Colleges Prepare for Record Enrollment

Aug. 25, 2000 -- This fall, as thousands of parents get their teens ready for college, many may be wondering if their child’s school is ready for them.

Generation-Y — the children of the baby boom generation — will start enrolling in college this year and they’re hitting campuses in record numbers. Total college enrollment will rise to a record 15.1 million this school year, estimates the Department of Education.

What’s the engine behind the boom? An unprecedented period of economic prosperity has made it possible for more students to attend college. Experts say that, and an increasing number of adult students continuing their education, is creating a tidal wave of new students.

And there’s no end in sight.

Over the next two decades, the number of undergraduate students enrolled in college is expected to swell 19 percent to about 16 million, according to Educational Testing Services, a research and testing organization that administers the SAT.

While a growing student population could ultimately equal a more prosperous future work force, for the time being many university officials are scrambling to find ways to educate and accommodate the onslaught of new students.

The Housing Crunch

“This year really hit us hard,” says Dawn Burns Smith, assistant director of housing for Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. “If we could build another residence hall right now, we could fill it.”

Rutgers, like many other universities, received an unexpectedly large number of applications for housing this year and is now faced with the daunting task of housing their incoming students. In addition to the increase in headcount is the fact that residence halls these days don’t look much like the dorms of the 1960s and ’70s.

“It’s easier to live on campus these days,” says Smith. “Universities have really changed to accommodate students’ needs and desires.”

Gone are the days of curfews, rigid dorm rules and bad food in the cafeteria. Today’s residence halls provide a suite of amenities to attract and retain students.

Students have become sophisticated customers and they are looking beyond the academics of a school to see what else is provided.

With direct, high-speed Internet connections, newly renovated rooms and cable television service becoming standard in college residence halls, the dorm room is more appealing than ever before.

“[Students] know what they want and if colleges don’t continue to grow with them, they will go someplace else,” says Smith.

Across the country, however, as housing resources are being drained, colleges are forced to be creative. Dorm rooms once meant for two people are being turned into triples, student lounges are becoming extra bedrooms and some colleges are renting off-campus hotel rooms for students. And many students are finding themselves either without student housing or on long waiting lists.

Ready or Not

But housing certainly isn’t the only concern as college administrators look for innovative ways to educate the masses of new students. Unfortunately, says Joni Finney, vice president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a national think-tank organization, “there’s not a lot of planning going on.”

Finney says that the current planning is either too limited or too expensive to implement. “The planning is not going to address the tidal wave.”

Nationwide, there is an average of 20 students per professor. But many experts worry that as the student population rises, the number of professors is beginning to dwindle.

While no exact figure exists on the projected number of professors needed over the next two decades, by most estimations the figure could reach as high as 100,000 open positions.

Administrators in states like California — where enrollment is expected to grow by 13,000 students every year for the next decade — have begun planning for year-round schooling and more options for class meeting times. Such flexibility would allow universities to handle more students without having to build new buildings and add additional staff.

“We have a large non-traditional student population [in California], so it makes sense for us to develop more flexible schedules,” says Ken Swisher, a spokesman for the California State University system.

California is not alone. Florida has added more flexible and year-round class schedules. Additionally, school boards nationwide have started exploring technological innovations that could make distance learning more feasible in the near future.

Importance in the Digital Age

In the 1960s and ’70s, a similar student boom was felt when millions of baby boomers started enrolling in college. Schools nationwide felt a strain on campus resources and, in response, administrators planned development of new buildings and hired additional faculty.

Today, however, a solution is not so simple, as competition from the private sector lures many would-be professors away from academia. In addition, the nation’s view of higher education has shifted, making college more popular than in previous decades.

“A college education is now necessary to achieve middle-class status,” says Finney. There’s a greater social expectation of students to head on to college than ever before.”

And with the vast selection of options for higher education available to students today, the pressure is on schools to deal with expected wave of students.

“There will be a definite political issue,” predicts Finney, “if schools [are forced] to start turning students away.”