The University of Mississippi is facing another record-breaking freshmen class for the 2011- 2012 school year. In the fall of 2010, the university welcomed well over 3,000 freshmen students, which was the largest the university had ever seen. The Admissions and Enrollment Services is already planning for the incoming freshmen class to be no different.
Director of Enrollment Services Whitman Smith says that the university is unclear as to why there is such a trend but that theories range from the economy to recent publicity like the movie The Blind Side.
The University of Mississippi offers a wide range of programs that are considered appealing to many students like the Sally Barksdale Honors College, Croft Institute and the Trent Lott Leadership Institute. The university also has an out of state tuition cost of $13, 890, which is considered fairly low compared to other universities. Unlike many other universities, Ole Miss has a large out of state population of around 52 percent. All of these are said to be possibly contributing factors to the record breaking freshman class.
The University is doing some planning to accommodate the growth in student body. The Housing Department did announce that upperclassman housing would be extremely limited on campus. Upperclassmen will only be offered housing in Northgate or Campus Walk apartments. Therefore, only freshmen will be able to live in residence halls. Ole Miss also announced this week that the old law school would be renovated and re-open with more undergraduate classrooms. However, it will not be compete until Fall 2012.
Admissions has also decided to change the admissions requirements for out of state students to help combat the university growth. Previously, out of state students were admitted on the same standards as in state students, which are relatively lower than other universities. The standards for the change have yet to be determined but will go into affect for the 2012-2013.
Students this year faced many challenges with the growth of the student body. Lunch lines in the student union were going out into the seating area and seating was coming hard to come by. Freshman Samantha Stack says “When eating at the union you almost have to split up and half your friends scour for seats while the others get food. You could be waiting a good 20 minutes before you can find somewhere to sit.”
Eating on campus isn’t the only problem either. Junior Beth Payne says, “Parking is becoming a real issue. Ole Miss refuses to make parking garages but it shouldn’t take me 45 minutes to find a parking space. And sometimes there are lines to get into lots which block traffic.”
Overall, many students are not looking forward to an even bigger freshman class next year. “What frustrates me is that the university does not seem to really be thinking ahead when it comes to more students enrolling. I am on Junior Panhellenic and we have discussed how the university doesn’t seem to realize that they are running out of space. Recruitment is getting big and soon we will need another sorority on campus. However there is no place to put another house,” says freshman Olivia Watkins.
Another problem students are encountering is registration for classes. Many classes filled up fast during registration forcing for more classes to be added. Other students just found that some classes were going to be impossible to take since all the sections would already be closed. Sophomore Morgan Brown says, “My Spanish classes are almost impossible to get into now. I might just have to get those credits out of the way back at home.”
Ole Miss is not alone when it comes to growth. Other universities like Auburn University and University of Georgia saw significant growth in enrollment and soon had to put a cap on their enrollment. Both universities no longer had room to grow and were seeing an increase in demand for admittance. They also raised their admission requirements making it harder to get in. Clearly the University of Mississippi is bound to follow in its footsteps.
While many think a larger freshmen class might be bad. Freshman Olivia Harmon says, “Its great to see so many people are interested in Ole Miss. Who ever said that that was really a bad thing?"
-Natalie Moore
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