By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The outlook is bright for Bowling Green State University’s second Winter Session.
Provost Joe Whitehead reported Friday to the university’s Board of Trustees that the university is seeing an increase over last January in the number of courses offered — online and face-to-face, and study abroad — and the number of students enrolled in those courses.
Whitehead, who assumed his post just as the first Winter Session was concluding, said that officials were pleasantly surprised that 1,062 students participated last year.
According to numbers released on Monday by Betsy Winters, data analytics coordinator for Online and Summer Academic Programs, 1,409 students have signed up for courses.
Students have until the first day of classes, Jan. 2 to register for Winter Session classes.
As of Monday there will be 59 online courses, 42 face-to-face courses, and 12 study abroad courses available. That’s three times the number of face-to-face courses that were held during last year’s session.
Cecilia Castellano, vice president for enrollment management, said that more attention was paid to offering in-demand courses.
“We’re still learning our way through it,” President Rodney Rogers said.
Those numbers are fluid, Whitehead told the trustees. Some students will make their decisions based on how well they do in their fall courses.
Whitehead said some students need to take a Winter Session course to catch up. Others are using them to get ahead on their work.
Also, courses that don’t have adequate enrollment will not be offered, so that would reduce the number of students participating.
Winter Session came out ahead financially last year, Whitehead said, because “we do track enrollment and the cost of delivering these courses.”
On Monday, Paul Cesarini, assistant vice provost for Online and Summer Academic Programs said: “We are excited that winter session has become so successful. While students certainly aren’t required to take a winter session class, it continues to be a great opportunity for them to catch-up or get ahead. There are also numerous experiential learning opportunities available, though many of them are already full.”
Guest students are almost double according to the figures Whitehead presented to the trustees. That’s a number officials are closely tracking.
As with last winter, the number of students registering increases with standing, with the fewest freshmen taking courses during the session, and increasing with each class and seniors taking the most.
The number of graduate students was down slightly, he noted, but often graduate students will take those weeks to work on their theses, but not register for classes.
Concerns about Winter Session decreasing summer enrollment, seemed to play out, Whitehead said. But he noted, the total of students taking winter and summer classes in 2019, exceeded the number taking classes in summer 2018. It does not make a difference in spring enrollment, he said.
Cecilia Castellano had more good enrollment news to share. She noted that five years ago, BGSU was at the nadir of enrollment at 18,875. Since then its student body has grown by 5.46 percent, that’s more than its in-state competition. With 19,905 students, BGSU has a larger enrollment now than its northern rival University of Toledo, which enrolled 19,782 in the fall and has seen a 4.1 decline in the same five-year period.
Castellano noted the only other four-year state schools that experienced increases were: the University of Cincinnati, 5.1 percent; Ohio State, 4.5 percent; and Miami, 0.64 percent.
This comes, she noted, when there was an overall decline in the number of students in the state system.
