By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
If Eastern Washington University officials seem excited about this year's incoming freshmen class it's for a very good reason.
Actually, make that several reasons.
EWU Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services Larry Briggs told the university's board of trustees that Sept. 8 numbers showed the university's new freshmen class 146 students above last fall's 10th day freshmen numbers.
Eastern officials said Monday, Sept. 15, that 1,495 new freshmen were registered and had confirmed attendance, giving an overall FTE, full time equivalent, student headcount of 9,442, about 29 more total FTEs than at this date last year. The university's largest freshmen class was 2005's 1,631 students.
“If we were to stop right now, we would have the second largest incoming class in the history of Eastern,” Briggs told the board last Friday afternoon.
Briggs said his department figures are for total head counts that include state-funded and self-supporting and other funded students, and that it's too early to forecast where actual numbers will be since registration is still ongoing. So far, enrollment figures are also showing that while the confirmed numbers of new transfers are up, overall new transfers are off about 5 percent from last year.
Briggs said this year's sophomore class is down significantly from last year's class, about 9 percent, reflecting the fact that last year's freshmen class was not as large as previous classes, and retention rates from freshmen to sophomore are usually low. Countering that is an increase in post baccalaureate students, up almost 6 percent, and a large increase in graduate students, over 8 percent.
Overall, FTE students are up 165 from last year's numbers at this time, with the average credit load increasing 0.18 credits over last year's load to 13.84.
“At this point in time, students are taking more credits than they did last year,” Briggs said. “That's why FTEs are up.”
Briggs shared a cross-sectional look of the incoming freshmen class with the board. The average age is 18.3 years, with females outnumbering males 59 to 41 percent, something fairly consistent with past classes.
The class's grade point average is slightly lower than normal, 3.18 compared to 3.2. But in a sign of the emphasis EWU has placed on increasing overall ethnic diversity, this year's class is 25.4 percent ethnically diverse.
“That is the most ethnically diverse class we have ever seen at this institution,” Briggs said.
In other news, classified staff union representative May Jo Van Bemmel made a plea to the board to ratify a new contract with the local union that would include a needed pay raise. Eastern is currently in negotiations with representatives from Washington Federation of State Employees Local 931 over a new contract, and state WSFE officials wouldn't release contract details while both sides were meeting.
Van Bemmel spoke as about 20-25 Eastern Local 931 employees stood in the back or sat in the front row of chairs at the board's meeting room in Tawanka Commons. The employees wore red shirts with the words “Start Something Bigger. Union Up,” on the back, and carried signs saying “Eagle chow, not chicken feed,” and “If the raise doesn't match inflation, it's a pay reduction.”
“Our message to you is we work very hard for the university,” Van Bemmel said. “To you, it doesn't seem like much but to us, it's everything.”
The board also elected new officers for the 2008-2009 year, with Jo Ann Kauffman replacing Paul Tanaka as chair, and Bertha Ortega replacing Kauffman at vice chair.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected]
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