Incoming students and their families walk to their last orientation session on Wednesday. (Photo/Logan Kirkland)
In the last five years, Ole Miss has seen a significant rise in the number of students enrolling each year at the university. Last year saw a 7.5 percent increase in the number of students attending Ole Miss in the fall, and the trend of a growing student body is expected to continue again this school year.
“I can share with you that based on preliminary data, we will be larger overall than we were this fall, due in part to new students and increased numbers of students being retained,” Director of Enrollment Services Whitman Smith said. “When you add to that larger classes for several years, you also have the phenomena that as each class moves up, your class becomes larger.”
With the expectation of a larger incoming student body, changes all over the campus are being made to alleviate any problems.
“The university is doing many things to accommodate our increase in number,” Whitman said. “New chemistry labs, new parking regulations, building new residence halls, renovating the music building, widening sidewalks, increasing the size of the Natural Products center, re-opening Lamar Hall as a general purpose classroom, opening the new Rebel Market and 1810 Grill to accommodate more people at meal times, etc.”
Whitman said these won’t be the only changes to help with the growing student population, and that the university will continue to work on this issue.
“We are in frequent discussions all over campus all the time on how to best manage growth,” Whitman said. “My list of improvements is only partial – lots more things are happening.”
Some students have been hesitant to embrace the growing student body and feel it could change the university for the worse.
“If the student body continues growing like it is I think it will definitely change the way Ole Miss is,” sophomore Vic Bishop said. “It’s going to take away from the small school experience and will make the campus seem bigger and not as friendly to the typical individual student who is more accustomed to small classes.”
Others embrace the change.
“I think Ole Miss growing just shows how this university is improving,” sophomore Sudu Upadhyay said. “Growing means that we can implement bigger and better programs. More paying students means more money that can be allocated towards our education.”
Cody Thomason
