of the Office of the Registrar Victor Egitto, seven more 100-level courses and 27 more 200-level classes have been created to offer more space and flexibility for students.

“We have had to spread out the class offerings a bit, which reduces conflicts in the course schedule for students. We needed to do this so we could make room for the increased classes using the same number of classrooms available on campus,” Egitto said.And while professors seem to understand the predicament of the situation, they are still not happy with the larger class sizes. “It sucks. Period. But in order to stay healthy, Oxy had to do this,” said Math professor Donald Lawrence.

They also questioned the administration’s timing in coping with the swell. “We knew in May that it was going to be like this. So why are we adding classes the week before school starts?” Critical Theory and Social Justice (CTSJ) professor Elizabeth Chin said.Outside of academics, Resident Education and Housing Service (REHS) has also struggled with accommodating the incoming students, who are required to live on campus through their junior year.

To figure out exactly how to fit about 2,000 students in 889 rooms, Housing Service Coordinator Ross Maxwell and Assistant Director of Housing Services Michelle Saldana personally visited every room to establish the capacity of each. According to REHS, the results of the evaluation created 1,657 spaces from the 889 rooms, as opposed to 1,522, last year’s figure.

“We have a pressure valve, so to speak,” Assistant Dean of Students for REHS Tim Chang said.

In further effort to ease the housing difficulties, REHS has also created loopholes in the new policy to require that students live on campus for three years. Under the reevaluated plan, those rising juniors who demonstrate strong academics and maturity can apply to live off campus. “Look at the rationale behind the three-year housing requirement. The goal is scholarship, maturity and involvement,” Chang said.

Given this year’s unexpected increase in enrollment, it is clear that in the future, Oxy will need to be prepared to adapt to any situation, according to Dean Avery. “We’re trying to be a bit more creative,” she said. “We are pedaling as hard as we can.”

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