CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – On Monday the first of three summer terms began at Coastal Carolina University.
Associate Provost Dr. Holley Tankersley says summer enrollment has increased.
“Summer one’s enrollment is already up this year. We have more students registered for summer one classes than were registered last year,” said Tankersley.
In a typical summer term some classes are offered on-campus only.
The COVID-19 outbreak caused all three terms to virtually transition to online courses, making many classes available to out-of-state students at a flat rate cost.
“We know certainly that summer is just a small piece of our full academic year, but its an important piece,” said Tankersley.
Important for undergraduate students like Jeremy Evans.
“Some of my friends cannot get jiggy with the whole online virtual platform, but me personally, I feel like that’s better for me as far as time management goes,” said Evans.
Students will return to campus this fall, but Evans says the university is prepared should a second COVID wave hit.
“If we were to have something in the future like this happen, I feel like we now have a better game plan of how to actually manage the situation and I feel like that is definitely going to be a benefit for the future,” said Evans.
On Friday university leaders said they are preparing for a 15% decrease in enrollment.
Tankersley says increased summer numbers will only help their financial loss.
“Every bit of tuition revenue helps. Bringing in more students in the summer and potentially bringing in students who may be returning to school and kind of testing the waters given that the economy is going to be on a downturn,” said Tankersley.
