RCDE News

Utah State University total headcount for fall 2009 set a new all-time enrollment record at 25,065 — up 1,140 students from a year ago. This 4.76 growth continues a steady upward trend since 2005.

 

Key to this growth has been the 11 percent increase of students attending USU regional campuses statewide with a new enrollment record set this fall at 11,207 students — up 1,077 from last fall and nearly double the headcount number of students at USU’s regional sites 10 years ago.  

 

“Our regional campuses continue to be a great success story,” said President Stan L. Albrecht during his State of the University address Sept. 15. “Our (regional campus) faculty has more than tripled in the last four years, and these are faculty who not only help our regional campuses, but strengthen our departments and programs in Logan, as well.”

 

USU now offers 40 degree programs through its regional campuses.

 

“The Uintah Basin campus is a great example of our success,” Albrecht said. “We have leveraged a $5.3 million land gift into what is now almost $100 million in construction, infrastructure, and program development. It is difficult to describe the difference this is making, and will make far into the future, in this area of our state.”

 

USU is not only continuing to experience robust growth at the regional campuses, its domestic minority enrollment is also up, as is its international enrollment and graduate full time equivalent enrollment.

 

The Logan campus headcount enrollment number stands at 15,612, up 513 students from last fall and up 1,154 students since 2005.

           

At the same time, Albrecht noted that the preparation of USU students remains very high. The mean ACT score of this year’s entering class was the second highest ever (less than 1 percent below the best class ever admitted to USU).

 

“Our students continue to achieve,” Albrecht said. “Our Engineering rocket team won first place in a national competition sponsored by NASA. In doing that, they beat out some of the best universities in the country. We have three new Goldwater Scholars, and the list goes on and on.”

 

Albrecht said the enrollment increase is a double-edge sword. “We are teaching more students with a smaller faculty — yet the positive impact on our revenue base is critical.”

 

As a result of the enrollment numbers, university housing occupancy has reached a decade high — vital to the university’s revenue base. The new Living/Learning Center is at 97 percent occupancy, compared with 71 percent last year.

 

Other growth numbers of note, according to Raymond T. Coward, USU executive vice president and provost, is that approximately one in five (19.9 percent) of all of the new students at USU (combining all campuses and all levels of education) was from out-of-state, representing approximately 82 percent of the states across the nation.

 

He said this proportion of out-of-state students was relatively stable across all types of new students; i.e. first-time college students (19.7 percent); new transfer students (18.6 percent); and among new graduate students (20.1 percent).

 

Albrecht acknowledged that budget cuts, some $27.5 million of ongoing cuts, on top of record growth is stretching university resources to the maximum.

 

While addressing these resource issues will not be easy for the university in the next few years ahead and will have important consequences, Albrecht said he will follow a strategy that will allow the university to get through the cuts and still be positioned to move forward in a positive and successful manner.