There are more than 35,000 students currently enrolled at CSULB – more than a thousand more than last year. The retention rate this year is four percent higher than anticipated.
That means over one thousand students who were expected to drop out stayed, and 82.5 percent of last year’s students continued.
“We actually enrolled approximately 500 less ‘new’ students this fall than last fall,” said CSULB President F. King Alexander. “However, we have watched our enrollment increase again due to the simple fact that many more students are staying and progressing toward graduation.”
All over the country, the dropout rate in colleges is decreasing.
“Students themselves deserve credit for understanding … that only by graduating with your degree can you substantially change your future career prospects, options and possibilities,” Alexander said.
However, with more students comes more crowds, and some students said the campus is too crowded.
“It is more crowded this year,” said Sarah Van Guilder, a junior sociology and history major. “You can especially tell because parking is worse than ever and classes are so full that not everyone has a desk.”
Alexander said, “To handle some of the increase in students that returned … we added numerous class sections at all levels.”
Some of the faculty and staff are excited to see this kind of enrollment increase.
“Ultimately, this also means that our graduation rates will increase as well,” said Alexander.
The last 10 years at CSULB have seen a steady increase in enrollment, year by year. There are now almost 8,000 more students than in 1997. If this trend continues, there may be 1,000 more next year. According to Alexander, this is a great problem for any college.
“Next year we will be able to anticipate this pattern better,” he said.
The administration will continue to add sections of classes, as well as spread the classes out throughout the week, so not all the students will be crammed onto campus on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
