Swelling Student Population Sets New Enrollment Record

IHP Housing at Full Capacity

Continuing the recent growth trend at Yeshiva University, undergraduate enrollment at both the men's and women's campuses has reached a record high. The burgeoning ranks of new students have the university's housing operating at maximum capacity, including last year's newly inaugurated Independent Housing Program.

Enrollments are calculated by the office of admissions and are projected on a sliding scale, from a conservative to a maximum estimate. Undergraduate men's enrollment for the Fall '98 semester had been projected between 1110 and 1150 students, in comparison to the Fall '97 enrollment of 1104. As of press time the actual enrollment was 1132 and counting.

"We expect the men's enrollment to reach the higher end of the scale," said Dr. John Fisher, the newly appointed Director of Enrollment Management, "while the women's enrollment should fall somewhere in the middle of our projections."

Undergraduate women's enrollment at Stern College was projected between 871 and 895 students, in comparison to the Fall '97 enrollment of 847.

"We have become more selective while at the same time accepting more people," said

Michael Kranzler, Dean of Admissions. "I think this reflects the higher caliber of student Yeshiva University is attracting."

The incoming class on the men's campus is approximately 375 students, with 270 of those returning from Israel and 105 fresh out of high school. Roughly 235 women are returning from Israel, with another 85 neophytes joining them from high school as freshwomen for an incoming class total of 310.

Housing Situation

The growing student body has forced the administration to find creative solutions to the housing shortage on the uptown campus. With only 846 beds available in the three existing college dorms, a glaring shortfall was revealed in the weeks leading up to the Fall '97 semester. The administration responded by creating the aptly named "Independent Housing Program" in two apartment buildings adjacent to YU. Ill-prepared and caught off guard, the university was reduced to arbitrarily forcing unwilling students to move into unprepped apartments that lacked basic necessities of student life, such as toilet paper. Ultimately, over eighty students were placed in the IHP in order to alleviate the housing crunch.

For Fall '98, the projections were known well before the start of the semester. The administration prepared 120 beds in the two IHP buildings by moving all the semikha students to Laurel Hill Terrace, and attempted to iron out many of the previous year's problems by soliciting volunteers. Thirty-four additional beds were prepared in Strenger Hall, the high school dormitory, if the need would arise.

Sixty spots in IHP were filled from the returning student body. The University decided to fill the rest of the beds with Shana Bet returnees from Israel, creating a cohesive unit of students with shared experiences and backgrounds. Yet according to Dean of Students Efrem Nulman, as of the beginning of orientation, the IHP is filled to capacity and is populated exclusively by volunteers; no student was placed in the apartments against his will.

Nulman also stated, that barring any unforeseen changes in the housing situation there is will be no necessity to resort to the beds in Strenger Hall.