CSU Bakersfield's enrollment set another record this fall, the third year in a row that enrollment has reached record heights

Terry Dunn, director of institutional research for CSUB, said the university's fall-quarter enrollment reached 7,094 students, the first time CSUB's enrollment has exceeded 7,000, and a whopping 10.1 percent increase over fall 2000.

In fact the university's enrollment had only twice before exceeded 6,000. The previous high enrollment was 6,431 last fall. The first time the university passed 6,000 was 1999 when 6,210 students enrolled.

CSUB's full-time equivalent also set a record. The fall enrollment came to 6,005 full-time equivalent students (FTES), well above last fall's record FTES of 5,491, Dunn said. FTES is calculated by taking the total number of units for which students sign up and dividing by 15 units, which is full-time for funding purposes.

Dunn said a number of reasons lead to the record enrollment:

A record freshman class of 626. The previous record was 563 in fall 2000. "The growth was due to the growth in the number of local high school graduates, and a marked increase in the proportion of local high school graduates coming to CSUB as first-time freshmen," Dunn said. "The college-going rate went up in Kern County."

Greater student retention. "A higher proportion of our spring 2001 undergraduate and graduate students re-enrolled this fall," Dunn said. "Our retention rate was the highest it's ever been - 81.4 percent, whereas normally we retain about 78 percent."

A higher transfer rate from community colleges. "We had a big jump from Bakersfield College - 497 - which is the highest number we've ever had from BC." A jump in education students at CSUB's Antelope Valley campus in Lancaster. Other intangibles also figure into the increase, he said. "People understand better the value of a college education in terms of their long-term goals."

Dunn also noted that more and more people from CSUB's service region are enrolling at CSUB. "We're become more and more a regional university," he said. "Of our enrollment, 76 percent are from Kern County, 18 percent from elsewhere in California, not quite 5 percent from out-of-state, and the rest are from foreign countries. A decade ago, he said, the numbers were 64 percent from Kern, 26 percent other California, 7 percent out-of-state, and the rest foreign.

This fall the main campus enrollment went over 6,000 for the first time, topping out at 6,302.

Enrollment at CSUB's Antelope Valley campus is 792. The Antelope Valley campus' enrollment has been growing steadily since spring 1999 when CSUB began offering undergraduate classes there. Enrollment in spring 1999 was 254. Last fall it was 492; last winter and spring enrollment was 593 and 612 respectively. This fall's FTES is 504.

Overall, Dunn said, the figures are encouraging. "We're very pleased with this trend," he said.