By Amelia Betancourt
A topic of conversation amongst me and my peers this year has been Jefferson’s student body size, and the seeming lack of space on campus. Anyone who knows me personally can attest that I love Jefferson. I love being here, and while I’m not unaware of some of the flaws our campus has, I do get defensive when I hear people talking negatively about our school.
One of the main reasons I committed to Jefferson in May of my senior year of high school was because this campus is so small. Faculty, staff, and even administrators recognize students; they know and have close relationships with many of us. This is a luxury that students at other Philadelphia schools might not have. As I hear more of my friends musing about the lack of space on campus, I wondered if there really has been an increase in our student population, or if it just feels that way sometimes.
I decided to look into the data around our student body population and matriculation statistics for the past several years in order to see if there has been a significant increase in campus population size.
I reached out to Dr. Jeff Cromarty, the Senior Vice President of Operations at Jefferson, to get accurate data about the university population, which he was more than happy to provide. He also took the time to sit down with me to talk about the topic of this article and answer any questions I had about potential implications associated with an increase in campus size.
Below are two graphs that show the size of each entering class since 2013 until this past fall 2022 as well as total daytime enrollment at the East Falls campus since 2007, which was then Philadelphia University.
Jefferson’s population size has increased slightly over the past four years, and entering first-year class sizes have been increasing more significantly than the overall enrollment size.
As I mentioned, concerns about population size on campus have been casually raised to me by friends within my class year, that is, the entering first-year class of 2019. The first graph shows that the entering class of 2019 contained 615 students. The incoming first-year class of this semester contains 766 students. It makes sense that it feels like more people are on campus because statistically, there are more students.
“Increasing population on campus is fine as long as the resources for students increase accordingly.”
-Survey Participant
Additionally, Dr. Cromarty and I spoke about the changes in Jefferson’s undergraduate retention rate. It has increased from 70% to about 85% in recent years, and he indicated that this is one of several factors that may be contributing to the feeling of a slightly “larger” campus population.
I also administered a Google Forms survey to current students regarding how they feel about Jefferson’s campus size.
Of the 22 people surveyed, 95.5% of respondents indicated that they feel like there has been an increase in population since beginning their academic careers at Jefferson East Falls. 81% reported that the small campus population influenced their decision to attend university here, and 90.9% feel that the smaller population size has positively impacted their time here academically and socially. All participants indicated that they are second-year students or older.
I asked participants which of the following issues concerned them most about a potentially increasing campus size at East Falls: class size/faculty-to-student ratio, on-campus housing availability, parking availability for commuters and residential students, and tuition/cost of attendance. The results are shown below.
As a commuter, I was not surprised that most participants were concerned about parking availability. I raised this potential issue to Dr. Cromarty during our conversation.
He explained that parking spot availability for commuter students has doubled since last term. As a result, this has led faculty members to raise complaints to him and other Jefferson administrators about a lack of parking for faculty on Main Campus.
“Parking availability on Main Campus is definitely an issue, especially with the slow shuttle.”
- Survey Participant
Dr. Cromarty went on to say that parking is an issue where, regardless of what Jefferson does to change parking lot designations, not everyone will be 100% satisfied. He reminds us that there is always plenty of parking available at Ravenhill, and that if walking from Ravenhill is not something people are comfortable with doing, the Ram Van is always an option.
The other major concern was on-campus housing availability.
“It is irresponsible of the school to be admitting more first-year students than it can house. There is no reason there should be first-year students in upperclassmen dorms. This also creates less housing availability for third-year and up students who may need the security of university housing,” said one survey respondent.
This year, a handful of Jefferson East Falls upperclassmen are living at Martin Hall on Jefferson’s Center City campus, due to East Falls’ on-campus housing reaching capacity. It is, and always has been, a requirement for first- and second-year students to live on campus unless they live within a certain radius of campus, in which case, they may commute. I think that the option of Martin Hall for upperclassmen housing was definitely a step in the right direction for Jefferson, considering there are multiple modes of public transportation from Center City to East Falls. However, I do understand the concerns raised by my peers that it is inconvenient for upperclassmen to have to worry about finding off-campus housing, especially considering finances and public safety.
Conversationally, I have heard from my peers that having enough academic spaces for an increasing student body is also a concern.
During my conversation with Dr. Cromarty, I brought up this matter. I prefaced this topic by mentioning the Institutional Facilities Plan, which proposes new academic building expansions, as well as five new, on-campus residential buildings. One of these academic expansions, the new Harold and Kay Ronson Health and Applied Sciences Center, is completed. The plan, which can be seen here, also includes building expansions to the Architecture and Design building and Downs Hall.
“I find it strange how a lot of classes for psychology are being held in locations that most aren't used to (Ravenhill Mansion instead of Ronson/Hayward, for example). A lot of professors I've spoken to are saying it's because both faculty and student population expanded.”
-Survey Participant
As to why it may feel like we are running low on academic spaces, Dr. Cromarty explains that this is largely due to the times students are willing to take classes and when faculty are willing to teach classes. For example, many students won’t sign up for an 8:00 am class, but many more are willing to sign up for one at 9:30 am. Similarly, professors aren’t always eager to teach early morning classes. So, more classes are offered at the times both students and faculty are willing to attend/facilitate, and, consequently, classes are held in “odd” locations - Art Center 2, Roxborough House, Ravenhill Mansion, etc. - to accommodate the number of students in class at those more popular class times. A quick scan of campus early on a Tuesday morning or in the afternoon on a Friday is enough to see that, as Dr. Cromarty says, some times of the day are just not popular class times. The speculation that we are running low on space likely comes from our experiences with classes scheduled during busier times of day.
Overall, while there has been a steady increase in enrolled students at Jefferson, this increase has not been all that drastic. Retention rates in recent years has likely made it seem like there are more students on campus now, especially for members of the incoming class of 2019, who entered at the tail-end of PhilaU’s existence. Though I will be graduating in the spring of 2023, I’m looking forward to keeping up with Jefferson and seeing how their plans for expansion and renovation to current academic and residential buildings pan out over the next several years.
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