Due to Athens’ well-known charm and Ohio University’s scenic campus, scholarship opportunities and well-rounded education, interest in the university is at an all-time high. These perks come with back-to-back years of record-breaking enrollment, but this increase in the student population also means there is an increased demand for support and campus facilities.
The enrollment of first-year students in the fall of 2023 was 4,516 students, beating the previous year’s record for the largest incoming freshmen class at 4,441 students. For the fall of 2024, it is too early to accurately predict the incoming freshman class enrollment since the deadline to confirm students’ intent to enroll has been extended to June 1.
This extension has not halted speculation on the amount of first-year students OU expects, and many wonder if the university can accommodate this many students.
Vice President of Enrollment Management Candace Boeninger commented on her goals for the size of this incoming class and how the university plans to serve three large first-year classes in a row.
“We hope to enroll an incoming first-year class roughly the same size as fall 2023 when we welcomed 4,516 new freshmen on the Athens campus,” Boeninger said in an email. “We work closely with academic and administrative leadership throughout the enrollment cycle, including the summer orientation season, to ensure that Ohio can accommodate the entering and returning classes well as they shape up.”
One of the necessary programs designed to help freshmen transition into a college lifestyle is learning communities. A learning community consists of a small group of students in the same major who share two or three required major classes and one seminar class.
A learning community is a service highly recommended for freshmen; it increases retention and in this group, students can connect with like-minded individuals and develop friendships to take outside of the classroom. Each learning community has a learning community leader, an upperclassman student of the same major who is there to guide first-year students.
Barb Remsburg, the director of learning community programs, discussed how she and other faculty determine the number of learning communities each year. They aim to place around 20 students in each learning community.
“Each year, we work with the department and with enrollment management to take a look at how many students were admitted in comparison to previous years,” Remsburg said. “We’re taking a look at if a program is growing, and maybe the year before their learning community was getting close to capacity. Then, we have a conversation and dial in because it really gets down to each program.”
According to Remsburg, in 2021, there were 211 learning communities, in 2022, that number increased to 237 and last year there were 246. This fall, there will most likely be around 258 learning communities.
Learning communities, as well as other on-campus services, are starting to adjust for higher enrollment numbers. OU will continue to provide tutoring, accessibility services, counseling, career advising and other services to help the growing number of Bobcats succeed.
“We are constantly working to understand how the University can best deliver on its mission as a public university and support our students well, and we know that planful, stable enrollment levels help us provide the distinctive Ohio University experience,” Boeninger said via email. “Long-term, we will continue to align capacity analysis and planning with the President’s Dynamic Strategies and Ohio’s academic priorities across future enrollment cycles.”
