UH enrollment continues to rise
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
The University of Hawai'i has seen a modest rise in enrollment this semester with the increase throughout the 10-campus system averaging 1.4 percent, according to figures released yesterday for spring 2005.
Six of the 10 campuses lost students compared with enrollment a year ago.
However, the overall increase continues enrollment growth going back to the fall of 2001 when student numbers began to climb again after declines during the late 1990s. Since then enrollment has increased somewhere between 13 percent and 15 percent overall, and about 18 percent at the Manoa campus.
According to Linda Johnsrud, Interim Associate Vice President for Policy and Planning, even low enrollment increases test the resources of the UH system.
"These increases present a formidable challenge," she said. "Our funding has not kept pace with the enrollment surge we have experienced ... and thus our campuses scramble to provide sufficient numbers of classes."
UH is considering raising tuition to cope with enrollment increases and other needs, beginning in 2006 and continuing through 2010, for an increase that's a little more than double today's rates of about $3,500 annually at Manoa, and less throughout the rest of the system.
In the fall both students and faculty at the Manoa campus expressed concern that there weren't enough classes available. Additional classes were added for the spring semester, but space and resources continue to be stretched at Manoa, which is still recovering from the Oct. 30 flood.
Of the three four-year campuses, Manoa's increase was the largest, with a rise of 3.9 percent, with 19,161 students this semester compared with 18,448 a year ago.
Despite the overall increases since 2001, enrollment at the community colleges has reached a plateau, with a decline of 2.7 percent in the fall and now a loss of 0.5 percent for the spring.
Only Hawai'i and Maui community colleges posted enrollment increases, with Hawai'i's the largest at 7.9 percent.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
• • •
