EWU experiences higher enrollment

CHENEY – The sleepy, summer days in Cheney have passed, giving way to a bustling city with people walking through downtown and on campus after classes resumed at Eastern Washington University Sept. 24.

EWU recently welcomed its second-largest freshman class in history. As of Sept. 30 there were 1,509 freshmen enrolled which is 173 more than last year, according to Dave Meany, a university spokesman. In 2005, there were 1,631 freshmen.

“I don’t think we’re going to quite reach that,” Meany said.

Those figures won’t be final until Wednesday, which is 10 days after the start of school. “Our residential life dorms are roughly up 110 or so over last year,” Meany said.

He added that in July, total confirmations of students living in the dormitories reached over 1,800. Last year at the same time, there were 1,690 students confirmed to live in the dorms. Overall enrollment is also up this fall. As of Sept. 27, there were 9,905 students enrolled, compared with 9,841 in the fall of 2007.

Mayor Allan Gainer, the owner of the Tree of Knowledge Bookstore on First Street, said he can definitely notice how busy the city is.

“My business is 37 percent up,” he said. He added that he has heard that business at Cheney Delights, owned by Fred and Gail Pollard, is also picking up.

During that first weekend students were in town, Gainer took note of the extra people in Cheney.

“There was a lot of hustle and bustle in the downtown area,” he said. “I like the students. They’re good for the city.”