Enrollment is expected to surpass 20,000 students for the first time this fall, a sudden jump that caught many administrators by surprise.
A September 2001 report by the 17-member Enrollment Management Council predicted the student population wouldn’t surpass 20,000 until fall 2005. Jim Buch, the council chairman and associate vice president for enrollment management, said that when council members submitted their report, they expected enrollment to remain steady between 16,000 and 17,000 — which it had done from 1994 to 2000 — or even drop slightly because of a year full of bad press.
“In the past 18 months, the University of Oregon’s image has suffered from several public controversies,” the report said.
The report cited the secretary of state’s audit of the school, the investigation of women’s basketball coach Jody Runge that led to her resignation and the school’s membership with the Worker Rights Consortium factory monitoring group, a decision that led Nike CEO and University alumnus Phil Knight to vow never to donate money to the school again.
“These high-profile events have a cumulative effect on public perception,” the report said.
But after a year of football and basketball championships, the University’s departure from the WRC, Knight’s subsequent return to donating and a number of research accomplishments by professors, Buch said the school’s public image improved — at the same time that high school graduating class sizes are increasing.
“The flip answer is that everybody wants to come here,” Buch said. “There is going to be continued growth. There’s going to be continued demand if the University continues to be an attractive choice.”
So far, neither the council nor any other University committee has officially discussed a cap on enrollment, Associate Vice President Anne Leavitt said, but she acknowledged that administrators are aware of the urgency that the 20,000 plateau presents.
“The physical facilities (on campus) are really not equipped to handle many more than 20,000,” said Leavitt, who also sits on the enrollment council. “We have to get to work on this.”
University Housing Director Mike Eyster said this isn’t the first time the University has faced a sudden increase in enrollment. In the early 1990s enrollment jumped into the 16,000 student range, and independent rental companies saw an opportunity to expand into the Eugene market. Two companies bought land north of campus near Autzen Stadium to build the Duck’s Village and the University Commons apartment complexes, joining the Chase Village complex. Both opened in the late 1990s when enrollment had leveled off and, for a few years, vacancy rates were high there and in the West University Neighborhood.
But those empty apartments are filled now, according to the fall 2001 report by Duncan and Brown, a local company that studies housing trends in Eugene
“The campus area appears to have recovered from … four years of high vacancy,” the report said, noting that 2001 was the first time in four years that rents have increased in the neighborhood. “While the increases (in rent) are few and small, it does indicate a change in the direction of the market.”
University Housing runs the residence halls and limited graduate student housing only, but Eyster still keeps an eye on where his residents will go when they leave the world of bunk beds and cafeteria meals, and he noticed the vacancy rates starting to fall more than a year ago.
“There is no question that enrollments play a huge role in the vacancy rate in the campus neighborhood and other student housing,” Eyster wrote to administrators in a December 2000 e-mail.