Record Influx of New Students Alleviates Budget
Juan Pintor
Issue date: 10/1/09 Section: News
At the start of the Fall 2009 semester, Wright College saw a record number for student enrollment.14,510 students registered this semester, a 9 percent increase from last year's record of 13,306. These numbers include students registered in college credit, adult education, and continuing education. The new enrollment record comes on the heels of Wright's financial struggle because of the City Colleges of Chicago's (CCC) $15 million budget cut over the summer.
Wright College President Dr. Charles Guengerich expected a small increase this semester but was astonished when the numbers exceeded his expectations. "We did anticipate a growth. We thought we would grow by 5-6 percent. We have grown in college credit by 13 percent so that will of course help compensate in providing extra services," he said. Guengerich attributes the high enrollment rate to the school's recruitment effort and affordable tuition rates.
While Guengerich added that the increase in students was exceptional, Wright's latest issue was whether it could accommodate such a large student body. "The challenge is for us as enrollment grows and resources decline," Guengerich said. "While you have more students, how do you make sure you can provide services for more of [them]?" Students who tried registering for Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Physical Science classes were denied because Wright couldn't house the abundance of students with limited lab space while other courses did not overflow. Biology Chairperson Henry Herzog said that the Biology Department is considering online hybrid courses for the Fall 2010 semester to better serve the students. "This would allow us to offer more weekday sections of courses than we currently are able to offer," Herzog said.
Even though the lab capacity is 36, a number of current lab courses have between 39-44 students enrolled. But Herzog isn't worried about any danger. "All of the instructors who are teaching Biology courses this semester are experienced in the courses they are teaching," he said. "This means that they are likely to foresee potential problems and take steps to prevent those problems from having a serious negative impact on the learning process."
Wright College President Dr. Charles Guengerich expected a small increase this semester but was astonished when the numbers exceeded his expectations. "We did anticipate a growth. We thought we would grow by 5-6 percent. We have grown in college credit by 13 percent so that will of course help compensate in providing extra services," he said. Guengerich attributes the high enrollment rate to the school's recruitment effort and affordable tuition rates.
While Guengerich added that the increase in students was exceptional, Wright's latest issue was whether it could accommodate such a large student body. "The challenge is for us as enrollment grows and resources decline," Guengerich said. "While you have more students, how do you make sure you can provide services for more of [them]?" Students who tried registering for Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Physical Science classes were denied because Wright couldn't house the abundance of students with limited lab space while other courses did not overflow. Biology Chairperson Henry Herzog said that the Biology Department is considering online hybrid courses for the Fall 2010 semester to better serve the students. "This would allow us to offer more weekday sections of courses than we currently are able to offer," Herzog said.
Even though the lab capacity is 36, a number of current lab courses have between 39-44 students enrolled. But Herzog isn't worried about any danger. "All of the instructors who are teaching Biology courses this semester are experienced in the courses they are teaching," he said. "This means that they are likely to foresee potential problems and take steps to prevent those problems from having a serious negative impact on the learning process."
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Professional cv
posted 12/21/09 @ 6:26 PM CST
I agree that while Guengerich added that the increase in students was exceptional, Wright's latest issue was whether it could accommodate such a large student body. (Continued…)
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