UAPB expects enrollment surge of up to 10%

Charles Williams (left) and Brandon Muse, both students at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, walk on campus Friday afternoon.
Charles Williams (left) and Brandon Muse, both students at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, walk on campus Friday afternoon.

— Enrollment at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is expected to jump as much as 10 percent this fall for the second straight year, an increase Chancellor Lawrence Davis Jr. says is a direct result of increased recruitment efforts.

Davis said he expects enrollment to be between 3,800 and 3,900, a 375-student jump from last fall, when enrollment was at 3,525, according to statistics on UAPB's Web site.

Last year, enrollment jumped 325 students from 3,200 in 2007, the highest percentage increase of any four-year state university.

From 1999 to 2007, enrollment only increased 160 students, and enrollment numbers had decreased in the fall of 2005 and 2006 from previous years.

Because of the influx, Davis said as many as 100 students are staying in hotels on a waiting list to get into student housing.

"We've done a better job recruiting and contacting the students, so the last two years there's been an upsurge," Davis said.

Erica Fulton, UAPB registrar, said preliminary numbers Friday showed 3,625 students enrolled in classes, 100 more than last fall. The last day to register is Tuesday, she said, and an official count will happen Sept. 11.

Fulton said she doesn't believe enrollment will reach 3,900, but she said, "I don't have a crystal ball in front of me."

"It's too early to call," she said.

The enrollment jump at UAPB is in direct contrast to Pine Bluff and its school district, which have seen population and enrollment decline.

The Pine Bluff School District has lost 2,000 students over 10 years. The city's population dropped to 50,408 in 2008, from 55,135 in 2000, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Pine Bluff Mayor Carl Redus Jr. said the influx in students will help the city's population numbers during the 2010 Census.

For every person counted in the census, the federal government spends roughly $1,000 a year on programs, services and funding to municipal and state governments, according to census officials.

Statewide, student enrollment is expected to increase this fall at colleges and universities more than in years past, said Jim Purcell, director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.

"There's been a lot more interest, and applications have been up pretty much everywhere," Purcell said.

"I think everyone knows that it's going to require more skills to be successful in this economy, and they're looking for that added skill set to make sure they are marketable."

Davis said of the 100 students staying in hotels, 60 of them are contracted to stay in student housing and are paying the same amount they would pay had they stayed on campus.

Campus housing runs between $1,430 and $1,932 a semester per student.

As many as 40 other students have opted to live three to a dorm room - instead of the usual two - which saves each student between $300 and $500 a semester, said Elbert Bennett,administrative coordinator of student affairs at UAPB.

Bennett said all three of the students in such arrangements have to agree to live in the tighter situation, and the university then provides an extra bed and a rent reduction for each student.

At the Days Inn & Suites on Blake Street, about two miles from campus, UAPB students are living two to a two-bedroom hotel room.

James White, a sophomore UAPB student from Nashville, Tenn., said he was disappointed when he showed up on campus two weeks ago and university officials told him he would be living in a hotel off campus.

"I have no problem living in the hotel," White said. "But if something happens to us over here, UAPB will get in trouble because we are supposed to be on campus."

"Still, I am just glad to be back in school," White added. "Living in a hotel is better than having to go back home."

Arkansas, Pages 9, 14 on 08/31/2009

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