The Griffon News

For the fourth consecutive year Western’s enrollment is record-breaking. With 5,470 undergraduate students and 65 graduate students, for a total of 5,535, enrollment increased 3.3 percent this year. Undergraduate enrollment increased 5.5 percent from 5,319 last year while graduate enrollment increased 59 percent, from last year’s 41.

Historically, higher education enrollment goes up when the economy goes down. Director of Admissions, Howard McCauley, believes Western is ahead of the curve when it comes to enrollment numbers.

“We don’t have any peaks and valleys; we have a gradual increase,” McCauley said. “That’s what we’ve seen over many years.”

McCauley points out some of the factors contributing to the high enrollment numbers.

“We have a recruitment plan that is playing a part in bringing students to the campus,” McCauley said. “With our recruitment plan, our faculty and staff have all been working together to try to attract the best students we possibly can. It’s teamwork…It’s working very well and there’s a great chemistry on our campus.”

Associate director of admissions, Tyson Schank, agrees with McCauley about why Western has seen a steady increase.

“Missouri Western has been the best kept secret in the Midwest because a lot of people had just never heard of Missouri Western,” Schank said.

Schank explained how the secret is getting out.

“We’re expanding our outreach to other areas of the Midwest in Kan; Neb; Iowa; and Ill,” Schank said. “We’re situated very well to be able to sustain our enrollment.”

While record enrollment is beneficial to Western, some aspects are not so beneficial to students. Student Michael Swanson believes that classes are becoming too crowded to learn.

“When you’re in a class like Biology and there are so many students, the instructor never talks to you individually, they can only address the entire class at once,” Swanson said. “It really takes away from the learning experience.”

Western administration realizes the expanding headcount is putting a strain on students and faculty and are trying to cope with the effects.

“Our administration has really made a very strong effort to make sure that we accommodate every student that wants to attend Western,” Schank said.

Along with enrollment, the quality of students is exceeding the national average. The average ACT score of freshmen coming from high school has risen from 20.6 last year to 21.2 this year. First time freshmen enrollment has increased almost 3 percent to 1132. Schank hopes Western can continue to grow.

“The quality of our entering class was very strong, so we’re working on making sure we can sustain this quality,” Schank said.