For Immediate Release

Contact:         Maryjane Briant
                        News and Media Relations Director
                        Galloway, N.J. 08205
                        Maryjane.Briant@stockton.edu
                        (609) 652-4593
                        stockton.edu/media                                                                                                   

Galloway, N.J. - Enrollment at Stockton University has reached a new record of 8,728 this fall, exceeding the previous two years’ record growth.

The number of undergraduates enrolled this semester is 7,854, up 1 percent over fall 2015’s previous record of 7,808. Graduate student enrollment reached 874, also up 1 percent. The previous records for total enrollment were 8,674 in fall 2015 and 8,570 in 2014.

“As Stockton continues to win national recognition, the university attracts increasing numbers of outstanding students from throughout New Jersey as well as from other states and countries,” said President Harvey Kesselman. “Stockton has been ranked in the top tier of regional public universities in the north by U.S. News & World Report for nine straight years. The opportunity to learn from exceptional faculty in small classes on a beautiful campus in the Pinelands National Reserve motivates students to want to join this community.

“Once they are admitted, 94 percent of our students enroll full-time, due in part to our flat-rate tuition, which allows students to take up to 20 credits for the price of 12,” Kesselman noted. “This enables students to earn their Stockton degrees more quickly, at a lower cost.”

Dean of Enrollment Management John Iacovelli made a presentation to the Board of Trustees at their meeting today. “Once again, for the fifth time in six years, I am proud to announce that Stockton has welcomed the largest freshman class in school history,” he said, with 1,190 new freshmen this year, up from 1,151 in 2015.

Stockton received over 5,200 freshman applications and over 1,700 transfer applications for the fall 2016 semester, Iacovelli said.  

Summer enrollment was down 5 percent overall, with a total of 2,211 undergraduates and graduates taking courses. Graduate students taking advantage of summer courses were up 8 percent, to 517 from 479 the previous summer, while undergraduates were down 8 percent, to 1,694 from 1,850 the year before.

The Class of 2020 and other new students are entering Stockton as it continues expanding its Galloway facilities, while participating in a public-private partnership to build a residential campus in Atlantic City.

In Galloway, an Academic Quad will include a green space on which the community can gather and two new state-of-the-art facilities to accommodate more students and better prepare them for successful careers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and the health sciences.

The 58,210-square-foot Unified Science Center 2 will nearly double the size of the 66,350-square-foot Unified Science Center, increasing capacity in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, which awards about 22 percent of all the science and mathematics undergraduate degrees at New Jersey’s senior public colleges and universities.

A new 37,720-square-foot academic building will feature a sustainability lab, classrooms and faculty offices.  Both facilities are scheduled to open in spring 2018, with 75 percent of their funding coming from the Building Our Future Bond Act passed by New Jersey voters in 2012.

In Atlantic City, Stockton is working with Atlantic City Development Corp., or AC Devco, in building a campus with residences for 535 students overlooking the beach and Boardwalk. The Atlantic City Gateway project will also include parking, a student center and an academic building that can accommodate up to 1,800 students.

The board also passed a resolution today amending a resolution from February regarding the design, construction and financing of the Atlantic City campus. The new resolution incorporates changes in the project that were made since February as negotiations with the developer were finalized, including a revised budget of $178.28 million for project costs, up from an earlier estimate of $163 million. It also authorizes the use of an additional grant from the N.J. Secretary of Higher Education and approves additional terms and conditions for the tax credit bonds that will be used to finance a portion of the project’s costs. The resolution also confirms the use of a bridge loan for the interim funding of pre-development costs, to keep the project on schedule.  

The trustees also approved submission of the 2018 capital budget request to the New Jersey Commission on Capital Budgeting and Planning in accordance with state guidelines.

For Fiscal Year 2018, Stockton is projecting a $264.149 million capital budget, with $195.879 million of that requested from the state. The FY 2017 capital budget request is $268.002 million, with $198.632 million of that requested from the state.

The list of projects for 2018 include a wellness/fitness center, roofing projects, parking lots, sidewalk and accessibility projects, a Pomona Road fieldhouse, expansion of program facilities in Nacote Creek  for the Coastal Research Center, health science-related facilities and other improvements, according to Don Hudson, associate vice president for Facilities & Construction.

For more information about Stockton University, visit Stockton.edu.