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FSEC told campus is coping well to largest freshman class in history
By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor
In spite of having to add more sections of in-demand undergraduate classes like world civics and anatomy, and housing some students in hotels—just a few of the complications brought about by the 600 or so extra students who showed up for classes this fall—the campus is coping well, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee learned at yesterday's meeting.
In fact, contrary to the normal trials and tribulations that each new academic year brings, President William R. Greiner told senators he has yet to receive one complaint about strained resources—or anything else—from faculty, parents or students. Instead, when he attended the annual opening picnic for incoming students, he received glowing reviews from parents about the quality of the experience UB offers their children.
"It's an enrollment manager's dream," Sean Sullivan, vice provost for enrollment and planning, said during his report to the FSEC. But Sullivan also pointed out that his office is working to ensure more stable admissions numbers in the future because this year's spike in the number of students applying to UB caught the university completely by surprise.
A pile of unprocessed applications discovered lying on the floor in an office in Albany may have been one of the primary reasons UB was in the dark until last April about the increased volume of applications. That, and perhaps the economy, acknowledged Sullivan, stressing that the annual "snapshot" of enrollment figures won't be taken until tomorrow and that the figures he was presenting to the FSEC were preliminary.
"The focus has been on the freshman class. In the last few years, we've been enrolling close to 3,000 students. This year, 3,592 freshmen are enrolled full time. That will be the largest freshman class in our history. What happened—people keep asking all the time," he said.
Last fall, 3,035 freshmen were enrolled at UB.
"First of all, we had a tremendous increase in applications," Sullivan explained. "That increase was hidden from us until almost January—as of December, we were almost one and a half percent down."
Moreover, there was a change in leadership in the application process at SUNY Central Administration, he added. "It was alleged that there were thousands and thousands of applications sitting on a floor in a room, not responded to. A new person was put into that role and things started to flow-and boy did they flow," Sullivan said. "By the end of January, we were up 10 percent."
Almost 1,400 more students applied to UB over last year's figure of 16,069-with a yield this year of about 33 percent.
Accounting for grade inflation, a restructuring of the SAT exam several years ago and a memorandum of understanding with SUNY to increase the quality of students, members of the incoming class appear to be among the most talented on the selectivity matrix. This year, about 43 percent of the class (a preliminary figure) presented SAT scores of about 1,400 and grade point averages around 94.
"Our planning for this year was very conservative," Sullivan said about initial enrollment projections for this year's class. "We were facing SUNY budget cuts and a tuition increase. The last time there was a tuition increase, there was a 10 percent reduction in enrollments across the system."
Also, with increased focus on enrolling academically stronger students, it was only wise, said Sullivan, to be prudent in assuming what the yield would be for the freshman class. "Our conservative yield estimates weren't in sync with what happened," he added.
He also attributed the increase in the number of students applying to UB to the outstanding marketing efforts by the Office of Admissions, noting that the word is out about the relatively reasonable cost of attending the university compared to private institutions, and the strength of the scholarship programs offered here.
"People increasingly see us as an attractive value. The economy has not been what we hoped it would be—with difficult economic times. The value of coming to UB, the price, plus the quality of what we offer has made a difference over time," said Sullivan.
In other business, Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology and chair of the Faculty Senate, noted that the FSEC's Oct. 1 meeting has been canceled so that members can meet with representatives of the Middle States accreditation team.