Claremont Independent

Last Updated: 9/14/06 Section: News

New class sizes coming soon?

VP and Dean of Admission Richard Vos

Claremont McKenna College President Pamela Gann boasted at the 60th Annual Convocation ceremony that the class of 2010 is the biggest in the history of CMC. Three years ago, students in the class of 2008 heard the same thing at their convocation ceremony. Since 2003, incoming classes have increased by approximately 20 students more than the traditional target of 265 new freshmen.

When asked about the growth of incoming classes, Richard Vos, dean of admissions, stated that the enrollment of 294 freshmen in the class of 2010 was not intentional. Instead, he faulted variations in the yield, the number of students who accept the invitation of admittance. Of the 805 admitted students in 2006, 36.5 percent accepted, giving CMC a yield of 294 new freshmen.

Vos said that last March the Enrollment Planning Committee decided to shoot for 300 new students to come to CMC in the fall, including about 265 freshmen and 35 transfer students. When the first week of May rolled around, however, the number of students accepting CMC's offer of admission was so high that Vos said he sent out letters telling waitlisted students they would need to apply another year.
By the second week of May, Vos's office roughly cut the number of transfer slots in half, still hoping to hit his goal of 300 students. The final control Vos hoped would limit class size is what he called "summer melt." Summer melt refers to students who accept admission but change their minds about enrolling at CMC. Vos expected summer melt to reduce the freshmen class size to 285, but it did not happen. With 294 freshmen and 14 transfers, the incoming class for 2006 totaled 308 new students.

When asked if there is a commitment to significantly reduce next year's freshmen class size, Vos replied, "Definitely, absolutely, yes, for sure." He also said, "We are going to be very, very conservative" in the decision making process. He plans to avoid an overabundance of students by relying more on the waitlist; that is, he will admit fewer students, waitlist more, and bring in additional students once CMC has a better idea of the incoming class size.

It is reassuring to hear that the admissions office has a plan to avoid a repeat of 2006, but unfortunately, current CMC students still have to live with the effects of a giant incoming class.
Stark lost all of its floor lounges, and Auen and Fawcett still house students in lounges. Upperclassmen complain of being unable to take classes they need. Now that CMC has more students than ever before and the administration imposes strict class size limits, seats in important classes are scarcer than ever. The squeeze is further compounded by the administration's recent decision to reduce the number of classes professors are required to teach.

Vos says that the dean of faculty's office will be conducting searches for about a dozen new professors. He also says that a new dorm is expected to be complete in August 2008 that should house 100 students. The plan is to grow the student body by only 70 students in order to see South Quad dorm lounges returned to proper use.

In talking with administration officials in the past, it is clear that they are determined to see CMC grow. How growth will be realized and the effects it will have on students remain unclear. The Claremont Independent awaits continued communication with the administration regarding student body composition and the hiring process for new professors, along with other topics concerning expansion here at CMC.

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