Whitworth University is expecting its largest ever freshman class this year. To make room for the extra incoming students, 40 returning students have agreed to move off campus in exchange for a $1,500 credit against their tuition, says Whitworth spokesman Greg Orwig.

Orwig says the university received nearly 6,500 enrollment applications for fall 2010, compared with nearly 5,900 last fall. He attributes the increase in applications to the school's increased communication with high school students. He says the director of admissions and several employees in the school's communications department have begun using social media for recruiting.

"We've established a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, Flicker, and LinkedIn," Orwig says. "We're doing more and more to communicate with prospective students through printed pieces sent directly to students, e-mail, social media, and visiting high schools and college fairs."

Students who are accepted for admission must send a $350 enrollment deposit that is refundable until May 1, the university's Web site says.

"This year, there was a big group that put down a deposit very late. A higher percentage of students that we admitted chose to come," Orwig says. The university had planned for a freshman class of 570, but a record prospective 690 students have continued with the enrollment process. Last year, the school's fall enrollment totaled about 2,800 students, and Whitworth is planning for 2,900 to 3,000 this fall.

To accommodate the extra students, the university's housing department decided to add a third student to some two-bed rooms and a fourth student to some three-bed rooms.

"We have been busy all summer preparing for a hundred more incoming students than we built our financial plan for the year on," says Brian Benzel, the university's vice president for finance and administration. The tuition rebate to returning students who agree to move off campus was an economical way to create openings in the residence halls, he says.

Besides housing, the faculty, dining program, and facility maintenance department all have needed to expand to meet the needs of the growing student body.

Several of the school's full-time professors have agreed to teach extra classes, and more adjunct professors have been hired. Additional custodians, maintenance workers, and campus security personnel also have been hired, Benzel says.

Whitworth's campus, at 300 W. Hawthorne on the North Side, has 12 residence halls. The university owns or rents an additional 22 houses just outside the campus perimeter for student housing. The university's goal is to have up to 80 percent of enrolled students living in campus housing, Benzel says.

"We've got very strong evidence that academic performance improves" when students live on campus. "It creates a stronger experience for students as part of a community," Benzel says.

Tuition for the 2010-2011 academic year is just under $30,000. On-campus housing for the year runs from $4,600 to $5,600, and meal plans range from $2,600 to $3,900, the school Web site says.

Benzel says the school has been considering constructing an additional residence hall on campus. Although he says it's not clear whether the increased enrollment is a trend for Whitworth, the administration is "moving our planning up" for more campus housing. "It's been on our plate, and it isn't going to go away," Benzel says.

Three dormitories were built on the east side of the campus between 2006 and 2009 to accommodate an additional about 400 students, Orwig says.

Construction of a $32 million science center is going forward near the center of the campus. The building is expected to be ready for classes by fall 2011.

Separately, Whitworth says it has leased about 4,700 square feet of space in the Riverfront Office Park Building, at 534 E. Spokane Falls Boulevard, across the street from the Riverpoint Campus east of downtown Spokane, for its downtown graduate and continuing studies program.

That program began offering classes in fall 2009 in leased space at the Sirti Building on the Riverpoint Campus, but outgrew that location, says Whitworth spokeswoman Emily Proffitt.

Whitworth's downtown program will continue to offer a bachelor's degree in organizational management in an accelerated format to students age 25 and older. This year it also has added a bachelor's degree in liberal arts with majors in social service and program management, Proffitt says.

Classes began at the Riverfront Office Park Building in mid-August on Monday through Thursday evenings and on Saturdays. The new space will accommodate 75 students. Two advisers and a receptionist will staff the facility, along with faculty.

Whitworth University's new president, Beck Taylor, joined the university in early July. He succeeds Bill Robinson, who held that post from 1993 to 2010.