Diverse Sources Interview

Joshua Hinojosa
Junior
International Relations

Me: The university had a record enrollment of 35,568 students last year and is expected to have a record or near-record again this year. How has this increased enrollment affected you?

Joshua: Well for starters as far as registering for classes, it has become more tedious to actually get the classes I need. So of course, you look at your degree audit and see specific classes you need and when it comes time for registration, not only do you have to wait behind all these people to wait for a class there is a very high change you won’t even get into the class because of the amount of people who are trying to take it as well. So that makes it much more difficult to have a schedule you want or fitting to what you need.

Me: Any other ways it affects you?

Joshua: In general, I would just say it’s also affected parking.

Me: Should the university continue to grow?

Joshua: I do believe the university should continue to grow because it will become a more reputable education center.

Me: you believe it should grow despite the fact that you have trouble registering for classes?

Joshua: I still want to see it grow; I’m sure they can find ways to accommodate that. They can do this by adding more classes, hiring more professors, implementing a different way of registering besides the “first come first served” way. As the enrollment grows, so can the staff.

Me: Did the size of the university influence your decision to come here?

Joshua: Somewhat. The other schools I looked at were a lot smaller. This is a decent sized school; not as big as a school like UT Austin but a happy medium I’d say.

Me: Do you think there is anything that might turn people away from enrolling here?

Joshua: Yes, I’d say the enormous amount of construction on campus, though I know it’s all a part of the growing population, but if you have a prospective student visiting here and he sees all this construction on LBJ or the huge mess by Commons, I’m sure he’d see it as a problem. If it were me and I had seen all that before enrolling, I’d be turned off by that and not want to be at a university that is “incomplete.”