On move-in day, UIS optimistic about enrollment numbers for the fall
About 185 University of Illinois Springfield freshmen were expected to move into residence halls on Tuesday as the school gears up for the start of classes on Friday.
Last year, UIS reversed a five-year downward trend in enrollment, though the 6.4% overall increase was due to the growth of graduate students.
UIS officials said on Tuesday that numbers for this fall were expected to be released on Sept. 11.
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"We're very optimistic about our enrollment this year," said UIS Chancellor Janet Gooch, Tuesday. "I think things are looking good on all fronts and we all have our fingers crossed for a very successful enrollment year."
Gooch said enrollment managers at UIS are looking at a cross-section of data, including the number of applications, number of commitments, and number of students who attend orientation.
"All that data we use to inform where we might be once census happens, but we have to be careful in making any kind of announcement because students do make different decisions once it's time to actually move in," she said.
Overall, UIS had 4,198 students last fall, marked by a 25% increase in graduate students. The number of undergraduate students decreased from 2,503 to 2,393.
"I'm confident we will see growth in all areas," Gooch added. "To predict on the actual percentage of growth in each of those categories is too difficult at this point in time, but we are hopeful we are going to be up in all of our student populations, international students, graduate students, undergraduate students, etc."
Springfield is the only campus in the University of Illinois System starting classes Friday. Both Urbana-Champaign and Chicago schools started Monday.
Blake Wood, a spokesman for UIS, said the campus sets the academic calendar for the year.
"It is typical, and it has been in past years, that we haven't started on the same date as (Urbana-Champaign)," Wood said.
The students moved into Lincoln and Founders residence halls Tuesday, Wood said. Both dorms are co-ed.
This is Gooch's second Move-In Day as UIS chancellor.
"It's always great to welcome our new students to campus and see their excitement level and you can just see the possibility on their faces," she said. "We love to go down there and interact with them and visit with their families and let them know they're welcome here and we're so excited to have them on campus."
Gooch recalled being nervous and excited when she moved into her dorm as an undergraduate student at the University of Kansas.
"I'm sure that's how our students feel and I remember my parents being both happy and sad because I was moving and I'm sure that's how the parents feel today," she said. "But we're going to do everything we can to make the students and parents feel their student will be successful here and finds a great place to live and learn the next years they're with us."
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Undergrads move into University of Illinois Springfield dorms
