Freshman Trailblazers are breaking records as the highest enrolled freshman class herd Dixie State University has seen yet.
In the freshman orientation on Friday, August 19, President Biff Williams announced that the number of freshman students this fall semester exceeded projected enrollment counts. According to Andrea Brown, director of Program Assessment and Institutional Research said approximately 2,300 freshman have enrolled at this point in the semester, trampling past records by 400 students.
Staff and administration are excited for this new herd of Trailblazers. However, concerns have risen as DSU prepares itself for this amount of students.
The library is ready to hold this amount of students, but there is still worry that there will not be enough resources available to all students. A lack in database equipment such as text books and informational material will appear as the year begins. The database is already being cut down due to other campus costs, but the library hopes that DSU will see fit that these material needs are met and future funds are provided.
To accommodate for the increased amount of students, Testing Director Tamron Lee said, “The testing center has purchased new tablets to help the flow of students on computer base testing.” A planned exam scheduling program for the teachers will also be going into play. This will help the testing center fit the max capacity of tests taken in one day, which will maximize the number of tests given in a week.
As DSU grows as a school, we will need more space in buildings, more classes and more professors.
Dean of Students Del Beatty said, “Space is one concern.”
With this influx of students, teachers will need to add more classes to their schedule, and DSU will need to hire more teachers, giving the students the chance they need to take their appropriate classes, Beatty said.
DSU’s plan for hiring more teachers and adding more classes could lead to a waste of money spent on teachers, equipment, and time, which would be caused by fewer students actually attending DSU than expected. With numbers continuously bouncing for the attending freshman this year, faculty must watch the influx carefully. This is done through enrollment management, where staff work together to watch the influx of students enrolled and to plan for the exact number of students with the number of classes and teachers needed without undershoot or overflow.
Like the faculty and staff, the freshmen students are also anxious and excited for this new semester. Freshman Tristan Barrett, a finance major from Draper, said he is excited for his new opportunities at DSU.
“I’m ready to meet lots of new people and get the hang of the college life,” Barrett said.
Grace Kroll, a freshman general education major from South Jordan, is also very excited to get to know new people. Kroll was accepted to the DSU swim team and expressed her love towards the swim coach, students and administration.
“When [DSU] would come to my high school, I loved the ambassadors,” Kroll said. “They have really made me feel welcomed and safe. I knew I wanted to be somewhere where I felt comfortable.”
Other attractions to St. George are its weather and many outdoor activities. Freshman Chey Davis, an integrated studies major from Bear Lake, Idaho, and freshman Danielle Dayton, a biology major from Boise, Idaho, are excited to soak up the sun and live in a climate where snow does not really exist.
“This class is going to be record-breaking going in, as well as record-breaking going out,” President Biff Williams said. “You are at the right place…Welcome to Dixie State University!”
