By Kevin Tano, Triton’s Call Staff
Student enrollment at the University of Guam has seen gradual increases for the past 10 years and its Fall 2015 semester could be its highest yet.
For the Fall 2015 semester, the certified student enrollment totaled to 3,991, which is roughly a 1% increase over last Fall semester, according to Deborah D. Leon Guerrero, director for the Office of Academic Assessment and Institutional Research.
UOG President Robert Underwood said this year we could be seeing another increase of about 150 more students directly out of high school. This growth has brought some noticeable changes, such as an increase in the university’s faculty and the addition of parking spaces for students.
The university has recently hired 21 new faculty members, totaling about 175 on a full-time basis.
“We actually have more people who are from Guam on our faculty than we ever had before,” said Underwood.”But we also have more international faculty.”
Underwood wants the students to feel more at home, but also have an experience that challenges their everyday learning goals and extends them beyond that. During the start the fall 2015 semester, two new overflow parking areas were opened and provided students with more than 700 extra spaces.
“Now we have a whole better parking system than we had last semester,” said Underwood.
Future of UOG
With the student enrollment on the rise more changes are expected to happen to the university to accommodate those students needs.
“What we really want to improve is the student experience.” said Underwood. Sometime during this academic year, Underwood plans to have a one-stop center where students can be serviced in one convenient location.
He added that they want to make sure students are given proper advisement and ensure them that the university is a secure and safe place to be in. In addition, an infrastructure plan had been included to expand the Student Services Center as well as a School of Engineering Annex, which should be implemented sometime this year.
Underwood said one area they are particularly focusing on is their online presence. He anticipates a growth in the enrollment at least 2% ever year and predicts that about half of the students enrolled into the university will be online.
“I want to thank every student who comes to UOG.
Thank you for making the natural choice and thank you for finding your home here. This is a great time to be at the university.” said Underwood. “The spirit and energy is because of the students that come here.”
