THEC says enrollment caps need to be raised
NASHVILLE (AP) — A plan to funnel more high school graduates into community colleges received a temporary setback Thursday when state officials decided to raise enrollment caps at state universities.
The enrollment caps were put in place a few years ago as an attempt to get more students to choose community colleges for the first two years of education — something that is cheaper for the state and less expensive for taxpayers.
The Tennessee Higher Education Commission unanimously decided Thursday to increase fall 2004 enrollment caps 12 percent at the state’s four-year schools, making room for roughly 2,800 more students.
The lottery scholarships have prompted a record number of high school seniors to seek a university slot, and enrollment projections deemed reasonable just last year now seem woefully restrictive, THEC officials said.
Brian Noland, associate executive director with THEC, said the demand for access to the state’s universities is increasing dramatically.
The commissioners were told that 100,664 applications for financial aid have been received so far this year — nearly double from 59,017 at this time last year.
“The presence of the lottery is like having a 500-pound gorilla in the room,” said Bob Levy, a University of Tennessee vice president.
Levy said he’s not entirely happy with raising the caps so late in the year, after many schools have already started solidifying their fall 2004 class. He said it’s just so uncertain how many “lottery” students will actually matriculate, and what the quality of those students will be.
“The lottery is such a heavy hitter, it throws off our normal projections,” he said at the THEC meeting.
Joe Johnson, interim UT president, said universities may need to raise standards instead of letting in more students.
“It gives me a little angst,” he said of the commission’s move.
Officials said THEC would visit the enrollment caps issue often, especially once they are able to get a better handle on how many lottery freshman enroll at state school’s this fall.
Early projections have put the size of the class anywhere between 10 percent to 15 percent larger than the 2003 freshman class.