The Barometer Online

It's official: OSU has more students on campus now than ever before.

Enrollment at Oregon State is up this year by 200 students to 18,974, according to just-released numbers from the Oregon University System (OUS).

Although enrollment increased, according to the study, the 1.9 percent rate of growth statewide has slowed from last year, when the growth rate was 5.7 percent.

However, at 79,558 students in Oregon's public university campuses, enrollment is still setting records.

The combination of increased tuition and a poor economic climate in Oregon probably caused the slowed enrollment, according to Bob Kieran, director of Institutional Research Services for OUS.

"We are not too surprised that enrollment slowed this year over the previous four years," Kieran said.

Portland State University saw the biggest enrollment jump out of all the schools, with an increase of 1,276. This solidifies the school's position as the largest university in Oregon with 23,117 undergraduate and graduate students.

Eastern Oregon University -- with a decrease of 131 -- and University of Oregon -- with a decrease of 10 -- were the only universities in the Oregon University System that didn't see enrollment increases.

The OSU-Cascades Campus enrollment also decreased, but OUS officials cited offerings from other Central Oregon Community College partners as the reason for the 14-student loss.

Over the last five years, OUS enrollment has increased by 22 percent, or 14,500 students. Ten thousand of those students were added in the last three years, according to the OUS.

Niki Sullivan is the editor of The Daily Barometer. She can be reached at 737-3191 or baro.editor@studentmedia.orst.edu.

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