Finding places for this fall’s freshman class members to live is just one way the campus responded to the record enrollment of about 6,000 new first-year students. In addition to pressure on Housing for living space and meals, the additional students translated into the need for more course sections, academic advising and transportation options, among other services.

Although final numbers on just how many new students are enrolled won’t be available for a few weeks, officials knew going into the fall semester that the class size was up significantly.

This year’s yield of students is up significantly. Enrollment, determined during a head count in the third week of classes, can be estimated by looking at how many admitted students have paid a deposit to hold their space.

Earlier in the summer the Admissions Office announced that even though the total numbers of applications was down, 6,571 potential students had paid a deposit, compared with 6,060 at the same time last year.

To address the increased need for entry-level courses, LSA and the College of Engineering (CoE) opened additional sections of high-demand classes.

In LSA those were introductory courses in physics, mathematics, biology and Spanish, says Robert Megginson, associate dean for undergraduate and graduate education.

Megginson says the college was able to accommodate almost all needs for courses, with the exception of some that require time in the lab, like chemistry and biology.

“We have some physical limitations,” he says. “We can’t manufacture lab space that’s not there. That becomes a hard restraint.”

Instead, LSA advisers figured out creative ways to defer some courses by changing wait-list procedures without disrupting course sequences, he says.

CoE also added sections of its introductory courses for engineering and computing, and hired additional advisers, says Levi Thompson, associate dean for undergraduate education. Thompson says engineering students take their introductory physics, math and chemistry classes in LSA, adding to the demand in that college.

“We couldn’t have done this without collaborating with LSA. We worked well together in addressing these issues,” he says.

Thompson also praised the work of Gary Herrin, assistant dean for undergraduate education in CoE, who manages first-year programs and coordinated the college’s efforts to address student needs.

CoE had planned to grow its freshman class from about 1,000 students to 1,100. The college wasn’t planning on 1,300, however, which is the estimated number in this year’s class, Thompson says.

“Once they get into the departmental program, we have some challenges,” he says. “Our labs are of finite size. We can’t simply add more space but we can offer the courses at more times.”

Adding new sections of courses was no easy feat in the time frame the colleges had to respond, says Associate Provost Philip Hanlon.

“To paint the picture a little more dramatically, the yield was about 2 percent higher than the previous year throughout most of the spring until the last two weeks in May, when it jumped by 5 and then 8 percent,” Hanlon says. “We really had very little warning.” The semester was over and people were off for the summer, he says, complicating the process of finding instructors for the extra courses.

“It’s really kind of miraculous that the most affected departments were able to put in place the staff they needed to teach classes,” he says.

Dave Miller, director of parking and transportation services, also knows about miraculous feats. His staff was approached in mid-summer by University Housing to come up with a plan to increase bus service to meet the needs of extra students—particularly those who were housed on North Campus.

In a matter of weeks, his staff had hired seven new bus drivers and increased service by 55 hours per week. This included new routes, The Northwood Express for Northwood I-IV housing units, where a number of upper-class and graduate students were placed, and the Oxford-Trotter Shuttle that runs every 15 minutes from 7:30 a.m.-2 a.m. It also involved increasing the number of buses for Bursley and Baits halls to every 5 minutes instead of every 10. The cost for all of the increased service was $375,000.

Miller credits Bus Operations Manager Jordan Gray with crunching the numbers to come up with the plan. “He spent a lot of long nights and weekends figuring out how to meet the demand.

“We also received very valuable guidance and input from Carole Henry in Housing, Marilyn Knepp and Phil Hanlon from the Office of the Provost, as well as input from Vice President for Student Affairs Royster Harper and Senior Associate Vice President Frank Cianciola,” he says. “They were key players and decision makers who really helped to fine tune the final product.”

Miller says comments so far have been positive, particularly regarding the Northwood Express. He says the buses for Bursley/Baits continue to be extremely full—a problem that existed before the additional services were added. He hopes it is a factor of the warmer-than-usual weather and not a long-term trend.

Alan Levy, director of housing public affairs, says dozens of University Housing staff members worked hard in the short time frame to find comfortable accommodations within existing units to take care of the increase in freshmen. They also ordered and installed more than 400 units of additional room furnishings, and expanded programs designed to help acclimate students to their new community.

This involved taking advantage of available space in Family Housing, Baits and Oxford. It also meant reaching out to some returning students to see if they would be interested in opting out of their contracts, and trying to make sure, as much as possible, that people who wanted to live near one another were accommodated.

Efforts included expanding move-in and welcome programs in the facilities that were to house the additional first-year students, and adjusting dining services and meal plans when appropriate, including the addition of two new dining cash operations in Baits and Oxford that were not planned for as of June.

“U-M, as a residential campus, has a longstanding commitment to housing all new undergraduates—usually around 96 percent of the entering class. This year, meeting that objective was especially challenging, and not without controversy,” Levy says. “University Housing is very appreciative of all the support it received from across the University, especially from Transportation Services, in recognizing the expanded needs in selected sectors of the campus.”