Student body to increase next year

The University announced last week that it will increase the size of the student body sooner and more gradually than originally planned by aiming to enroll 28 additional students in the Class of 2009.

The increase — which will bring the class population to 1,226 students — is part of a plan to increase the student body by 11 percent by 2012.

Under the revised expansion plan, approved by the Trustee Executive Committee on Feb. 25, there will be a slight increase in the size of each incoming class beginning next fall, instead of a sudden jump in class size in 2007.

"The University felt that it could do a better job of integrating these students if they did it in smaller steps," Vice President and Secretary Robert Durkee '69 said.

The current plan makes provision for 28 additional students in the next two admitted classes, and 50 more students in the classes of 2007 and 2008, bringing the class size to 1,276.

By fall 2009, the incoming class is expected to reach the target size of 1,312. The undergraduate population will reach the desired size of 5,200 students in the year 2012, after four such classes have been admitted.

The original expansion plan anticipated an increase of 125 students in each incoming class starting in fall of 2007.

The change was made in part because the University will not be able to house 125 additional freshmen in the fall of 2007 because of plans to close Butler College for renovation, Durkee said.

Recent renovations will make more rooms available immediately, and the opening of Whitman College will allow further expansion in 2007.

"We have an unusual number of extra bed spaces for the next couple of years (a consequence of the cycle of dormitory renovations and the opening of Bloomberg)," Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel said in an email. "It seemed sensible to try to make good use of some of them by admitting modestly larger classes starting next year."

Malkiel also said the University would be careful to ensure no single residential college was larger than any other.

Durkee and Malkiel both emphasized that the resources necessary for the admission of a larger freshman class — including freshman seminars, writing program instructors and introductory language courses — will be in place.

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Other changes will be implemented more gradually.

"Over time, those departments that will be most affected by the increase in the size of the student body will grow in terms of teaching staff," Malkiel said, addressing concerns about changes in the student-to-faculty ratio.

This year's almost 20 percent increase in the number of applicants also affected the University's decision to increase enrollment immediately, Durkee said.

"Particularly in a year when the number of applicants are up so significantly, the idea that you could have 28 more students is very appealing and a step towards where we're going," Durkee said.

Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye was not available over the weekend for comment.