http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/news/stories/20040914/southernmissnews/1234129.html

quote:

---

Originally posted by: hot link
"http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/news/stories/20040914/southernmissnews/1234129.html"

---

Look at the chart in the article. It indicates that USM had the 2nd lowest 2003 to 2004 growth rate for unduplicated enrollment of all of the nine public universities in this state (only MSU's growh rate was less than USM's).

Enrollment figures. Bah. It's all how you cut and slice them.

quote:

---

Originally posted by: Googler
" That same chart shows MUW with a 8.9% enrollment increase. Former longtime Southern Miss administrator Bucky Wesley is the VP for Enrollment Management at the "W" now. Also, the UM Medical Center had a whopping 13% enrollment increase. I wonder how many of these new enrollments are in the nursing program, enrollments that under normal circumstances might have been part of a nursing class at Southern Miss?"

---

I don't believe it matters what the stats say, the "spin" will be that our enrollment is up.

quote:

---

Originally posted by: We're #1
Header about USM in today's HA: School No. 1 in duplicated enrollment

---

I propose that USM set up an off-campus registration site at the Albertson's building on HWY 49 South & one at the old Hattiesburg High School building on Main Street in downtown Hattiesburg. At the beginning of each semester the tudents could be shuttled between the main campus both off-campus Hattiesburg locations, registering for at least one course at each of the three locations, thus ensuring we will retain our No. 1 position in this important duplicated enrollment statistic which will wow the press, bamboozle the IHL, and keep all of us laughing.

green hornet, two observations--

• one third of those students defending doctoral dissertations were either not enrolled for dissertation hours at all or were enrolled for the wrong number of hours.  faculty were essentially getting no credit for the work being done.  don't know, green hornet, if you're in a doctoral degree granting department, but it's a problem.


• we're more honest than places like Ole Miss--they sign you up for courses (like dissertation hours, but not limited to that.  include preview sessions for freshmen) and then don't drop you for non-payment until who knows when.  heard this from someone who talked to Sam Thomas (formerly at USM).  they keep billing you and billing you.  we drop them for non-payment by an early date in the semester.

we may not be perfect, but we're a lot better than some people think.

i can't address the specifics, but let me spin it like MSU did--we graduated a lot last year.  (don't know if that's true)  take a good look at MSU's spin--they've declined in enrollment.  if they're entitled to spin, why not us!?  but i haven't seen much spin of our numbers.  Ole Miss looked like a maytag washing machine the way they spun their numbers. 

i'll add one last anecdotal bit of info that may relate to enrollment--students tell me that parking has gotten worse.  not an issue of convenience, now one of availability.  comes from a class of seniors who say it's gotten worse this year. 

To add to the mix, I received a postcard this summer informing me that there was a new policy in place that said that, as a doctoral candidate at USM, if I had already finished my coursework but not yet defended my dissertation, I would need to enroll in at least one class (dissertation hours? but I've already taken those) each semester until my dissertation was defended (and if I didn't do this, I would pay a hefty fine at graduation).  Fortunately, I'm not finished with my coursework (I have 2 classes left), but this seems to me to be a way to "count" more students (and unfortunately punitive to grad students).  Just my $.02.

the continuous enrollment policy isn't new.  it was being enforced very selectively.  some departments enforced it, others didn't.  compared to other universities across the country, our continuous enrollment policy for doctoral students is very weak.  a google search will illustrate that.