When walking around campus, especially if you are an upperclassman, it may feel like the freshmen dominate the university. In the class buildings, the BCC or the dining halls. To a certain extent, this may be caused by the nature of upperclassmen life. Juniors and seniors have a car that permits them to leave campus as they please, as many do not live on campus, or have smaller meal plans that provide them less time in the dining halls and some are completely removed from campus due to living at the beach. While this certainly explains some of the causes for the freshman class’s omnipresence, it does not account for one large and systematic reason: Fairfield University consistently accepts too many students. 

Every year on Fairfield’s decision day, without fail, the university will post on social media boasting about the academic strength of the applicant pool as well as the rising number of applicants. Of course, a rising number of applicants is a great thing for the University’s brand and public image, so long as they accept a responsible number of these applicants to ensure reasonable incoming class sizes. Over the past 2-4 years, however, this has not been the case. This trend of over-acceptance began with my class, the class of 2025, which had over 1,250 students. This was about a hundred student increase from the class of 2024 and 2023. Those classes were reported as 1,150 and 1,160 students respectively. The class of 2026 was just over 1,340 students, the class of 2027 was about 1,445 students and the most recent incoming class, the class of 2028, is made up of over 1,450 students. Every year since the class of 2024 has seen an increase of around one hundred students apart from the current freshman class. Perhaps the University is finally pulling back on the reins and realizing the class growth is unsustainable. 

Freshman class size has gotten to the point where many of the forced triples in the Quad when I was a freshman are now being classified and marketed to current freshmen and high schoolers as triples. Having three freshmen in a room originally built for two is no longer a bug of the first-year experience, but the marketed normal. Instead of providing these students with money back on their bill, like I received my first year on campus, freshmen are instead receiving the new and modern “sleek furniture.” In reality, it is the same furniture that has historically been in most Fairfield living spaces, except noticeably smaller. All the while, tuition and other costs associated with attending the university continue to rise. Freshmen, as a result of the increasing class sizes, are getting a worse housing situation at a higher price. 

At the same time that the university is stuffing dorms to their limit, a similar situation seems to be playing out in the classroom. My sister, who is currently a first year, found it nearly impossible to switch in and out of freshmen-level classes before the school year. Every seat in every class was full. I understand this is anecdotal evidence, however, I do not remember it being such a struggle to move my schedule around three years ago. The flexibility problems are only compounded by what I have perceived as a movement of many classes to less desirable buildings or to buildings that do not correspond to the subject being taught. I know someone with an accounting class in the nursing building and I have had numerous business classes in the media center. This was not the case my freshman and sophomore years. Fairfield’s academic rankings may continue to rise, but its bloated class sizes have been eroding the academic experience for many. 

This oversized story continues in the dining locations of campus where a growing student body is creating increased wait times and overcrowding. For anyone choosing to dine at the Tully for lunch or dinner, there is a good chance they will be met with a line that spills into the main entrance of the BCC. The small floor space of the Levee and the Stag Diner is populated in a way that parallels the Grape on a Saturday night. Luckily, the school has expanded the food truck arsenal but in a few years, this location could find itself just as overwhelmed with students. Moreover, the seating capacity of dining locations such as the Tully has remained unchanged during the same period where incoming class sizes have ballooned by multiple hundred—leaving students scrounging for seats.

This evaluation may seem harsh, but I view it as the reality of the situation. The expansion of class sizes has, in all fairness, coincided with a steady drop in the acceptance rate. This year’s freshman class had an acceptance rate of 33% which is far lower than the acceptance rate of five years ago. This is great, but the university is doing themselves, as well as current, former and future students, a disservice by accepting as many students as they do. The freshman class’s 33% could have been 30%, or even as low as the twenty-somethings if Fairfield was more conscious about their colossal class sizes. Choosing to accept a few fewer students would most likely result in smaller classes that would not only improve the average student’s experience on campus but also help to elevate the university’s rankings and prestige on the national stage. 

For Fairfield, there is hopefully only one option, and that is to stop increasing the size of incoming classes. The university is only so big at the end of the day. Room to build is running out on campus. Parking is extremely hard to come by. If the University wants to maintain its tight-knit community it must stop the never-ending growth of its student body. For the sake of all students, and their experience here at the university, I beg that next year’s incoming class will not continue our march further along the road we are currently going down. Hopefully, at some point, the university will realize that tuition revenue needs to be valued less than the students who pay said tuition.