Although winter semester enrollment at Eastern Michigan University has grown by 2.74 percent according to final figures released, the growth falls short of the 3.4 percent goal the university set in a projection before the school year.
EMU President Susan Martin said it’s too early to say exactly what or if any changes will be made to the budget to make up for any type of shortfall the university might have sustained.
“The board will be working on building a recommendation, and it may be necessary to do a tuition increase,” she said.
Martin said an intricate piece in determining if a tuition increase is needed is what happens at the state level and what they receive from the state appropriation funding to higher education.Even so, Martin said, she plans to keep the students’ needs in mind.
“We certainly want to keep a tuition increase as low as possible,” Martin said. “We’re looking at ways to save money. We’re working hard.”
Martin said she is “very optimistic” enrollment will continue to increase in the coming semesters.
Sophomore McKenzie Bowers said if tuition increase is implemented, she hopes it isn’t too much.
“EMU is known for being affordable,” Bowers said. “I can deal with a slight increase, but I hope it doesn’t get into the double digits like at other universities around the country. My friends at other colleges in the state said we were lucky to not have our tuition raised.”
Good news did come out of the released figures though.
As of Jan. 14, 22,159 students were enrolled at Eastern, and credit hours have increased by almost 2 percent.
Martin credited EMU’s marketing for drawing in interested students.
“We’ve done a good job bringing more attention to Eastern, and we’re doing a better job publicizing it,” Martin said. “We did a recent survey of students, and 68 percent decided Eastern was their first choice. When they come to EMU, they see what a great institution it is.”
EMU junior Valerie Paul said she isn’t surprised by the uptick in enrollment.
“I don’t know if it’s just because of the construction or what, but it seems like more people are hanging around campus,” she said. “There’s way more traffic.”
According to the university, overall enrollment grew this fall by 2.8 percent. As a result, EMU gained 646 students.
Junior Jerry Carlock said he thinks enrollment has grown, because EMU offers a variety of programs and qualified professors.
“I definitely think that’s something students look at when choosing where to go,” Carlock said. “For me, I chose EMU because of the programs and events they have. You never know who’s going to come on campus.”
Figures released by the university show applications from first-year students have nearly doubled, and applications from transfer students have increased by 31 percent.
“If you look at our applications, we have over 10,000 from those who would be incoming freshmen students,” Martin said. “Last year at this time, we only had 7,500. Applications are up in all categories. They’ve increased significantly. I’m very optimistic.”
Bernice Lindke, EMU’s vice president of student affairs and enrollment management, said in a release the application gains reflect Eastern’s appeal to a broad range of students at various points in their lives and careers.
“Staff members have been working hard to keep up with the processing,” Lindke said.
