Spring 2009 - Issue 5

The Silversword: Home > Chaminade Life > Large Freshmen Class Brings Challenges

Large Freshmen Class Brings Challenges

Mekel James and Darren Wong, Staff Writers

The fall 2009 freshmen class at Chaminade University of Honolulu is described as the largest in recent memory by faculty, staff, and students.

The increased enrollment is good news for Chaminade, which has been facing financial challenges. But the large class also has affected housing accommodations and jobs for some students.

First, here’s the breakdown of the enrollment numbers.

A total of 361 new students have enrolled at CUH with approximately 273 students being freshmen and 88 being transfer students, which topples last year’s 236 freshmen and 71 transfer. That’s a 15 percent increase, with 46 percent of the incoming students registered into the science programs.

The new class includes 150 students from the Hawaiian Islands, 100 from the mainland, primarily from California, and 23 international students.

Martin Motooka, assistant director of Admissions, said that the students were attracted to Chaminade primarily because of the different majors offered by the university, the amount of aid offered, and because many of them prefer smaller class sizes and a smaller student body.

Chaminade has also overhauled a lot of its marketing efforts to recruit new students said Joy Bouey, dean of admissions. Updating the design of the university’s Web site was a major improvement, not only making the Web site look better, but also making it informative and very user friendly.

“We’ve made considerable efforts to branch out into the media that the students use as a means of which to reach a broader spectrum of potential students” said Bouey.

On a side note, Bouey said an essay competition helped boost enrollment. Students with SAT scores of 1,000 and GPA’s of 3.0 and above could enter to win $1,000 to $2,000, which would be applied to their funding at CUH.

When asked what she thought contributed to such a large roster of students, Rebecca San Agustin, a sophomore from Guam, said, “For our local first-year students, it may be more ideal economically to stay on island than to go to the mainland. For our students from elsewhere, their friends or family’s decisions to attend CUH may have contributed to their coming here.”

Associate Dean of Students Allison Jerome agreed, saying the growth of incoming freshmen stems from the simple fact that people are looking at money and with how the economy is. Many want to stay home or as close to home as possible.

Tuition is also a factor — it’s much more expensive to attend private universities on the mainland, said Curtis Washburn, head of Academic Advising. An added bonus is the Hawai’i atmosphere and the diversity associated with the Polynesian islands.

While it is good that so many students chose CUH as their institution for higher education, it also causes problems for the university because it’s such a small institution.

Noelani Tu’u, a senior from American Samoa and a resident assistant at Hale Pohaku, said, “There is so little housing available due to there being so many students this semester. Many students are still on a waiting list just to get housing, forcing some students to either rent a hotel or sign six-month to one-year leases, just to have a roof over their heads.”

Aside from the housing problem, there exists a hurdle regarding jobs for students.

Karen Harp, director of Career Services, said, “One of the main problems we’re facing is that students will come here with expectations for employment and we only have 250 positions available, whilst having about 400 to 500 students. However, our remedy for that happens to be the Job Fair and Career Fair that is done every fall semester to help students fill the employment void.”

The new students are taking the challenges in stride.

Cierra Gavin is a freshmen studying biology and dreams of one day entering into a good pharmacy school. When asked how her experience has been so far with CUH, she said, “It has been good except for my class schedule.”

Gavin explained that incoming freshmen class schedules are predetermined upon acceptance into the university based on what major they decide, and it can cause a lot of problems, especially if you have an 8 a.m. class and you have to commute all the way from Kaneohe.

Jessika Garcia is a freshmen that is planning on majoring in communications and is seeking to get off to a good career start and land a position at KGMB 9 Sunrise.

Garcia’s experience has been positive thus far and says it has been an easy transition from high school to college life and dorm life.

All in all, school officials say that this has been a very good start for Chaminade University, especially since the passing of late President Sue Wesslekamper back in January.

“We were well prepared for the incoming class of students and are doing everything possible to make this as easy as possible for students to transition into college life,” said Bouey.