In an effort to reach Vision 2020, the university’s goal to be recognized as a premier university by the fall of 2020, NSU admitted more freshman and transfer students this fall than in previous years.
According to Dee Voss, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, between 970 and 985 incoming freshmen and about 265 incoming transfer students are enrolled for the Fall 2017 semester.
“From the history that I have seen, this will be the largest incoming freshman class that the university has ever had,” said Voss.
This enrollment puts the university on track to reach 2,020 students as part of Vision 2020.
What this means for housing
According to Voss, about 48 percent of the incoming class are out-of-state or international students; which is a stark increase to the roughly 30 percent NSU had years ago. As a result, more students are staying on campus, causing housing to change.
Aarika Camp, Associate Dean of Student Services and Director of Resident Life and Housing, said that traditional freshman students, who are not in a Razor’s Edge program, will stay in the Goodwin Residence Hall in triple bedrooms. This was re-introduced with a population increase last year.
Students living in the Cultural Living Center (CLC), Founders, Farquhar, and Vettel (FFV) apartments will also likely have to share bedrooms; meaning two bedroom apartments will house four people and one bedrooms will house two. However, Camp mentioned that students who had stayed in the apartments prior to 2017 did not have to share rooms this year. She also said that this setup was to ensure transfer students had the option to stay on campus.
Despite the changes in housing, Camp said that she believes students will adjust well and understand the housing situation. She added that the housing department will work with students to move out of triples, if beds happen to open up.
“I think the students understand because they have friends that are in triples everywhere … so I think they realize that at least I have a place on campus and I can make the best of it,’” said Camp.
Camp said that to accommodate future students, a new residence hall will be built where the practice soccer field now exists. The hall should hold around 500 to 600 apartments and is scheduled to open in the summer of 2019.
What this means for your classes
According to Carmen Sosa, Director of Academic Advising and Retention, NSU’s class sizes will not change with this larger population.
“We’ve added more sections. We will respect smaller class sizes which is what we [the university] marketed and grow on,” said Sosa.
Classes will now have a larger range of time slots, like 7:45 a.m. classes or evening classes, to offer students the courses which they need without raising class sizes across all majors.
What this means for campus life
Bobby Borgmann, Director of Campus Life and Student Engagement, and Vanessa Franco, Assistant Director of Campus Life and Student Engagement, both said they expect the campus to be livelier with the student body increase, as well as a rise in student organizations.
“There’s gonna be people on campus throughout all hours of the day so that means there are gonna be events throughout all hours of the day,” said Borgmann. “It means students are going to want to join organizations and create their own.”
In order to help students create these organizations and events, Franco plans on working with Sandra Philius, graduate assistant for student organizations, to promote the Student Organization Resource Center (SOURCE) office located in Rosenthal.
Borgmann and Franco also said that they’ve been working to accommodate organizations in terms of space, particularly with the Weeks of Welcome.
“We’ve tried to work everyone out as far as where they would like to go. If someone is using another space we’ll be able to see how we can accommodate them best,” said Franco.
What this means for parking
Residential students will have more parking for the 2017-2018 academic year. According to James Ewing, Director of Public Safety, residential students will have exclusive use of 111 additional parking spaces located in the Mailman Hollywood Lot. According to Camp, residential students will also have the option of parking on the top floor of both the Alvin Sherman Library Parking Garage and the West Parking Garage. Ewing also said that Facilities Management received permission to build a 200-car lot next to the Athletics building, west of FFV. In the meantime, Ewing said the Mailman Hollywood Lot will be monitored to see if adjustments need to be made.
