returning students incentives to
live off campus.
From 2009 to 2014, the
University’s
freshman
enrollment remained well over
6,000 students. Part of the
initial uptick in applications was
attributed to the University’s
2010 decision to join the Common
App, an online undergraduate
college application which allows
students to apply to any of the 622
member schools.
Within the University’s first
year as a Common App member,
undergraduate
applications
to the institution rose by 25
percent. Ted Spencer, associate
vice
provost
and
executive
director
of
undergraduate
admissions at the time, said
though the University received
more applications than ever
during that first year, its yield
was the lowest since 2006. Yield
refers to the number of admitted
students who actually end up
enrolling at the University.
Spencer said because students
submitting the Common App can
apply to an increased number of
schools with greater ease, it can
be difficult to calculate yield.
“We admitted a slightly larger
class this year … because we
weren’t certain whether a lot of
the students who did apply and
had a strong resume would yield
at the same rate,” he said.
National trends
The
University’s
recent
issues
with
over-enrollment,
however, defied national trends.
According to the United States
Census Bureau, from 2011 to
2013,
undergraduate
college
enrollment decreased by 930,000
students, the largest drop since
the bureau began collecting
college enrollment data in 1966.
Michigan State University,
which aims to enroll a total of
50,000 undergraduate, graduate
and
professional
students,
has not struggled in recent
years to enroll a target class
size. Since peaking at 10,132
undergraduates in 2012, the
university’s
freshman
class
has fluctuated close to 9,500
students over the past few years.
There are notable differences
between the way the two schools
approach admissions. For one,
Michigan State is not a member
of the Common App.
John
Gaboury,
Michigan
State’s
associate
provost
for
academic
services
and
enrollment management, said
not accepting the Common App
makes it easier to estimate yield
rates.
“We’re not on the Common
App, and last year we had over
35,000 applications,” Gaboury
said.
“In
our
calculations,
people are specifically selecting
Michigan State. So we know in
our probabilities it isn’t just ‘Oh I
could send this out to 20 schools
and see what happens,’ so it
makes a difference when you’re
running your probability models
and affects your yield rate.”
In
addition,
Michigan
State enrolls far more in-state
students.
Gaboury
said
the
school aims for in-state students
to make up 70 percent of its total
enrolled class, while Fall 2015
enrollment reports show that
approximately 57 percent of
the University’s student body is
comprised of in-state students.
Gaboury
anticipates
Michigan State will uphold
current enrollment practices in
the years to come.
“We’re going to stick with
a similar strategy,” he said,
noting the school’s success in
enrolling a diverse student body.
“We have the largest number of
African-American students in
our freshman class of any of the
Big Ten institutions. We’re about
653 for this year.”
Enrollment management
To combat over-enrollment
at the University, the regents
appointed
Kedra
Ishop,
a
longtime admissions official at
the University of Texas at Austin,
as the University’s first associate
vice president for enrollment
management. Ishop assumed the
position at the beginning of the
2014-2015 academic year.
Ishop said her first task was
to determine a target number for
the fall 2015 freshman class.
“It
wasn’t
necessarily
a
question of going up or down,
it was let’s establish a target as
a ceiling, as opposed to a floor,”
Ishop said. “And there’s different
approaches when your target is
a ceiling and you don’t go over
it, and your target is a floor and
you don’t go under it. The floor
generally has more to do with
budget, since your institution
is funded on your number of
students. So being tasked to
bring the class in on target and
determining what that target
was, and at the time it was just
under 6,000.”
After establishing a target,
Ishop said she began to evaluate
how the University was releasing
its decisions. Those applying for
undergraduate admission to the
University can apply either early
action or regular decision. Early
action applications are due Nov.
1 and decisions are released at
some point before Dec. 24, while
regular decision applications
are due Feb. 1 and decisions are
released in early April.
Ishop
said
students
who
are admitted from the early
action pool tend to enroll at the
University. Therefore, to manage
enrollment more effectively, the
admissions office deferred more
students from early action to
regular decision than in years
past.
“Early action here typically
results in an enrollment, so
we knew that if we released
more then we’d have more
enrollments,
which
means
we’d have fewer spaces to offer
during the regular term,” she
said. “That was a mechanism
to control the size of the class,
essentially not to over-promise
on the front end.”
Another
mechanism
the
University used to control the
enrollment was to put more
students on the waitlist. In
recent
years,
due
to
over-
enrollment, students on the
waitlist have not been offered
admission to the University.
Despite
offering
admission
to 2,000 fewer students in
2015 than the previous year,
a 2-percent increase in yield
meant the University once again
did not pull students from the
waitlist.
From
2014
to
2015,
the
University’s
admittance
rate
dropped from 32.2 percent to
26.2 percent, a trend Ishop
expects to continue.
“As the application numbers
continue to grow, regardless
what we do with class size, we’re
not going to keep up class size
with the pace of growth in the
applicant pool,” she said. “It’s also
important to note that class size is
a yearly determination, so making
the decision for the class that
it was last year was contingent
upon what we had seen in the
year past and how we wanted to
stage ourselves for thinking about
admissions and our targets, not on
an annual basis but collectively
where are we as an institution in
terms of capacity and what does
that need to look like in terms of
our capacity.”
Ishop also said it is unlikely
that the number of applications
the University receives will
decline any time soon. She
said this trend is not tied to
the Common App, and instead
pointed to decreasing admit
rates across the country.
“I
won’t
attribute
it
necessarily to Common App,”
she said. “I will attribute it to,
because admit rates are going
down, students are hedging
their bets. It’s our responsibility,
when we’re recruiting, we try to
be very transparent about that
process and about that likelihood.
We also have additional aspects
of our application, so the student
has to go a few extra steps to
apply here. And what they talk
about in their essays matters.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
and air — including colored
streamers and lights.
The theme played a large
role in displaying the intricacies
of Asian culture. In the past,
Celebrasia themes have received
criticism for not relating to Asian
culture, so this year, Engineering
sophomore Eric Chan, a CSA
representative, says the group
aimed to change that.
“This is a pretty bold event,”
he said. “Last year I know we
did Harry Potter, and the year
before we did something with
pirates, but this year no one
really expected ‘Avatar: The Last
Airbender.’ ”
All
18
participating
organizations had their own
tables, which were decorated to
feature the Avatar theme as well
as the culture represented by the
organization. Groups present
included the Filipino American
Student
Association,
the
Taiwanese American Student
Association,
the
Vietnamese
Student Association and the
Japanese Student Association.
At the tables, event attendees
could sample food from the
organizations’ cultures.
Engineering
sophomore
Vishal
Subrahmanyam
said he came in part to see
performances from his friends.
“I thought it would be a
really
enriching
experience
to come out here and taste
the food and see what all of
these organizations are about,”
Subrahmanyam said.
The
song
and
dance
performances
included
traditional
and
modern
arrangements,
and
some
that mixed elements of both.
Some
groups
focused
on
entertainment
while
others
had
educational
aspects
in
their
performances.
The
Filipino
American
Student
Association performed a tribal
dance from the T’boli Tribe
that traditionally celebrates a
good harvest. The performance
strayed from the stereotypical
Filipino dance.
LSA
junior
Tiffany
Lao,
performance chair for FASA,
said people often think Filipino
dances are always light and
happy, but that is not necessarily
true.
“Usually there’s a lot of
cutesy
really
smiley
happy
dances but there’s also more
serious dances,” Lao said. “It’s a
really multifaceted culture and
we try to embrace all of it.”
In conjunction with the new
emphasis on a more culturally
relevant
theme,
the
CSA
organizers wanted to stress the
full richness of Asian culture. In
past years, Celebrasia has only
hosted East Asian countries.
LSA
sophomore
Christy
Leung, the event’s co-chair,
said they tried to invite groups
representing
more
diverse
countries this year.
“We invited SAAN — South
Asian
Awareness
Network
— and the Pakistani Student
Association,” Leung said. “We
really tried to branch out and
add more diversity to our lineup
this year.”
LSA junior Pareesa Memon,
president
of
the
Pakistani
Student
Association,
was
surprised by the invitation to
participate in the event because
the Asian community and South
Asian community are usually
separated.
“We just want to show that
Pakistan is part of Asia and give
it more of a presence in that
realm because it usually isn’t
recognized as such,” Memon
said.
foundation.
Levine’s
mother,
Julie
Buckner,
the
president
and
founder of the Josh E. Levine
Foundation and a University
alum, began the 5K with an
emotional speech about her
son, noting that the day marked
exactly 69 weeks since his
passing.
“We’re all here today because
we
want
to
prevent
more
tragedies,” Buckner said. “We
all know, here on a college
campus, that there are so many
episodes every single night, and
particularly on weekends, that
are so preventable, and that’s
what we’re here to do.”
Ultimately, she said, she’d like
to see the binge-drinking culture
shift on college campuses.
“I just want us to look out
for each other more, to be
more educated, to be more
knowledgeable, to be more of a
united community in preventing
tragedies, and this is what we’re
going for,” she said.
Sunday’s
event
was
a
culmination of the joint effort
of LSA junior Hailey Olds, vice
president of campus relations for
AGD, and LSA junior Caroline
Alford, vice president of the
Panhellenic Association for DG.
The two Greek organizations
partnered this semester as part
of the Panhellenic Association’s
new “sister sorority” initiative,
which pairs two sororities on
campus in an effort to get to
know each other better.
“We picked a theme of alcohol
and drug awareness,” Alford
said. “Obviously, the Josh E.
Levine Foundation has quite
a presence on campus, so we
thought it would be meaningful.”
The two contacted Levine’s
fraternity,
Theta
Chi,
and
member
Brett
Karpinos,
an
Engineering junior, stepped up
to help them plan it.
“My older brother was one of
Josh’s good friends, so I was like
all right, I’ll do it,” Karpinos said.
“Josh was a senior when I was a
freshman, so I got to know him
pretty well.”
This year, University officials
have rolled out several new
initiatives to curb dangerous
alcohol consumption on campus,
including an policy to notify the
parents of first-year students
who rack up multiple alcohol
or drug violations, and a push
for increased Division of Public
Safety and Security engagement
off campus.
Kinesiology junior Kenneth
Taras, former president of Theta
Chi, ran to support Buckner in
her efforts.
“A lot of us in Theta Chi, all
of us are really passionate about
this,” Taras said.
Buckner expressed said she
was humbled by the outpouring
of support at the event.
“I think it’s great that Greek
organizations are leading this
today, and I hope that there will
be more events on this issue
that are led by Greek life in the
future,” Buckner said.
Alford said the sororities hope
to host the 5K again next year.
“There’s hope to make this
sort of a sustainable thing in
the future going forward, sort
of an annual thing between our
chapters,” she said.
News
Monday, November 16, 2015 — 3A
ordered the country’s borders
closed.
During the vigil, de La
Ronciere
challenged
those
gathered
on
the
Diag
to
promote the acceptance and
integration
of
immigrant
communities,
particularly
the
thousands
of
refugees
who have been fleeing Syria
in recent months for safety in
Europe and elsewhere.
“This
that
happened
yesterday, they didn’t bring it,”
he said. “They did not want it.
They did not approve it. On the
contrary, this that happened
yesterday is what they were
fleeing from.”
Even so, de La Ronciere
said Saturday’s Diag gathering
made him optimistic.
“It’s a big message of hope to
see that so many people are so
full of solidarity,” he said.
Engineering
junior
Julia
Habif, who has many relatives in
France, said she felt comforted
by
the
demonstration
of
support from students who
may not be as closely connected
to the country. Habif’s family is
Muslim, and she echoed de La
Ronciere’s belief that she hopes
Friday’s attacks do not increase
racism toward Muslims.
“I see the racism,” she said.
“I see the split. I think that the
more hatred there is, the more
division and the more people
feel isolated.”
LSA
senior
Roxane
Chambaug, an exchange student
from southern France, said the
event provided her with a sense
of unity at a time when she felt
very distant from her home.
“To me it’s about France,
but not only about France,” she
said. “It’s about all the lives
that are being killed without
any purpose. Of course I’m
very moved … it happened in
my country and it could have
happened in my city.”
Nursing junior Matt White
joined in mourning the victims
of the Paris attacks, though he
has no direct connections to
France.
“I felt like I had to come to
show my respects and show that
I care,” he said.
White said the University
community’s
demonstration
of solidarity was important
not only in showing support
for those affected, but also in
helping
University
students
reflect on the tragic events.
“It shows that we care and
that even though this happened
halfway across the world, we
stand with them,” he said. “And
it also helps us process what
happened.”
On Saturday morning, the
University confirmed that all 14
University-affiliated
students,
faculty and staff registered as
having traveled to France are
accounted for.
LSA freshman Maya Bishop
said she also saw the vigil as a
protest against the divides acts
of terrorism attempt to create.
“What happened was an
affront not just to France,
but
to
all
civilized
and
modern countries that have
these
values,”
Bishop
said.
“(Terrorism) is trying to break
people apart and make them
scared, and this is the only way
to combat that.”
LSA junior Theresa Witt, a
foreign exchange student from
Germany, said the attacks in
Paris hit close to home for her
because of the the city’s close
proximity to her hometown.
However,
she
said,
the
attacks also remind her of other
global tragedies that do not
seem to receive as much media
attention. She referenced the
bombings in Beirut two days ago
and the continuing violence in
Syria, which she said the media
has largely ignored compared to
its coverage of the Paris attacks.
“I very strongly think about
all the people in Beirut today,
about Syria, where it happens
daily,” she said. “I feel with all
the people there.”
PARIS
From Page 1A
CELEBRASIA
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5K
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ENROLLMENT
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KRISTINA PERKINS/Daily
Theta Chi, Delta Gamma and Alpha Gamma Delta hosted a 5K run in the Arb to
raise money for the Josh E. Levine Foundation on Sunday.