The total number of students enrolled at the University this summer is down slightly from last year.With 9,403 students enrolled for summer courses in 2010, there was a 3 percent decrease compared to 2009, when 9,701 students were enrolled, according to data released by the Office of Budget and Planning.The decrease is in keeping with the trend of summer enrollment numbers. Data available on the Budget and Planning website, which goes back to 2002, shows summer enrollment has declined each year since then except for 2005.But Stacie Haynie, vice provost of Academic Affairs, said the gradual decrease in summer enrollment each year has been in keeping with the smaller size of total University enrollment during fall semesters.”When the University was in its [enrollment] peak, summer enrollment was reflecting that,” Haynie said. “Total enrollment has declined over time, so summer school has been affected.”In 2002, when summer enrollment was 12,048, enrollment for the fall was at 31,582. In 2009, total fall enrollment was 27,992, while summer enrollment was 9,701, according to Budget and Planning data.Total summer enrollment in 2010 was less than in 2009, but there was an increase this year in some categories of students. For example, 43 more full-time undergraduates and 69 more full-time graduate students enrolled this  summer than in 2009.Robert Kuhn, associate vice chancellor of Budget and Planning, said though various categories of enrollment fluctuated on the basis of number of students, the important part of the data from a budgetary standpoint is the number of credit hours students are taking.Because all students are taking different numbers of hours, the summer workload on the University is best observed by how many total hours all the students are taking, rather than the actual number of students present, Kuhn said.Students this summer are registered for 50,702 credit hours, which is a one percent decrease from 2009, when students took 51,336 hours. The number of credit hours taken each summer impacts how much the semester will cost the University. But because fewer hours means fewer necessary faculty, the cost is largely proportional to enrollment, Kuhn said.”The stipends we pay the faculty to teach in the summer is extra pay for the faculty,” he said. “If the enrollment goes down, the payroll goes down.”This is different than in fall and spring semesters, when the number of faculty and their salaries are more concrete, Kuhn said. A big decrease in enrollment during those semesters would cause revenue to fall but costs to remain the same.”With summer, if we have fewer students, we pay fewer faculty to teach them,” Kuhn said. “We are keeping our revenues and expenditures almost proportional to each other. We can’t do that directly with fall and spring.”Considering that financial setup, Kuhn said the 2010 summer semester will have neither a positive nor negative effect on the financial plan for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.Kuhn said the summer enrollment data was within expectations.”Would we have liked enrollment to be much higher and generate a lot more money?” Kuhn said. “Yes, but that would be something that was a pleasant surprise. On the other hand, would I be disappointed if total enrollment were significantly lower? Yes, I’d be disappointed.”For students who did enroll this summer, Haynie said great consideration was given to offer courses that would be most beneficial.”Deans have tried to be attentive to the courses students need which they were not able to gain during the regular fall and spring semesters,” Haynie said. “If there were students on waitlists in spring for particular courses, they try to make those courses available because clearly there was a demand they could not meet.”Haynie said students are always recommended to effectively utilize the summer session to stay on track academically.”As a University, we hope students will see summer school as an opportunity to gain ground toward graduation or as an opportunity to recover if the student has some academic deficiencies,” she said.
 
 
 
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