GCSU welcomed a record number of freshman students to the university in fall 2023 and 2024, raising questions across campus regarding the carrying capacity of necessary GCSU student amenities such as transportation, housing and parking and causing uncertainty regarding the maintenance of small-class sizes and course availability.
Mike Cavalier, GCSU assistant vice president for University Communications & chief communications officer, has reached out across university departments to find the answers students want to know about the future of student enrollment.
While GCSU accepted its largest freshman class on record in fall 2023 at 1,816 students, the following year’s enrollment did not supersede it, dropping to 1,801 students. According to Joel Robinson, senior associate vice president of Enrollment Management, the university achieved lower freshman enrollment in 2024 by admitting 550 fewer applicants to GCSU, though the university received more applications than in 2023.
Total enrollment, however, has fluctuated more greatly over the years, Robinson explained.
Although the size of incoming freshman classes at GCSU has been at a record high for the past two years, the overall undergraduate enrollment for the university in fall 2024 was 6,006, only 162 students higher than the 5,844 registered in fall 2019. After 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic caused an enrollment dip that has now fully rebounded.
Regarding why GCSU freshman enrollment increased substantially in fall 2023 and 2024, Robinson pointed to GCSU’s unique liberal arts education differentiators: that students can collaborate across disciplines in various ways and gain a uniquely broad perspective through their education.
GCSU offers high-impact practices or HIPs–learning experiences that apply classroom concepts to real-world situations, the GC Journeys Program and Leadership Programs across disciplines. These unique-to-GCSU programs are not only offered to all but are popular among GCSU students with high success rates.
More than 68% of 2024 graduates participated in two more HIPs and over 27% participated in three or more. 58.4% of 2024 graduates completed the GC Journeys program and 38% completed the Leadership Program.
Robinson also added that GCSU has launched new recruitment strategies in the past few years, geared towards high school students as early as their freshman year, which could be a contributing factor in GCSU’s growing enrollment rate. The university’s early recruitment strategy fosters a strong connection between applicants and the university long before application.
To maintain GCSU’s uniquely small class sizes and programs, administrations intend to both increase selectivity and limit enrollment to 1,750 freshman students in fall 2025.
“Our overall goal is to maintain an engaged undergraduate total enrollment while continuing to grow our online graduate programs,” Holley Roberts, interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs said.
Roberts also assured that GCSU continues to maintain a 16:1 student-faculty ratio. In response to rising enrollment rates, deans and chairs are collaborating with the university registrar to hire qualified faculty to teach classes students need and ensure the necessary classes are offered.
Regarding the financial status of GCSU in response to the record number of freshmen admitted in the last two years, Susan Allen, interim vice president for Finance and Administration, offered some unique insight into the funding system of Georgia universities
Allen provided that state funding operates on a two-year lag; therefore, the funding GCSU received for this year is based on the number of credit hours processed in the academic year for 2022.
Though this technically means less funding is allocated to students for the 2024-2025 academic year, given that enrollment rates were lower in 2022, Allen assured that there is no financial strain, since enrollment is only 162 students higher than the university’s former record high.
Additionally, considering the GCSU administration’s plan to lower student enrollment in fall 2025, the funding received from the record undergraduate enrollment of 2023 should increase the student-funding ratio next year.
The high GCSU enrollment rates of the past two years have also raised questions regarding overcrowding and under-availability in residential halls and West Campus housing.
When asked how student dormitories and West Campus housing are adjusting to the strain of the increasing size of freshman classes, Dan Nadler, vice president for student life and interim dean of students offered that residential halls have historically had strong occupancy rates, while West Campus apartments have not. The GCSU Panhellenic Council made a decision not to renew the contract for Sorority Living at West Campus in response to the record-high freshman enrollment of fall 2023.
“The additional beds coincided with the student enrollment growth,” Nadler explained.
Student parking and transportation now more than ever have been an area of uncertainty for students due to the high number of freshmen admitted each year. Here is everything given to GCSU students to know about the effects of the growing student population on parking and transportation services and plans to remedy the situation.
Charles Cruey, director of auxiliary services said that in 2023, the year of GCSU’s record-high incoming freshman class, there was a spike in parking citations by over 1600 tickets. However, this increase in citations was not directly caused by the number of students, but by Parking & Transportation’s switch to the more efficient License Plate Recognition, LPR, system.
“Before LPR, manual enforcement by student workers limited efficiency,” Cruey said. “Since its introduction in January 2023, citations peaked at 5,601 but declined to 4,821 in 2024 as the campus community adjusted.”
According to Cruey, GCSU transportation services currently serve 1,500-1,800 shuttle passengers per day Monday through Thursday and 1,000 passengers on Fridays. There is an average occupancy on shuttles of 65%, with Tuesdays and Thursdays being the busiest days of the week for GCSU public transport.
Beginning in fall 2025, the shuttles will begin running every 6-10 minutes during peak usage hours, 7:20 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. There are also plans to remove the underutilized Greene St. stop by the residence halls entirely, to improve shuttle efficiency across campus.
Currently, main campus parking occupancy is approximately 90% or above while other parking occupancy is about 50% or lower. In fall 2025 there will be approximately 357 new spaces added to the Irwin St. parking lot for commuters, increasing parking spot availability near campus.
Starting in fall 2025, the university will also introduce elective student parking permits for $50 per semester, which students must purchase to park on campus. Parking and transportation services along with the Student Government Alliance, SGA, are working to ensure fair permit distribution, concerning priority criteria, such as class status or seniority.
GCSU’s record freshman class sizes of 2023 and 2024 have inspired changes all across campus in response to the growing student body. According to professionals across GCSU departments, demand in the areas of financial need, parking and transportation and student housing is being met and adjusted for in ways that strive to benefit the majority of the student population.