NDSU Enrollment

[Gully]

NDSU enrollment is over 12,000 right now. Since this years freshman class was the largest ever and assuming that future freshman classes are at least this size, wouldn't we expect the overall number to grow to at least 14,000?

I'd love to see enrollment continue to grow although they're probably going to need a couple more "residence halls" if they do.

[bisonmike]

They will need more residence halls even though there has been 2 built in the last 5 years, but I think the campus is going to need alot more parking spots too. Parking is horrible on campus right now, and if you add a couple grand in students it's only going to get worse.

[insane_ponderer]

maybe one of the bright engineering/architechture students ndsu churns out can answer the question...why hasnt a parking garage (3-5) levels, been built where the visitors lot on campus is??

i know they are expensive, i would assume maintenance is expensive as well, but wouldnt it be worth it to save space, i mean parking lots are huge space wasters

[scottheck]

Over the last 5 years, Pres Joe was on an active campaign to grow undergrad enrollment to 12,000. He and the institution are comfortable with that as a base. The focus now is on grad students to fill all those new advanced degrees that have been created in the last few years. Grad students do more for growing the institution(research, TAs, higher tuition).

[DG_Moore]

Reasearch and Graduate Students are essential for each other. More graduate students also requires more course offerings. If you look at the class makeup of NDSU; it is clear that more and more students are taking more than four years to graduate because of cost. 40% of NDSU's students are from MN. Back in the dark ages when I graduated from NDSU we had around 2,000 students and Oklahoma State where I went to graduate School had 10,000. Now we have 12,000 and Oklahoma State has about 18,000. NDSU is larger both in enrollment and much larger in city size than New Mexico State at Las Cruces, WY (supported by oil revenue) and a number of other Division !A institutions.

[WYOBISONMAN]

Actually, I think the enrollment at Wyo is about 15,000.

[IowaBison]

maybe one of the bright engineering/architechture students ndsu churns out can answer the question...why hasnt a parking garage (3-5) levels, been built where the visitors lot on campus is??

i know they are expensive, i would assume maintenance is expensive as well, but wouldnt it be worth it to save space, i mean parking lots are huge space wasters

Building a parking lot near campus would be absolutely stupid (i'm attacking your idea G-City, not you).

1. There are more than enough parking spots on campus for all students.

2. I've never seen the visitor's parking lot full during a weekday. Looking out my window right now it's about a third filled.

3. We live in North Dakota, not San Francisco, land is cheap. This is especially true for the University.

4. Using the school to the North as an example:


They've got permission to bond up to $12 million bucks, so I'd assumed the school is going ahead with it.

What vision! A parking ramp!

What a buy! $19 million (the amount they now want bonding for) for 600 new parking spots (the net number of new spots)!

Anybody good at math, my back of the envelope calculations give me about $32,000 per new parking spot.

At a 5 % return per year that means a student should pay $1600 a year per spot.

[Herd_Mentality]

Unfortunately, there WILL be a problem before this. Some neighborhoods around campus will be implementing a parking permit system which will mean hundreds of more cars in the campus lots.

[TheBisonator]

Parking garage is a stupid idea. You know what REALLY needs to be done??

They need to PLOW THE FREAKING PARKING LOTS AFTER IT SNOWS!!! I swear, I've been an NDSU student for 2 1/2 years now, and I have NEVER seen them plow the lots within ONE WEEK after we get a blizzard. There were MAJOR problems last winter with about a foot of packed snow on the parking lot I park on, literally UNTIL THE SNOW MELTED IN APRIL (this was snow from February), because the maintenance department never managed to get off their asses and plow the damn thing.

I'm parked in HR Lot, and I'm basically stranded on campus for days at a time after a blizzard, because I can't get my freaking car out of the lot, because I know I'll get stuck. I witnessed a LOT of student's cars get stuck in the snow at HR Lot last winter after blizzards, five, six, SEVEN days after they happened.

If anything needs to be done, it's PROMPT snow removal.

[IowaBison]

Unfortunately, there WILL be a problem before this. *Some neighborhoods around campus will be implementing a parking permit system which will mean hundreds of more cars in the campus lots.

See pt. 1.

[IowaBison]

Parking garage is a stupid idea. You know what REALLY needs to be done??

They need to PLOW THE FREAKING PARKING LOTS AFTER IT SNOWS!!! I swear, I've been an NDSU student for 2 1/2 years now, and I have NEVER seen them plow the lots within ONE WEEK after we get a blizzard. There were MAJOR problems last winter with about a foot of packed snow on the parking lot I park on, literally UNTIL THE SNOW MELTED IN APRIL (this was snow from February), because the maintenance department never managed to get off their asses and plow the damn thing.

I'm parked in HR Lot, and I'm basically stranded on campus for days at a time after a blizzard, because I can't get my freaking car out of the lot, because I know I'll get stuck. I witnessed a LOT of student's cars get stuck in the snow at HR Lot last winter after blizzards, five, six, SEVEN days after they happened.

If anything needs to be done, it's PROMPT snow removal.

it's called a shovel.

[Herd_Mentality]

See pt. 1.


I cannot disagree more. Counting the FargoDome lot isn't my idea of saying there are plenty of spots.

Don't count the engineering lot...it's a visitor/pay per lot.

[Herd_Mentality]

Parking garage is a stupid idea. You know what REALLY needs to be done??

They need to PLOW THE FREAKING PARKING LOTS AFTER IT SNOWS!!! I swear, I've been an NDSU student for 2 1/2 years now, and I have NEVER seen them plow the lots within ONE WEEK after we get a blizzard. There were MAJOR problems last winter with about a foot of packed snow on the parking lot I park on, literally UNTIL THE SNOW MELTED IN APRIL (this was snow from February), because the maintenance department never managed to get off their asses and plow the damn thing.

I'm parked in HR Lot, and I'm basically stranded on campus for days at a time after a blizzard, because I can't get my freaking car out of the lot, because I know I'll get stuck. I witnessed a LOT of student's cars get stuck in the snow at HR Lot last winter after blizzards, five, six, SEVEN days after they happened.

If anything needs to be done, it's PROMPT snow removal.


If you can come up with a time and cost effective method of snow removal for a lot full of cars that aren't going to move....I do believe you won't have to worry about money...ever.

[IowaBison]

I cannot disagree more. *Counting the FargoDome lot isn't my idea of saying there are plenty of spots.

Don't count the engineering lot...it's a visitor/pay per lot.



Disagree all you want.

I know for a FACT that the University has more than enough student spots. I'm sorry if you don't find them convenient, but ts.

I've been to a lot of universities in this country and NDSU's student parking situation is (significantly) better than most.

[BisonBryce]

The university has plenty of spots. I do agree with the post that this will swell once the city gets the parking on the street permits going.

Additionally I like the post about the money being spent up north for a ramp. Very expensive and we have had many surveys here on campus on whether we would be willing to pay higher tuition to make this happen. I always vote no.

The snow removal question isn't that big of a deal. Remember that you have the residence hall people parking their vehicles permanently in the R and (HR lot too?). These people do not move their cars so you get a horrible plow job which is not the fault of the plowing people. I also don't have a solution where those students are supposed to park their cars.

One of the best selling points for me with this school was its low price of doing business, especially compared to the bloated U of MN where I originally went. I like not paying for tons of services and activities compared to other schools. A parking ramp would be a tough sell. I'd rather see improvements to the Union like they are doing now.

[BisonBryce]

Over the last 5 years, Pres Joe was on an active campaign to grow undergrad enrollment to 12,000. He and the institution are comfortable with that as a base. The focus now is on grad students to fill all those new advanced degrees that have been created in the last few years. Grad students do more for growing the institution(research, TAs, higher tuition).


As a grad student I thank you for this post. The university has a good system in place for those who TA and I enjoy doing the TA work that I provide. Yes research is what is stressed here at this school since it is a university. Grad students with their research will hopefully not only get notariety for the school but potential $$. I hope as a school you are right that we can fill the advanced degrees. I have seen some good measures for class scheduling to allow this better for people who are working full time jobs.

[bisonaudit]

Parking: Over at least the last 10 years there has been a concentrated effort to remove parking spaces from the campus core. Students and faculty have been complaining about parking since the invention of the car, it's not going to change. These complaints are a fact of life on every campus. On most campuses the situation is orders of magnitute worse than it is at NDSU. A decision has been made, it's part of the master plan for the Universtiy, the campus belongs to pedestrians, not cars. IMO the university is doing the right thing.

Snow: This has been a real problem for a long time and it hasn't gotten better. In '97 some students with clout went to the dean of student affairs and complained about this problem after we'd gotten the first 60" of a 100" winter. The dean came out and drove the lot one night and was so appalled that he had a solution the next day. They posted a noticte, we've plowing lot a and day x, you move your car to lot b for the day or it will be towed. They rotated through the lots and had them all clean in a week. Cities plow streets using a similar approach. The University could instituationalize a similar approach.

[BisonBryce]

++

[Gully]

Dumb question....I thought the 12,000+ included grad students but I could be mistaken, which is it?

Does anyone know of a link to the official numbers for undergrad and grad?

Parking sucks but I don't know how you get around the issue short of spending big dollars on ramps (not going to happen).

I do believe an internet auction where people could bid for spots in various zones would make sense. *This would increase parking revenue by capturing the extra dollars that some people would pay for more convenient parking spaces. *At the same time, poorer people could still get the other spots and just have to walk a little farther (they might already be walking farther anyway).

Also, how many businesses do you know where the workers (professors) park right next to the buildings and the customers (students) walk long distances? *The faculty and staff should have to participate in the same auction proposed above.

Adam Smith would be proud of such an arrangement.

[scottheck]

Dumb question....I thought the 12,000+ included grad students but I could be mistaken, which is it?

Does anyone know of a link to the official numbers for undergrad and grad?

Parking sucks but I don't know how you get around the issue short of spending big dollars on ramps (not going to happen).

I do believe an internet auction where people could bid for spots in various zones would make sense. *This would increase parking revenue by capturing the extra dollars that some people would pay for more convenient parking spaces. *At the same time, poorer people could still get the other spots and just have to walk a little farther (they might already be walking farther anyway).

Also, how many businesses do you know where the workers (professors) park right next to the buildings and the customers (students) walk long distances? *The faculty and staff should have to participate in the same auction proposed above.

Adam Smith would be proud of such an arrangement.

http://www.ndsu.edu/prospective_students/about/enrollment.shtml

Though it's still '04 info. This year is 12,099 and, yes, it does include grad numbers. I should have been clearer that the Admissions emphasis was on undergrad to get to 12,000. Not that Admissions will quit marketing to the undergrad market, graduates are receiving more emphasis than they have in the past.

[DG_Moore]

Enrollment numbers are tricky because there is no comparable number of full time equivalent students to go with the total enrollment number. Unless it has been recently changed students enrolled in Tri-College courses were listed as students at more than one institution. (Mayville State listed a total enrollment figure of over 900 in Sept. Later they said they had a shortfall of money to pay costs because there were only about 600 students actually on campus and more than 300 students were taking only one or two courses by internet.) Everyone wants enrollment to look as good as possible. btw enrollment growth at NDSU has been greater than at UND for the last several years and the difference in numbers has been greatly reduced.)