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UB enrollment continues to grow
By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor
UB said "welcome"—as well as "welcome back"—to 27,836 students for the 2006-07 academic year, 18,515 of whom are undergraduates and 9,321 graduate students.
That compares with a total enrollment last year of 27,220, with 18,165 undergraduates and 9,055 graduates.
Michael E. Ryan, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, and John T. Ho, acting vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, presented the enrollment figures and academic profiles of UB undergraduates and graduate students at yesterday's Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting.
The totals exceeded UB's expectations, according to Ryan, who said that while the university has enrolled about 100 more undergraduates than targeted, UB has managed, in general, to accommodate all students, even with a higher percentage of them choosing to live on campus.
"It's a problem, but it's a good problem to have," he said. The entering freshman class is expected to total 3,334, or 84 more than was projected in February.
UB continued to place emphasis on attracting high-quality students, Ryan added, showing senators a chart that shows half of enrolled undergraduates are in the top two selectivity groups as defined by SUNY's Mission Review process.
For undergraduates, the mean high school average of enrolled UB students is 92, or a 3.3 grade-point average, according to Ryan, who added that the mean high school rank of those students was 81 percent, meaning they stood in the top 19 percent of their classes. Additionally, 76 percent of the group had at least a 75 percent high school rank.
Of undergraduates accepted for admission, 47 percent scored at or above 1,200 on the SAT exams. The mean SAT score of the enrolled undergraduates is 1178, down seven points from last year, a national trend that has been caused, some experts say, because of the restructuring of the test, which now includes critical reading, math and writing sections.
Ryan said that is a possible explanation for the decrease, which was greater nationwide than at UB, but he suggested that a decrease in the number of students retaking the exam—possibly due to its increased cost—could be another reason. Of the undergraduate students accepted for admission to UB this fall, 35.2 percent took the SAT once while 51.9 percent took it twice, compared with last year, when 25.5 percent took the test once and 54.2 percent completed it twice.
Nevertheless, the SAT scores of UB undergraduates are 150 points or higher above the national means—1,041 for males and 1,004 for females—and 175 points above the New York state mean of 1003.
UB had "great success this year in terms of yield" in its honors and distinguished honors programs, Ryan said. Of the 1,148 applicants who qualified for the honors program, "we enrolled pretty close to a bumper crop for those students, (with) 291 enrolling. Typically we like to have an incoming honors class that is around 200 to 250 so 291 is very good news."
In addition, "we have a remarkable 18 distinguished honors scholars" who are chosen from top-performing high school students, or nine times the usual number of these scholars found at UB.
"This group will have a mean high school average around 98 and a mean SAT above 1,500, so this is a very excellent group of students," Ryan said. "We normally have just a couple of students that meet these kinds of qualifications and end up enrolling here. These students have tremendous offers and scholarships from other institutions as well, so getting them to enroll here is a challenge and remarkably we had great success this year in terms of yield."
About 5 percent of incoming freshmen are international students, coming from 30 countries. Overall, UB international students enrolled at the undergraduate level represent more than 100 countries. And the number of undergraduate students from out of state is 5 percent, an increase from last year; domestic students represent 47 U.S. states, including Alaska. Information was not available on the three states not represented at UB.
John Ho reported that the number of graduate students—9,321—also was higher, but only slightly, than the expected number. Of that group, 3,004 are students new to UB, an increase over last year when just 2,667 of 9,300 students were new to the university.
The number of applications to UB also saw a 26 percent increase, and the quality of enrolled graduate students also has risen, Ho said, partially necessitated by the new admissions requirement that graduate student applicants have a 3.0 undergraduate GPA.
In terms of specific graduate schools, Ho mentioned that the schools of Management, Social Work and Nursing had exceeded their targeted number of incoming students.
In other business, the FSEC welcomed Jerry W. Schoenle, the new chief of university police, who returned to his hometown in July from Arlington, Texas. Schoenle served with the City of Buffalo Police Department from 1980 to 2000, most recently as commander (captain) of communications and administration. In addition, he held the position of director of public safety training for Erie County Central Police Services from 2000 to 2005.
Schoenle, who also "used to run dignitary protection for the City of Buffalo," is looking forward to the challenges of next week's visit to UB by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The FSEC also referred to its Academic Planning Committee the issue of the reorganization of the School of Informatics, which was announced this past summer by Satish K. Tripathi, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
The move relocates the departments of Communication and Library and Information Studies, the two departments that constitute the School of Informatics, to the College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Education, respectively.
The committee will discuss the reorganization "as quickly as possible, but by obtaining input from the university community," according to Faculty Senate Chair Peter Nickerson.
"We want to be sure that the university committee knows there will be ample opportunity for suggestions and comments; this is one of the requirements that we have in the Faculty Senate bylaws that before implementation, the senate gets a chance to comment on proposed changes," Nickerson said.
Lucinda Finley, interim dean of the school and vice provost for faculty affairs, will serve as the administration representative at committee meetings.
Finally, the FSEC referred for review to its teaching and learning committee a report on distance education at UB, which outlines current practices and recommends policy actions.