Enrollment cap to ensure optimal size
By Brent Yarina
Staff Reporter

As the TCU administration prepares for life after Chancellor Michael Ferrari, one element university officials expect to remain the same is the enrollment cap.

For the fall 2003 semester, Ray Brown, dean of admissions, said TCU will enroll about 1,500 freshman. He said no more students can be considered because of a lack of on-campus housing, faculty and class space.

Before last year, Brown said the university didn’t pay too much attention to caps. However, three consecutive years of record applications forced the university to be cap conscious, he said.

“The popularity of this place didn’t catch fire until a few years ago,” Brown said. “Many qualified students won’t get into TCU as a result, whereas in previous years only the unqualified students weren’t accepted. This is a new phenomenon for us.”

Since Brown arrived at TCU three years ago, he said the acceptance rate has decreased from 80 percent to 71.4 percent. Brown said he expects the rate to be somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent next fall.

In the cap’s first semester this past fall, TCU reached its goal by enrolling 1,451 freshman, Brown said. The university wanted to enroll between 1,450 to 1,475 freshman, he said.

Ferrari said he implemented the enrollment cap on last year’s incoming freshman class to keep total enrollment under 8,000 students and to prevent TCU from growing by 100 undergraduate students each year. As the enrollment continued to expand, he said the university began receiving complaints concerning larger class sizes and more adjunct faculty.

Chris Katri, a junior accounting and finance major, said he favors the enrollment cap because it makes enrolling easier and classes smaller.

“TCU prides itself on providing a favorable student to teacher ratio; however, I’m still in classes with as many as 40 people,” Katri said.

Despite knowing that enrollment growth generates additional revenue, Ferrari said the added cost of more students outweighs any profit.

“The decision to grow can and should be based on key strategic factors of optimal size to build or sustain a quality learning environment, not simply to generate more money,” Ferrari said.

Ferrari said TCU is dedicated to keeping stable enrollment at the undergraduate level and selected growth at the graduate level. This fall, he said the graduate enrollment was 1,223 students.

Chancellor-designate Victor Boschini Jr. said he was hesitant to comment on the enrollment cap until he arrives at TCU and knows more about the issue.

Brent Yarina
b.j.yarina@tcu.edu