FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville expects to enroll 23,000 students next year as rapid growth continues at the state’s largest university.
UA has 21,400 students enrolled this semester. Most colleges and universities around the state added students with the aid of new state scholarships and poor economic conditions, Chancellor G. David Gearhart told UA trustees in a conference call Friday.
“It always presents a little bit of growing pains,” he said. “But it’s a good problem to have.”
The Fayetteville campus has received 27 percent more applications for next year’s freshmen class than it had at the same time last year, Gearhart said.
If the trend continues, enrollment will reach 23,000 students and break 24,000 shortly after, outpacing the institution’s goals, he said.
When Gearhart began his term as chancellor, he set a goal of enrolling 25,000 students by 2015.
Trustees on Friday approved hiring the Rogers firm Crafton, Tull, Sparks and Associates to design a $4.3 million renovation of a now-vacant wing of Bud Walton Hall to accommodate 80 additional students in time for the start of the fall 2011 semester.
The building, formerly a dormitory for athletes, was closed five years ago, said Don Pederson, vice chancellor for finance and administration. The campus quickly remodeled a portion of the building to make room formore students at the start of this fall’s semester.
Fall semester enrollment at Arkansas’ colleges and universities increased 5.1 percent over the same time last year, according to the state Department of Higher Education.
The numbers show 173,186 undergraduate, graduate and credit-earning high school students enrolled at Arkansas public and private two-year and four-year institutions on the 11th day of classes.
Thirty-seven of the state’s 44 colleges and universities had enrollment increases, which Higher Education Director Jim Purcell attributed to the struggling economy and an increase in public financial aid, bolstered by the creation of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery.
The Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship, expanded with funds from the state’s lottery, provided scholarships of up to $5,000 for Arkansas students attending colleges and universities in the state.
UA-Fayetteville requires freshmen students to live in on-campus housing, a policy that Gearhart said he wants to continue. Sophomore students may have a harder time finding on-campus housing if enrollment growth continues at current rates, he said.
“We just want to be sure this spike in enrollment holds,” Gearhart said.
UA leased some apartments near campus to accommodate students this year.
Administrators plan to start designs for a new dormitory soon, Pederson said. They also plan to return Hotz Hall, a former dormitory now used for administrative offices, to residential use, he said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/18/2010