DePaul’s enrollment numbers trending higher than expected: VP of enrollment management
DePaul University Lincoln Park campus.
Though many feared a dramatic decrease in the number of freshmen committing to DePaul, as well as continuing students, the numbers are much better than expected.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, DePaul is generally doing well in terms of projected enrollment for fall quarter, said Soumitra Ghosh, the university’s new vice president of enrollment management during Wednesday’s Faculty Council meeting.
So far, DePaul has received over 3,117 freshman deposits, which is 10 percent more than this point last year. Historically, about 12 percent of incoming freshmen end up changing plans by the time fall quarter begins, Ghosh said.
The university is “just about even” with the number of continuing students already enrolled for fall — it’s about half a percent ahead of last year’s numbers.
But the area the pandemic has hurt the university the most is in graduate student enrollment, Ghosh said, though that’s to be expected.
“Most schools are behind [in graduate student enrollment] at this point,” he said.
DePaul has 3 percent fewer graduate students planning to enroll in the fall compared to last year and is similarly behind in the number of continuing graduate students. Ghosh said this is primarily because of fewer international graduate students enrolling, which can be attributed to the pandemic and its ensuing lockdowns and state of uncertainty.
Valerie Johnson, a professor of political science, asked about the percent of admitted African American students who have committed to DePaul at the meeting. Ghosh said that the yield among this group of students was indeed declining, though it isn’t the first year that this is the case.
The promising general enrollment numbers may be in part because of DePaul’s announcement last month that it would hold some classes in-person in the fall, while some universities around the country have announced they would continue to operate fully remotely because of the pandemic.
For example, Ghosh said there was an uptick in deposits from students from California after the California State University system announced fall quarter will be done remotely. DePaul has also had a strong recruitment presence in the state for several years.
Wednesday’s meeting also saw the passage of a resolution bringing relief to already-enrolled students during the final exam period in light of the disruptive and traumatic events of the quarter, including last week’s killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
The resolution requires DePaul faculty to offer students at least one of the following options:
- To award, at the student’s request, a final course grade on the basis of materials due by May 29, 2020, assuming that at least 70% of the graded materials, according to the learning goals of the course, had been submitted by that date.
- To complete the course as expected, with the understanding that the final exams and/or projects may be determined optional by faculty, and all work submitted after May 29, 2020, cannot reduce the final grade.
- To award, at the student’s request, an Incomplete (IN) without explanation and subject to all rules regarding incomplete grades, including a satisfactory record in the work already completed for the course. Faculty will clearly inform students about completing the material within a specific deadline, as per the IN policy. Note that degree conferral is June 22nd, and therefore graduating students would need to have their IN grade resolved prior to this date.
Though there was much discussion about how to word the resolution so it provided the most benefit to students and faculty, the council generally agreed that the focus should be on helping students.
“The students are hurting and we need to give them something sooner rather than later,” Provost Salma Ghanem said during Wednesday’s meeting.
No resolution could be perfect for every class’s and every student’s situation, said Scott Paeth, Faculty Council chair.
“Some people are just going to have awkward situations,” he said.
Other items approved during Wednesday’s meeting included a resolution supporting adjunct faculty during the coronavirus pandemic and a change in handbook language about what is considered faculty misconduct.
Rob Savage • Jun 11, 2020 at 12:00 am
Who in God’s name would spend $55,000 per year to enroll in this poor excuse of a left leaning nominal Catholic instituion that prepares students poorly or not at all to worship Eric Holder, Cass Sunstein and Saul Alinsky from the basement of their parental homes? Read the school’s online paper and note that this is an institution out of control. White reductionists who believe in defunding police departments, Birkenstock wearing pseudo intellectual, Castro wannabees, some, with others “of color” labeling everybody, from the loweliest of janitors to the institution’s president, racists for not buying into their contorted world view. The collapse of the University system as we know it cannot be far away and one need only look at this pathetic place to see why.
Get passed over for a promotion? Blame it on racism. Somebody looks at you the wrong way? Racist? CPD officer gives you a ticket for an expired license plate at the corner of Diversey and Mildred? “It’s not fair”!! Heaven forbid somebody be forced to evaluate his/her own limitations/inputs and realize that others are more talented, intelligent, wealthy, richer, thoughtful, kind, and attractive and nobody is necessarily at fault. DePaul panders to vulernable people, many who apparently have been defecated upon early in life, to blame somebody else for their misfortune. The next time you think about enrolling here, do just that and opt for a better place. Bob Jones University, I hear, has a few spots available to the Class of 2024 matriculants.
Potential “students” need only spend one hour reading this organ to see what they are getting into. Clueless 19 year old DuPage County ingrates who have been victimized their entire pathetic lives now hellbent on spreading their angst and misery to anybody forced to listen and at least ten others who are not. A plethora of first generation students likely sucking from Uncle Sugar’s mammary gland in granting aid/loans never to be paid back once they enter the real world and learn quickly that real employers paying living wages want NOTHING to do with entitled, clueless, soapbox dwelling, pierced nosed, dyed haired and rotted teeth left leaning, ubathed activists who know nothing and respect less and think that the excrement they sprout is anything but with no hope of graduating in 6 years while reality, if ever they grasped it, becomes more and more a fading memory.
Would be matriculants, do yourself a favor. Unless you aspire to be the next Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow, Eleanor Smeal or Camille Paglia, run the hell away from this place. A can of chaw and a six week stint at Camp Pendleton is far more valuable, much less expensive and is just what the proctologist ordered to counteract the anomie witnessed at this poor excuse for a Catholic educational instution.
Lance Coardill • Jun 5, 2020 at 9:00 pm
E-learning is the great equalizer and deviod in person attendance, DePaul becomes an “also ran” for community colleges and less expensive state schools.
Separately, the following is somewhat perplexing to me:
Wednesday’s meeting also saw the passage of a resolution bringing relief to already-enrolled students during the final exam period in light of the disruptive and traumatic events of the quarter, including last week’s killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
I THINK I understand what is going on here but what about David Dorn, the heroic retired St. Louis police captain shot outside a pawn shop in the process of being looted. What is DePaul doing to honor his memory, an African American man gunned down by another human being? What about the 13 other souls, some white, others brown and yellow, who have since died as a result of George Floyd’s unfortunate demise? Can perhaps it be acknowledged that maybe one DePaul student, black, white, brown, yellow or indigo, might indeed be traumatized by the unfortunate and untimely deaths of these individuals?
Finally, what does a Vice President of “Enrollment Management” do, exactly and at what remuneration? Seems to me that, if DePaul University truly wanted to systematically desensitize “traumatized students”, they’d invest in a litter of Labrador therapy dogs or, better yet, figure out whether the myriad vice presidents finding their way on payroll truly add value to the University’s mission and purpose.. If not, rebating tuition equivalent to the superfluous staff members’ salaries would also achieve the intended effect.