WSU Vancouver welcomes a new year on a booming campus

"Happy New Year!"

That's how Bruce Romanish was greeting his colleagues Monday.

He doesn't have a faulty calendar: Romanish is associate dean at Washington State University Vancouver, where fall semester started Monday.

"In the academic world, our new year is now," he said.

And the new year is shaping up as a happy one, he added. As it has every August, WSU Vancouver is setting enrollment records. Administrators project about 2,750 full- or part-time students, about 10 percent above last fall's head count.

Officially, WSU measures its enrollment based on the equivalent of full-time students. The state is funding WSU Vancouver for 2,113 full-time students and the campus expects to meet that number.

Official enrollment numbers will be announced after the 10th day of classes.
The growth is coming primarily in freshmen and in some graduate programs, said Nancy Youlden, director of student services.

It's the third freshman class at WSU Vancouver, which began nearly 20 years ago as a branch campus for upper-division and graduate students.

Enrolling freshmen is one thing; keeping them is another. Now the campus wants to look at retention rates, Youlden said.

There is speculation that some students are using WSU Vancouver as what Youlden called a "stepping stone." They may get general requirements out of the way, and save money by living at home, before transferring to another campus.

"It's been anecdotal, but we will survey our freshmen to get a sense of their intentions," Youlden said.