More than 1,300 students are enrolled at the Stockton satellite campus of California State University, Stanislaus this fall, a five-year high amidst efforts to substantially expand its student body and wider enrollment difficulties in the CSU system.
“This year we will explore how we can optimize our Stockton campus’ strategic location,” said Britt Rios-Ellis, the university’s new president, at a welcome address Aug. 19.
Administrators have billed the Stockton campus, located on East Magnolia Street, as a post-community college opportunity for students who don’t want to commute to Sacramento State or CSU Stanislaus’ main location in Turlock. Around half the student body is Latino, and many students are eligible for Pell Grants or are the first in their families to attend college. Transfers from San Joaquin Delta Colleges accounted for nearly 30% of students last year.
After more than 25 years in its current location, formerly the site of a state-run mental hospital, officials hope to expand the Stockton campus over the next several years. The university recently broke ground on a new academic building intended to open in the fall of next year. Stockton Campus Dean Sarah Sweitzer says the aim is to double enrollment.
“I like to see us as the undiscovered gem,” she said. “I think we have a real energy.”
Sweitzer and Rios-Ellis said they hope to raise the campus’ profile by holding events that bring in community members, not just students.
“We did the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program this last tax season, and it was actually our students that worked with community members to prepare their taxes at no charge,” Sweitzer said, adding that students helped prepare about 400 returns. The campus also offers a training program for community health workers.
And while overall enrollment is up, some specific details about the student population in Stockton this semester are unclear. A member of the university’s communications team did not respond to a request for full-time enrollment figures. Last year, the 906 students enrolled took the equivalent of 390 full-time students’ worth of credits, a ratio of about 44%.
Additionally, many students — around 69.1% in the fall of 2023 — also tend to take classes at the main Turlock campus, especially in the business, psychology and liberal studies majors.
“I think that the Stockton campus is a great place for locals to come here and have a community who makes them feel loved,” said Andrew Petrosian, a recent graduate manning the campus recreation table. “Everybody in every department gave me their best efforts every single day and made sure that they prioritized my success over everything.”
The Stockton campus offers resources such as a free food pantry, open during limited weekday hours, and a small fitness center for students that come in-person. But online class offerings are also popular.
Around 55% of the Stockton campus’ courses have some sort of online component, and nearly a third are altogether asynchronous, meaning no live instruction or class meetings.
Both Rios-Ellis and Sweitzer said that online offerings help meet a variety of student needs.
“We know there has to be a magic mix between face to face and online for most students, because there is that personal connection piece for student success, especially for first generation students,” Sweitzer said.
Ellis agreed.
“This is about really learning what today’s college student wants and how they can thrive,” Rios-Ellis said.
Retaining students is a major concern for CSU Stanislaus, Rios-Ellis said, as the university continues to grapple with enrollment difficulties. In the fall of 2023, its student population was down nearly 12 % from three years prior. And across the entire CSU system, enrollment has dropped around 6% since 2019. Limited enrollment also dashed hopes for a full-fledged public university in Stockton four years ago, with a 2020 report ruling ruling that the CSU system did not have enough projected students to justify any new locations.
And while its parent institution may be struggling, Sweitzer described the Stockton campus is on the come up.
“This is where we change not just student lives, but we change their family trajectories,” she said.
Miriam Waldvogel is serving a summer internship with Stocktonia. She attends Princeton University and is a Stockton native.