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61 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, October 9, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 5, 2004 SOU’sstudent figures uncertain MT, Ashland Tidings file Freedom of Information request on early numbers By BILL CHOY Mail Tribune ASHLAND — The number of students enrolled at Southern Oregon University this fall remained uncertain Monday after an administrator declined to release the figures. Ron Bolstad, vice president for administration and finance and the university’s designated enrollment spokesman, said he was "not in the position" to release the preliminary figures. The university did, however, issue a press release Monday that said SOU has more than 5,000 students enrolled so far this term. It said it expects to be within a few hundred students of the 5,506 enrolled in fall 2003 by Oct. 22, the end of the fourth week of classes. The Mail Tribune and the Ashland Daily Tidings filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the numbers on Thursday, after university President Elisabeth Zinser predicted Sept. 23 that SOU enrollment would decline slightly this fall. The University of Oregon and Oregon State University both are predicting record enrollment, according to figures the campuses released last week. Advertisement Every 1 percent in the rise or fall of enrollment translates to a $200,000 swing in SOU’s budget, Zinser has said. University officials have said SOU’s enrollment has increased 2.4 percent the last five years. The university normally does not release preliminary figures, waiting until official fourth-week totals are released by the state in November. The fourth week is the last chance for students to register or drop classes. After the newspapers’ request to see preliminary figures, Bolstad said Monday he was unsure why the figures were not available. Such decisions, he said, are made by the campus administration executive council, which includes all four vice presidents and Zinser. Zinser is out of town this week and was unavailable for comment on Monday. She did make a statement in the press release. "We expect fall enrollment to be under our initial projections," she said. "While not unmanageable, it costs us important revenues and demonstrates how enrollment-driven our budgets have become. Signs for this fall were encouraging because applications have been up; however, costs are rising faster than financial aid." Diane Saunders, communications director for the Oregon University System said while each university has the option of releasing preliminary numbers, the university system prefers they wait until fourth week numbers are released. Saunders emphasized that the university system will not have a clear idea of enrollment trends until the fourth-week figures are released and that the numbers change daily. "There’s a lot of coming and going in those first four weeks," Saunders said. She said in the past, when preliminary figures have been released, many people have thought those were the final, official numbers. "We don’t like so many numbers out there that might not be the right ones," she said. "We don’t consider them reliable." Saunders said the university system had forecast that attendance would be flat at state universities this year, either falling or rising slightly. In June, the state Board of Education announced tuition increases at several schools. SOU’s increase originally was 19 percent, but the board later reduced that slightly.We did expect to see some enrollment decrease because of the sticker shock of the increases," Saunders said. It was unclear Monday whether SOU would be the only school in the system to see a decrease in enrollment. The University of Oregon, with preliminary enrollment of 20,200 students, was expecting an increase of 150 over its previous highest enrollment. OSU was expecting to exceed 19,000 students this fall. Its previous high enrollment was 18,979. Bill Choy is a reporter for the Mail Tribune and the Ashland Daily Tidings. Reach him at 482-3456. 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