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T h u r s d a y, S e p t e m b e r 2 2 , 2 0 1 6 | U s i s h i e l d . c o m | v o l . 4 7 i s s u e 6
‘APPLES TO ORANGES’ 10,693
10,701
2016
2015
students
students
illustration by Jessica Stallings | The Shield
The 2015 enrollment was taken during the first week of the semester whereas this year’s was taken in the fourth week. Therefore the data in the university Fact Book does not allow for direct correlation to find an increase or decrease in enrollment.
University moves census date, overall enrollment rises by sarah loesch editor@usishield.com @seloesch
When compared to the fourth week data from 2015, overall university enrollment has grown by 28 students. The enrollment data released this year does not directly correspond with data released last year because it was released at different times. “We are reporting at a different date now, so if you’re looking at numbers from last year and this year you’ll see in our (news release) this year that we are saying ‘at this time last year,” John Farless, director of University Communications, said. “So there is some fluctuation at the beginning of the school year that has to be taken into account.” The 2015 enrollment data was taken the Friday of the first week of the semester whereas the 2016 data is from the Friday of the fourth week. The 2015 numbers also included an estimation of CAP students and this year’s number is exact. Farless said that no estimates were made about graduate students in 2015. “We made an estimate (about CAP students in 2015) that was high,” Kindra Strupp, associate vice president for Marketing and Communications, said. Based on fourth week data, this year’s CAP numbers fell to 1,668 students from 1,672. Strupp said the university now “expects” for the
Three honored at annual Founder’s Day event by taylor o’neil Hall tohall@eagles.usi.edu
The University of Southern Indiana had its annual Alumni Association Founders Day program. The event was held by the university to recognize the achievements of its alumni as well as honorary alumni. There were three different awards given out: the Alumni Service award, the Honorary Alumni award, and the Faculty Recognition award. The Alumni Service award is given to a past alum that has gone on to do something extraordinary since their time at USI. This year, the award was given to Joey Barnett. Barnett is a member of the USI class of 1980 and he graduated with a degree in biology. He now works at Vanderbilt. Barnett has been a part of several boards to further the goals the university has, including his membership earlier this year on the committee that was appointed to find a Dean for the College
of Liberal Arts. “I am extremely pleased to have been selected for this award. It is a great honor. At the presentation, I was humbled as I looked around the room at the many alumni I have seen work so hard for USI over the years” Barnett said. Barnett said he was reminded of how much of his success is due to help from other people. “This was especially true during my education in Evansville, both at the EVSC and USI, where so many invested in me,” he said. “In my career I have been lucky enough to have the freedom to try to repay that investment.” Barnett said the best investment is providing opportunity for the younger generation. Linda Willis, a University of Evansville alum received the Honorary Alumni award. The award is given out to a member of the community that isn’t an actual alum, but has either given back to the community or has given back to the university in a huge way.
founders day, PAGE 3
enrollment data to be calculated at the end of the first four weeks. The University Fact Book lists the 2015 overall enrollment as 10,701 students. It then breaks out CAP students to have the total undergraduate and graduate enrollment for Fall 2015 at 9,029. “The factbook includes all of our official counts for the semester,” said Katherine Draughon, the executive director of Planning, Research and Assessment. In an email to The Shield Draughon said the 2015 numbers provided by the university were “point in time” data taken from the fourth Friday of classes so that it could be compared “apples to apples” with 2016. Draughon said the fact book is based on the 2015 census data from the first Friday of classes therefore the numbers in the fact book and the numbers provided for comparison to this year’s data will not match. “Again that apples to apples comparison is important but you’re going to see kind of an apples to oranges comparison when you look at the Fact Book,” Strupp said. “That’s unfortunate because the definition of our time frame changed it necessarily can’t be exactly the same.” Comparing the fourth week 2015 data to the 2016 data shows that graduate and new-to-college students rose, but undergraduate student enrollment fell. The undergraduate students fell to 7,957 from
8,105, a 1.8 percent decrease. The number of incoming freshman last year was announced in the press release as “nearly 1,700 first time in college students.” “I think that was a rounded number,” Farless said. “True freshman enrollment was 1,865 this year and in 2015 that number would be 1863.” The average GPA for those students was a 3.37, the highest in the history of the university. The university saw a 20 percent increase in graduate students, moving to 1,068 students from 888. This year is the largest enrollment for the graduate program overall. The increase is due in part to the addition of the online MBA program offered in the Romain College of Business according to the press release. “We knew there was a strong need for an accessible online MBA program, but we didn’t foresee how popular it would be,” President Linda Bennett said in a university news release. “With an enrollment of 88 students in its first cohort, the new online degree program has tripled our expectations. We’ve also seen a strong upward trend in enrollment, both new and returning students, across our 14 graduate programs.” Overall the university has students from 89 of the 92 counties in Indiana represented in its enrollment. There are also students from 36 other states and 74 countries. Housing is at nearly-full capacity at 98 percent.
Speaker discusses media’s relationship with politics, data work by RILEY GUERZINI news@usishield.com @Guerzwinski
When Luke Duong first arrived on campus, he just wanted to go to as many events as possible to learn about our political system. Duong, who is from Vietnam, accomplished his goal Tuesday evening when he attended guest speaker James Hitchcock’s presentation on political journalism. The Master of Public Administration Society invited Hitchcock, an assistant editor at media and polling outlet RealClearPolitics, who spoke about the media’s relationship to politics, how RealClearPolitics gathers its data, and his role within the news organization. “I heard of this event because my teacher, Dr. (Matthew) Hanka, said that we have a series of speakers to
Photo by jenna Bowman | The Shield
James Hitchcock, assistant editor at RealClearPolitics, speaks to members of university faculty and students Tuesday evening in the University Center. He was brought to campus as part of the MPA Society’s speaker series.
come and talk about political views and I felt excited and that’s why I’m here,” said Duong. An Evansville native and
the son of the University of Southern Indiana’s Director of Interdisciplinary Studies, David Hitchcock, he returned to Evansville to
deliver his speech, Making Sense of 2016: Reflections from a Year in Political Journalism.
hitchcock, PAGE 3