Texas A&M President Mark Welsh recently announced a freeze in undergraduate enrollment at the flagship campus for the next five to seven years.
Dr. Susan Ballabina, the president’s chief of staff, said that freeze does not apply to faculty.
“We have earmarked funding every year to add additional faculty, and we’ve put in place some faculty and staff retention programs because we have to have the appropriate numbers of faculty,” said Ballabina.
Ballabina said during the recent student experience study, faculty to student ratios, the need for more advisors, and career counseling services all came up.
“That is really why we want to pause for a minute, take a deep breath, and make sure that these students have the same experience that is positive, that leads them to have the same loyalty and allegiance as all of our other former students that came generations before,” said Ballabina.
The president’s enrollment freeze announcement also said the pause in growth will “give us time to build the infrastructure and capacity we need now and in the future”.