It's not too late to register for UTB/TSC

The Brownsville Herald

There's still time to register at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, where the fall semester begins Wednesday and enrollment is on track to meet or beat last year's levels.

"It's not too late to register or to apply for financial aid, the students just need to get in," said Linda Fossen, associate vice president for enrollment management. "We have online classes and on-ground classes - and classes are still available."

As of late Thursday morning, UTB-TSC had enrolled 10,873 students, up from 10,432 earlier in the day, Fossen said. Enrollment is online at www.utb.edu.

"We're very near even with what we had at this time last year," Fossen said. "In two weeks, we'll know a lot more."

Fall 2007 enrollment totaled 17,215, which included nearly 6,000 dual enrollment students. Most of the 23 area high schools in the dual enrollment program don't start classes until late August. Dual enrollment allows students to receive college credit for courses taken while still in high school.

The courses are taught at the high schools by UTB-TSC adjunct professors. Fossen said she expects dual enrollment to grow, noting the high turnout for an information night on Wednesday at the Jacob Brown Auditorium.

Meanwhile, students began occupying their dorm rooms Saturday at the Village at Fort Brown student housing complex on University Boulevard.

Of the 330 students with dorm contracts, 96 are from Brownsville, 42 from San Benito, 22 from Harlingen, 18 from Rio Hondo and five from Edinburg. In addition, eight are from Canada, seven from Mexico, six from Great Britain and two from Ireland.

"They're kind of looking for the college experience, living on campus, going to school," said Doug Stoves, director of residential life and student housing. "They're just looking for the whole deal, and we like to engage students in that way."

Stoves noted that dorm residents have an advantage, in that "essentially everyone staying there is going to college, too." The university supplies tutoring so students can "learn where they live, and we have study groups that are coordinated and that just happen," he said.

"Plus, there's the opportunity to mingle in a non-academic setting," he said. "It's a lot different than getting in your car and going home. Studies show that students in housing are more engaged on campus and more successful."

Fossen said UTB-TSC offers a number of options to make school more affordable, including a 25 percent tuition discount for 7 a.m. and Saturday classes, and a 10 percent discount for classes taught between noon and 4 p.m.

"Students are still coming in and we expect a significant increase in enrollment this year," Fossen said, noting that UTB-TSC's more stringent policy on Satisfactory Academic Progress caused some attrition "but we will have new students coming in and a significant number have finished academic suspension."

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