Campus works to accommodate growing student body

It’s easy to notice all the changes around Ole Miss.

There is a new on-field mascot, new buildings, new brand marketing campaigns and new professors and staff. The change that is the most exciting and most frightening around campus, however, is probably the recent growth in the student population.

As the Daily Mississippian reported last semester, this year’s freshman class is the largest in the University’s history, nearly 20 percent larger than the class of 2013.

On campus, this means adjustments in student life, especially concerning transportation and on-campus housing.

“So far, we have been able to house all freshmen on campus,” student housing director Lorinda Khrut said. “However, we were very full this past fall.”    

Khrut said that the housing supply will have to meet the demand if class sizes continue to increase.  

“We will have an additional 720 beds in the fall of 2012 in anticipation of future growth,” Khrut said. “Right now, we will house upperclassmen in Northgate and Campus Walk. That should take care of most of our upperclassmen. Other changes include Crosby being converted into a freshman-only dorm, as opposed to mixed freshman and sophomore Greek women.”

Another area that affects a lot of students is the financial aid department. Its lines are notoriously long at the beginning of the semester, and staff members have definitely noticed an increase in these lines. “Fortunately the amount of aid students will get will not be affected by increases in the number of students attending Ole Miss,” financial aid director Laura Diven Brown said.

“We have found a heavy demand for Federal Work-Study program opportunities this year, though, and Work-Study funds are limited,” Brown said. “As a result, the Work-Study allocation for fall and spring is fully committed already. We also expect to have rising numbers of students attending summer school.”

Brown said that because aid for summer school is hard to come by already and because of the increase in aid requests, not all applications may be accepted.

Students are not the only ones affected by the deluge of incoming freshman. Staff members all over the University feel the effects of having more students to serve.

“The staff do have to work longer hours, but we look at it as an opportunity to be creative in ourtime management skills,” Khrut said regarding student housing.

Likewise, financial aid staff members work harder and longer to serve students.  

“Our staff members have worked very hard to serve the students and have put in extended hours on weekends, nights and early mornings to accommodate the needs,” Brown said. “We know how important it is for students to have funding on a timely basis for their semester expenses.”

In the admissions office, 10 staff members and two temps manage a workload of approximately 50 applications per day.

 
“We’ve honestly been having to manage, with applications up and our staff the same,” said Jennifer Simmons, assistant director for admissions. “We’ve just been trying to get all of them processed in a timely manner, which sometimes mandates overtime.”

Whitman Smith, the director of enrollment services, credits a number of things for this growing interest in the University.

“There are a lot of people taking notice of the University that previously did not, because of a lot of different aspects: good size, good price, good programs,” Smith said.

In particular, he is a fan of the new eZing part of the Ole Miss website.  Deriving its name from a shortening of the new motto “Experience Amazing,” eZing is a news feed of all the stories coming out of the University, Oxford and North Mississippi.

Smith said eZing compiles all national news concerning Ole Miss.

These new public relations approaches have helped boost what Smith said he believes the University already offers students.

“I think the positive news that comes out of the University and Oxford can’t hurt us, and Brand Services has certainly helped,” Smith said.