Private universities and community colleges here have seen an uptick in enrollment this year, while enrollment in state universities Spokane programs has fallen.


Overall enrollment at Gonzaga has increased 2.7 percent to 6,923 students this fall, compared with last years 6,736 students, says university spokesman Dale Goodwin. The school now has 4,386 undergraduates including 1,036 freshmen, 1,826 masters students, 563 law students, and 89 doctoral students, Goodwin says.


It was hoped we would increase by 50 freshmen this year, and we were one shy of that, Goodwin says. The university received fewer inquiries from students who were interested in enrolling, but about 16 percent more applications from those queries, for a total of 5,744.


The average grade-point average of incoming freshmen is down slightly to 3.69, from 3.72 in 2006, and the composite SAT score is 1,184 this year, down from 1,195 last year, Goodwin says. More than 13 percent of the incoming freshmen are students of color, Goodwin says.


We expect another four years of growth in the demographic of college-age students, then it will level off and begin to decrease about 2012, as baby boomers children get older, he says.


Gonzaga is in the midst of capital projects to keep pace with sustained growth of its student population, Goodwin says.


The school opened 220 new apartments on campus this year, and plans to open 195 more units next fall, he says. Also, the university is developing plans for a new parking garage and a new student center to replace the current Crosby Student Center. (See story page A1.)


Whitworth UniversityEnrollment at Whitworth climbed to 2,607, up from 2,504 students from this time last fall, says university spokesman Greg Orwig. Orwig says the increase is more than the university would normally expect.


He says more than 5,000 students applied for admission this year, more than double the 2,600 applications received for last year. He says the university had expected to increase its freshman class by about 30, but instead added 63 freshmen.


Orwig says the increase in full-time traditional undergraduate enrollment was 3.8 percent, which affects the universitys infrastructure needs.


He says a 240-unit dorm the university opened last fall gave the school breathing room for campus housing. Whitworth, however, has been forced to dedicate some catering rooms in the dining hall to student food service during meal times and has added satellite food services in other buildings to help reduce some of the traffic in the dining hall.


The universitys board of trustees has just approved plans to construct another 190-bed residence hall in 2009 that will result in a net gain of 150 beds when it subsequently closes two smaller dorms, Orwig says. The college also is building a new visual arts center and plans to build a new complex for the schools science programs, which Orwig says have grown 260 percent over the last 10 years, when most university science programs were experiencing flagging enrollment. Whitworths physics program has grown more than 600 percent since 2006, due to recruitment and retention efforts by the physics faculty, he says. Currently, Whitworth has 77 physics majors.


Orwig says Whitworth continues to retain about 88 percent of its students after their freshman year, contributing to its overall growth.


In addition to the undergraduates, the schools graduate programs, including its masters in teaching program and its new masters in business administration, have grown to 276 students, up from 243 last year.


Eastern Washington UniversityEastern Washington University saw a dip in enrollment this year, down 164 students to 9,841 students from last years all-time high of 10,005 students. University spokesman Dave Meany says that even with the decrease, the university is well above the enrollment needed to maintain current state funding levels.


Meany says the number of freshmen fell about 8 percent to 1,334 this year from last years 1,447, due in part to a 3 percent decline in the number of high school seniors in Spokane County, which is a major feeder for the university.


The university will be looking this year at stepping up recruitment and retention efforts, Meany says.


We dont want to lose the momentum we had from recent years, Meany says.


He says this years student body is one of the most diverse in the universitys history, with students of color making up 19 percent of the student population.


The number of graduate students rose by 172 students to 1,173 from 1,001 in the earlier year, Meany says. He says programs at the campuss Riverpoint Higher Education Park locations have seen strong growth. The school sold its downtown Spokane center earlier this fall and has moved most of the classes it was holding there to the Riverpoint campus. Meany says the university has about 2,000 students taking classes there.


WSU-SpokaneWSUs Spokane campus had a total enrollment of 1,460 students this fall, down 7.6 percent from 1,580 students last year. The number of full-time equivalent students, however, remained basically steady, dropping by just two students to 1,365 this fall, says campus spokeswoman Barb Chamberlain.


Chamberlain says a new program, a doctorate in nursing, began here last summer, and nine students are enrolled in it. She says the programs graduates will fill a niche in educating nurses and masters level teachers as well as conducting research on nursing practices.


The university hopes to capture higher state appropriations to allow it to increase enrollment in its health-science programs at the Intercollegiate College of Nursing building, which is being constructed now and is expected to be completed next fall, Chamberlain says. She says the pharmacy program here currently can take only 95 students at a time, though it receives more than 900 applications each year.


The WSU-Spokane campus also is the headquarters for a doctorate in education program utilized by educators around the state, as well as the site of coursework in architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, criminal justice, and leadership and professional studies.


Community colleges Enrollment at the Community Colleges of Spokane is up 6.3 percent from last fall, to 17,132 total students, says district spokeswoman Anne Tucker.


The district operates Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College, as well as the Institute for Extended Learning.


SCC has added new programs in sonography, massage therapy, and entrepreneurship, and SFCC has launched programs in retail management and logistics and transportation management this year. The Institute for Extended Learning is offering new college preparation classes this year.


North Idaho College had record enrollment this year, up 0.4 percent from last year to 4,650 students.


The college says the enrollment figures show a reversal of a recent trend toward more part-time students, with the number of full-time students climbing 1.7 percent to 3,257 students. One of the largest increases the college reported was a 16.6 percent jump in full-time enrollment in the colleges professional-technical programs to 436 students. Overall enrollment in those programs rose 2.7 percent to 563 students.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.