DEREKH FROUDE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Nearly 750 more students are enrolled at the UA than last year, making the current enrollment the largest ever.

Combined graduate and undergraduate enrollment at UA has reached a record high of 36,847 students, topping the previous enrollment record of 36,676 set in 1989.

The UA was bound to break old enrollment records.

Last year's record-breaking freshmen class of 5,949 is in its second year and this year's freshman class of 5,808 students is UA's second-largest ever, according to statistics compiled by the Office of Assessment and Enrollment Research.

"We are 200 higher than we've ever been. This is the highest enrollment in the history of the university and the highest undergraduate enrollment," said Rick Kroc, director of assessment and enrollment research.

This year's undergraduate student population reached a record number of 28,278 students. There are 746 more undergraduates this year than last.

Kroc attributed the increase in undergraduate enrollment to demographics.

"We're the fastest-growing state. We're also a high-quality institution with high-quality education and low tuition," Kroc said.

Of the current undergraduates, 70.6 percent are residents of Arizona ÷ up 1 percent from last year. This year, 65.1 percent of new freshman ÷ 3 percent more than last year ÷ are Arizona residents.

UA administrators limited the number of non-resident students this year, especially freshmen, because UA is above the Arizona Board of Regents' policy guideline of 25 percent out-of-state students.

"That's a difficulty for us because the out-of-state students do pay substantially higher tuition, which does help finances," Kroc said.

Graduate enrollment rose to 8,569 from 8,215 in 2001.

"We've noticed that in the past, when the economy goes down, graduate enrollment goes up. Some employees may be out of work and may be going back for another degree. Some may be unsatisfied with what is happening in the workplace and going back for a master's degree," Kroc said.

Minority enrollment also increased 63 percent since 1989.

Hispanic student enrollment rose to 4,855 from last year's 4,668. Black student enrollment climbed from 922 in 2001 to 985.

Asian American and American Indian student enrollment fell by 28 and 12 students, respectively, since last year.

With such a large student population, there is concern that UA will not be able to provide for everyone with budget cuts looming overhead.

"We do project enrollments will go up again next year, but we won't see huge growth, not as great as this year," Kroc said. However, "it's not going to be easy to provide the level of service we provided this fall if we continue to get more students and continue to have difficulties with our funding."

UA lost $20.3 million ÷ or 5.9 percent of its operating budget ÷ between $16.6 million in cuts on state funding and pay raises that were $3.7 million smaller than expected last year. The Arizona state Legislature has not restored funding this year. Yet spring class availability and graduation rates should not be affected, Kroc said.

"There was a concern that we had borrowed resources from the spring to take care of the fall," he said. "That is not the case."

Four-year graduate rates have held at 29 percent for the past two years.