Press Release Story

It's been a year of growth so far Oregon State University, which for this 2009 Fall term is boasting an 8.1 percent increase in student enrollment. That's 21,969 students, the largest student body ever, according to an OSU news release. Last year’s enrollment was 20,320.

Enrollment grew at nearly every level, the university said, including high-achieving students, students of color and out-of-state students at all levels.

Even the enrollment at OSU-Cascades in Bend grew nearly 20 percent with enrollment climbing to 611 over last years 510. "This should not be mistaken as growth for growth’s sake," OSU President Ed Ray said in an OSU news release.

President Ed Ray also tells us that this fall is the, "...largest-ever enrollment of doctoral students," and that, "our significant growth in scientific research, which attracts outstanding graduate and undergraduate students," makes it, "easy to see that ours is a university that is making tremendous academic progress."

While some say that this increase in enrollment is due to the declining economic standards in the US that drive people to seek more education, OSU representatives persist that this is intentional growth. And that they are reaching across demographics to get more student involvement and enrollment.

"Our planning efforts have enabled us to reach our enrollment targets in most areas, meaning that we are growing mindfully in ways that allow us to provide the support and services that students need to succeed while allowing for growth that is healthy for the university, as well," said Kate Peterson, assistant provost for enrollment management, in the same OSU news release.

There's no doubt that this careful planning has worked when you look at the numbers. Enrollment is up in almost every target area and things continue to look good for increased enrollment in the future.

Possible follow-up sources could be OSU President Ed Ray, Todd Simmons or Kate Peterson. Other sources outside of the story might be an upperclassman at OSU that has possibly noticed the increase of students as opposed to previous years.