Students Thoughts on the Still Growing Enrollment of Texas State

By: Tyler Hull

Texas State University had another record-breaking enrollment this fall. Increasing in size by 3.5% totaling up to upward of 36,700 students. According to the University News Service press release this is the 17th straight year that Texas State has topped its previous years enrollment.

In her update "From the Hill," Texas State President Denise M. Trauth said that Texas State is the fourth largest university in Texas behind University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M, and University of Houston.

Brianna Hayes, photo by Allison Crawford

President Trauth also said, "Although our growth poses some space challenges, what's also telling is that Texas State has become a top destination among prospective college students."

The size of the student body is a very important thing here to some students. Every student has their own thoughts on the student population.

According to senior and Lubbock native Darbie Walker, the student population hasn't really affected her that much.

"I’ve been here for 4 years and its been growing the entire time from the construction to the students. It is really amazing to see this happen before my eyes here."

Then you have others like senior Brianna Haynes who thinks Texas State should actually decrease the people they are letting in.

Candace Jackson, photo by Natalie Walther

"This was a small town if you really look at the history of San Marcos. There's just way too many people here and I feel like its making the town suffer because of all the students enrolled. There's never ending construction because of the amount of people here and them trying to expand to fit the amount of students."

Many students have noted that the university is growing at a rapid pace. It is very easily noticed when you are trying to walk through campus or find a place to park. Caleb Davis, 21, thinks that Texas State should keep growing but keep in mind that we need to better accommodate the growth as well.

  “I like that it keeps growing. I think that we can continue to grow a bit more but by the same token I do think that we need to grow ourselves, grow the buildings, grow the parking places, grow everything about the university. But while it grows, it can’t be something that reactive. It’s got to be proactive.”

Candace Jackson, junior, also noted that the university should keep growing, but the campus should grow as well.

Joshua Hinojosa, photo by Victoria Marin

"There are way too many kids for our campus but I think they need to make our campus bigger. I think they need to buy more land, and make the campus bigger."

Besides construction, other complaints students have related to the population increase are how hard it has become to register for classes. Junior, Joshua Hinojosa thinks that registration has become a tedious form of art to get into the classes you need.

"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."

Although many students may have negative feelings about all the change and growth that is happening. Senior, Josh Mitchell sees the final aiming point the university has in mind, even through all the struggles people are having now and believes the plans are for the better.

"Generally the expansion and beautification will help this campus grow and I think that is the campus overall goal."