Written by: Htet Myint & Gabriella Grundy
Htet Myint & Gabriella Grundy
Southern Adventist University’s continued growth has raised questions about how the university will adapt its campus to accommodate an influx of new students expected to join the student body.
While discussing enrollment projections at the Feb. 29 faculty town hall meeting, University President Ken Shaw said Southern anticipates a freshman enrollment for Fall 2024 that is higher than originally budgeted. The university budgeted for 730 freshmen and will have beds available for 750, but projected enrollment is now closer to 800.
However, according to Ryan Harrell, website and analytics manager at Southern, the university’s ability to predict enrollment has been impacted by what’s happening with the college application process in the federal arena.
“Unfortunately, due to delays in federal financial aid applications (FAFSA) this year, we have a pretty low degree of certainty on our enrollment projections for this coming fall at this point of the year,” he wrote in an email to the Accent. “The changes in the federal financial aid system are a huge unknown in terms of how it will impact student decision making.”
According to Bob Young, senior vice president for Academic Administration, the university models incoming freshman numbers using past history of inquiries, applications, acceptances and campus visits and deposits. The model resets for each semester.
“We do not explicitly model freshman numbers out more than the next semester, although we do look at the total number of Seventh-day Adventist young people in general and the number of students enrolled in Seventh-day Adventist elementary and secondary schools as a mild predictor of future enrollment,” wrote Young.
According to a previous Accent article, Fall 2023’s freshman class of 758 students was the largest the institution has ever seen. It was the first time a freshman class at Southern not only reached, but also surpassed 700 students.
In the same article, Dennis Negrón, vice president for Student Development, noted that early projections last year suggested that Fall 2024’s freshman class would also be very large.
A graph shared during the faculty town hall meeting depicted a rapid increase in enrollment compared to the number of available beds. By 2026, the graph projected that Southern will have a total of 2,273 beds, while the demand is expected to reach 2,290 beds, highlighting a potential housing deficit.
In an email to the Accent, Young stated that Southern does not assume a closed system in response to student growth. Rather, the university continues to respond to the growth by implementing new initiatives to increase housing, classroom and office space.
“Because of student growth this year, the university is adding student housing next year with one additional Southern Village building and 25 to 30 cottages, and there are plans to add three additional Southern Village buildings in subsequent years and perhaps more cottages,” wrote Young.
He noted that the university will also gain a significant amount of square footage in the next couple of years to be used for classroom and office space.
“In approximately 2025 the university will open the Ruth McKee School of Business building,” Young wrote. “ … In about that timeframe, the university will also take ownership of the [current] Collegedale Academy Elementary School building, adding another 66,000 square feet of classrooms and offices. As you can see, as the university enrollment grows, so do the resources available to support students, faculty, and staff.”
When asked what the student-to-faculty ratio will look like with the enrollment projections, Young wrote that “as enrollment grows the student-faculty ratio will also increase because of larger enrollments in upper division courses that have in the past had lower enrollments.
“As freshman and sophomore numbers increase, so do the number of sections provided to handle the increased enrollment,” he said. “As with physical resources, human resources can be added where needed to support increased student enrollment. This is done carefully so that the university continues to maintain financial viability.”
