The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

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Summer enrollment not good indicator of University trend

Although another look at summer enrollment reveals an even larger increase than initially reported this summer, the administration said fall figures are the predominant concern of the University.

Figures are compiled on the 10th day of each semester and released as the official enrollment numbers for that semester. Figures were at 9, 986 students this summer, revealing numbers only slightly different than the previous year.

Numbers were basically the same for most colleges, with only small increases and decreases from the previous year. While members of the University are grateful for the steady numbers, they also say summer figures are not the best indicator of trends.

"[Summer enrollment] is so much individual situations," said University spokeswoman Sue Davis. "Some students decide they need to use this time to work and there are more students doing internships, so it isn't the best indicator of any trend."

She also pointed out that summer may be a time for even professors to take time off, which can cause a small decrease in numbers.

"If there's a great study abroad program and a professor decides to take a trip, the enrollment for that class may take a dip," Davis said.

"Does that mean there's a trend? No."

The summer 2004 enrollment showed an increase of 15 students from the summer of 2003.

Larry Dietz, vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management said, however, that later figures actually showed numbers to be up slightly from even those. Later figures showed numbers to be up 110 students as opposed to simply 15. According to Dietz, the change in figures was mostly due to late numbers turned in after the 10th day deadline, mostly from off-campus programs.

Dietz agreed while the University does view the increase as a positive sign, administrators are mostly concentrating on fall numbers. Fall is the semester during which funding for the University is based on, and therefore the semester that SIUC is most concerned with recruitment.

"We anticipate a 3 or 4 percent increase for the fall," Dietz said. "Retention is something that continues to be a challenge but we're are implementing some new programs.

"Fall is the real time that most institutions gauge in to see how enrollment is going to be for summer and spring because usually the way fall goes, so does spring and summer."