By Mallory Sherwood, Managing Editor

More faces are on campus this spring than last spring, according to the official spring enrollment numbers that were released last week by the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

Lisa McCarty, assistant director of the OIRA, said 4,427 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled this spring, up from 4,418 in spring 2005. Fall 2005 enrollment was 4,703. Between the fall and spring semesters though, enrollment typically drops.

McCarty said although the number of enrolled students dropped by 276 this spring, that this trend is normal between the fall and spring semesters.

“You have to factor in December graduation,” she said. “Our average decrease between semesters is 6.6 percent.”

This year’s enrollment dropped 5.9 percent between semesters.

This year between 230 to 240 undergraduates graduated in December, which is an average graduation class size, said June Black, degree audit and graduation specialist in the Registrar’s Office.