About once each term, a number of the College's power players, including the dean of admissions, associate treasurer and dean of residential life, meet to decide exactly how large Dartmouth's entering class should be and how many transfer students the College should accept.
The decision is noteworthy both in the number of factors that contribute to it and the number of ramifications it has.
The administrators on the Enrollment Committee attempt to balance the College's budget needs with its housing limitations, Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco said.
"[We] manage enrollment so we don't either run out of space or run out of money," said Registrar and committee member Thomas Bickel.
Assistant Dean of the Faculty and Assistant Provost Sheila Culbert said deciding the size of the entering class is not the Enrollment Committee's only responsibility.
It also decides on policies and procedures that will control enrollment, she said.
Turco said these policies have included limiting the number of students who can receive their first-choice Dartmouth Plans and giving students who change their D-plans and decide to remain at the College in the fall provisional status.
The choice made by administrators on the Enrollment Committee dictates more than the number of students enrolled at the College. It also has a wide range of ramifications, including changes in the class size at Dartmouth, Culbert said.
Turco said that in the Enrollment Committee's meetings, Dean of the College and committee member Lee Pelton details the effects the size of the new freshman class will have on the quality of student affairs and student life. Director of Financial Aid Virginia Hazen discusses the impact enrollment will have on financial aid with the committee.
Because of its complexity, the decision made by the administrators on the Enrollment Committee is based on many variables and requires information provided by a variety of College departments.
The committee is chaired by the Dean of Faculty, who is now Edward Berger. Past chairs include Provost James Wright and late Chemistry Professor Karen Wetterhahn, Turco said.
All committee members can change the agenda or request meetings, Culbert said.
During the meeting, Associate Treasurer Win Johnson presents the committee with his projections for the College budget, tuition, revenue and financial aid expenditures, Turco said.
Johnson explained he can make projections because "we have a sense of how many continuing students are going to be here."
Other reports include one from Assistant Dean of the Faculty Peter Armstrong, who oversees exchange students and off-campus programs.
Armstrong provides the committee with information about the number of students participating in off-campus programs and exchanges and the number coming to the College on exchange programs, Turco said.
Bickel and Associate Registrar Nancy Broadhead "give a summary of undergraduate residential enrollment," she said.
Bickel said he uses students' registered D-plans and the percentage of students who have been at the College in past terms to predict how many will be in Hanover in the future.
Turco said she reports on the number of student housing assignment requests and "predicted changes in the number of available beds."
Turco said there are two causes of changes in the number of students who can be housed on campus, the College's "cyclical maintenance schedule" and renovations in some or all of Dartmouth's 49 residential buildings.
Turco said ORL has plans to improve some of the College's residence halls to comply with new building codes, a course of action recommended by an architectural and engineering consulting firm.
She said one change which might eliminate student beds would be the addition of interior and closed exterior stairs to some buildings.
During meetings, Dean of Admissions Karl Furstenberg presents the committee with information about the status of the entering class and transfer program, Turco said.
She said he speaks about the number of students who applied to the College, how many were admitted to the College early and the number still in the applicant pool.
The committee then begins the delicate process of balancing residential limitations with the College's budget considerations, Turco said.
Furstenberg said the first year class ranges in size from about 1,060 to 1,090 students. But he said that, even if residence hall accommodations and D-plans indicated more than 1,090 students could find living space at the College, that number would not necessarily be admitted.
"If in one year, it looked like there was room in the dorms for 1,100, we wouldn't do that because of the problems it would cause for first year advisors, English 1&2 [and] freshman seminars," he said.
