By Karen Snelling, Post-Tribune staff writer
HAMMOND -- A higher than expected student enrollment prompted Purdue University Calumet on Friday to stop admitting new undergraduates.
Admission was closed for the first time in 25 years because fall semester class for first-time students are full. The semester begins Monday.
"This is a decision we felt we had to make to avoid running out of class space," said Wes Lukoshus, the university's assistant vice chancellor for Advancement/University Relations. "We didn't want to enroll students and then not have class space for them."
The university, he said, is on pace to break its enrollment record of 9,607, reached two years ago.
"Many traditional, new student class sections are at or near capacity," Purdue Calumet Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Ralph Rogers said.
"While we are trying to accommodate as many qualified, new undergraduate students as possible, the demand we have experienced throughout this week of open registration is fast approaching the limits of available class seats."
Students admitted before 4 p.m. Friday can continue the registration process.
The recession, said Lukoshus, has contributed to the rise in student admissions.
"Some people are in a position to go to school because they're not working now. For others, this recession has convinced them to resume the education program they started years ago," he said.
A detailed analysis of Purdue's enrollment is not available, however.
But enrollment is up at Purdue North Central in Westville, too.
"We haven't closed admissions but we've seen a steady increase in enrollment," said Lawrence Barrett, the university's vice chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Services.
He said in the last three years ending in fall 2008, the university's student population grown 23 percent.
Barrett expects enrollment to climb 4 to 5 percent this fall.
Indiana University Northwest in Gary is also seeing a rise in undergraduate admissions, Christopher Sheid, the school's director of marketing and communications, said.
As a result, more introductory classes were to added to the semester class schedule to accommodate the rise in first-time students, he said.