Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Oregon University System is boasting a record high enrollment this fall.  More than 86,000 students are attending college across the state.

As  Becca Bartleson reports, that’s more than a five percent increase over last year.

Portland State University students were treated to free coffee, Voodoo doughnuts and a DJ.

PSU was celebrating the completion of the University’s new plaza and a six and a half percent increase from last year’s fall enrollment.

That’s about 1600 extra students.

Wim Wiewel: "I'm very pleased that we're here to serve everyone who wants to come to school and pursue a higher education."

Wim Wiewel is the President of PSU. During the event he helped serve coffee and met with students. Wiewel is new to the university; he's only lived in Portland a few months.

He says extra funding provided by the state  legislature over the last two years has had a positive effect.

Wim Wiewel: "It's both extra money so that we could hire more faculty, so that we could keep class sizes at a reasonable level. And extra money that went into the Oregon opportunity grant so that families would actually have the money to afford the tuition at the Universities."

In fact, the grant helped an extra 8000 low-income students in Oregon afford their education.

Di Saunders is a spokeswoman for the Oregon University System. She says the state also helped increase student diversity on campuses.

Di Saunders: "We are seeing that many of our underserved students, our low income students, our first generation students, our students of color and students from rural areas tend to get left behind sometimes when it comes to higher education access. And so we are seeing those numbers increase."

Saunders says the boost in diversity and overall enrollment are thanks to the investments made by the governor, and the legislature.

PSU President Wim Wiewel says PSU could see even more students if the down economy leads unemployed Oregonians back to school.  He says in any event, state Universities must be prepared.

Wim Wiewel: "We will have to continue to grow right here and we probably have to look at some additional satellite locations as well, and we will greatly increase the amount of online education we provide."

This year about 4300 more students enrolled in Oregon universities.

The last time Oregon saw a major influx of new students was in 2002, during the last economic recession.