Freshman enrollment to face 9-year low

By Lance Dwyer

Next year, Santa Clara expects the smallest incoming freshman class in nearly nine years, a change that could have financial ramifications for the university.

The drop in new freshman is at odds with an otherwise increasing trend of applications to the university.

The total freshman enrollment for the 2002-03 academic year was 1,123, with a total applicant pool of 5,842. The number of applicants increased again for the 2003-04 academic year to a university record of 6,375.

However, although Santa Clara accepted 67 percent of applications, up from 60 percent in 2002-03, the expected size of the incoming freshman class is only 925-200 less than the university's goal.

Admissions director Sandra Hayes attributes the drop in students choosing to enroll to a host of possible factors, including the economy and a delay in processing acceptance letters.

The intent, according to Hayes, was for the university to respond by April 1. But two weeks after that date, the admissions office was still finishing.

The late notice could be a result of the overload admissions experienced with a larger applicant pool. "500 more applications really makes a difference," said Hayes. "The size of the staff was not sufficient to meet the need." The admissions staff had been decreased by two employees due to budget reasons.

Hayes suggested that a notice could have been given out to certain families telling them that the applicant pool was especially large and that Santa Clara may be late in sending notifications, but whether or not that would have changed things, Hayes is unsure.

The most significant reason for a drop in enrolled freshmen, Hayes said may not be the delayed notification, but rather the economic downturn. Hayes said that especially in California, with a great public university system, many families are opting to go to larger schools with far lower tuitions.

"With the instability of the economy, families are weighing more and more the value of a Santa Clara education and they just really want to be convinced that the difference in costs is evident," said Hayes.

The need for applicants' financial aid increased this year but the aid budget did not increase in the necessary equal proportion. Considering the instability of the economy, Hayes believes that many applicants who otherwise would have attended Santa Clara decided that it was too risky.

Small private schools comparable to Santa Clara are not experiencing uniform changes in their enrollment, according to the admissions office. Saint Mary's College is experiencing similar struggles with their incoming freshmen class while Loyola Marymount University continues to experience an increase.

Hayes said that there is a growing trend in which high school seniors choose their colleges with family finances in mind.

"I think this is kind of a wake up call for all private universities whose tuition is at a certain price point where Santa Clara's is," said Dean of Student Life, Jeanne Rosenberger. "This has everybody trying to figure out what does this mean for future admissions without compromising the quality of the student body."

Rosenberger said that after the May 1 deadline for acceptance deposits came, a meeting was held between the heads of the various departments at the university to notify them of the decreased freshmen class.

"The decrease could have [financial] ramifications. Short term, you'd have some issues, but the real long-term goal would be to stabilize [the budget]. With the budget, we always try to look at a five-year plan and try to avoid making decisions based on one year Ö [but] we need to get the final numbers [from Admissions] before we start looking at alternatives," said budget director Dennis Roberts.

Rosenberger said that certain concerns of the students may be a reduction of certain services such as in Market Square or the library due to a possible multimillion dollar decrease in revenue, but she does not anticipate any of those services being impacted.

Rosenberger pointed to several possible upsides to the decrease in size of the student body. The counseling department for instance, has been experiencing a waiting list for the first time in 12 years. Cowell Health Center has also experienced a backup in patients and Rosenberger believes that the smaller class could slightly alleviate the pressures on similar services.

A possible negative impact, however, is in the number of classes offered to students. Rosenberger said that departments are now forced to scramble and decide how many classes need to be dropped and specifically how many professors will be needed to teach in a given quarter.

"I don't think we're ever going to be able to say that it was one thing [that caused the drop in enrollment]. I think we'll be able to look back and say that there is a combination of things that we could've done differently. I think at some level we have been so sought after as an institution, that this is a little bit of a wakeup call that maybe there are some other factors out there that are making students decide to go to other places," said Rosenberger.