(12-21-2020 06:56 PM)NotANewbie Wrote:  

(12-21-2020 10:21 AM)PojoaquePosse Wrote:  Who or what only counts undergrads in their enrollment numbers? That's ridiculous. You ignore all the thousands of grad students walking around, taking classes and pretend they don't exist? Huh?

Historically, graduate students are less likely than undergraduate students to become involved with student activities and to support athletics. There are, of course, exceptions, but the core of engagement with intercollegiate athletics is the full time on campus undergraduate student population.

It probably makes sense to show the various enrollments:

Full time undergraduate on campus
Full time undergraduate off campus
Part time graduate on campus
Full time graduate off campus
Online undergraduate
Online graduate
FTE undergraduate
FTE graduate
Total on campus enrollment
Total off campus enrollment
Total online enrollment

Total enrollment.
etc.

However, that might get cumbersome, and who is going to take the time to say which enrollment number they have in mind when they talk about enrollment?

It would be nice if there were some simple way to gauge student support for athletics.

That's a great point; however, limiting the number to undergraduate students could possibly grossly understate the number of students that should be included. For example, reviewing something like athletic fees, one has to understand how the fee rates are structured. At Lamar, graduate and undergraduate students are charged athletic fees. The charge of $10.58 per semester hour is the same rate for both groups. The main challenge to make sure one has a complete understanding of all of the contributors. Additionally, in the case of Lamar, students at LIT, a separate entity, also help support the university's athletic program through their Student Services fee in exchange for some benefits like access to the university's athletic facilities and admission to university athletic events. Their rate is $5.00 per credit hour.

It really is a little more difficult getting to an apples to apples state than making broad assumptions and only picking a subset of the student population without a full understanding the various nuances.