As the 2022-2023 school year begins, Michigan State University is welcoming 49,900 undergraduate and graduate students to East Lansing this fall. Among these students, 9,800 of them are first-year students. This is a new record for the university, exceeding last years freshman class size by 600 students. Although the city of East Lansing is looking more lively this year, students noticed the larger numbers impact their school year.
Veterinary medicine Freshman Andrew Plosky knew he always wanted to attend Michigan State. He didn’t think that his first year on campus would be full of wait times and students sitting on classroom floors. “My math class I think is probably around 200 people, it’s crammed, there’s people who have to end up sitting on the floor and stuff because there’s so many people,” Plosky said.
Chief Communications Officer for Student Life and Engagement Kat Cooper said that the university is excited for what seems to be the first normal year in a while, although it may seem overwhelming for some students.
As a strategy to compensate for the large freshman class size, the university introduced transitional housing. “Assigning an extra student to a room for a short period of time is a way we make sure we are maximizing our ability to educate Michigan’s public institution,” Cooper said. Many students began the year with an extra roommate, but just two weeks into the first semester only 150 students were still impacted by transitional housing.
Plosky was not effected by transitional housing, but he does know friends who had to accommodate to another roommate in their crammed dorm. “Even with four people in Akers it gets crammed sometimes so I couldn’t imagine doing three in a two person,” Plosky said.
Michigan State is expecting an additional 600 first-year students to begin in January.