Err, yeah. That's the point. A bit upthread, I stated that a Fenris is about the size of a Nimitz class supercarrier. Normally, those have a crew complement of ~3000 (+2000 guys doing stuff for the air wing). An FS2 cruiser using a tenth or a fifth of the crew sounds about right, given our expectations about what cruisers do, but considering that Cruisers are running a greater risk of being damaged during a normal patrol than your average Carrier, they would want as many people to do DC duties as possible. Especially considering that they usually do not operate in an environment where humans can survive for long, and especially especially considering that your standard FS2 cruiser does not come with the attendant fleet a Carrier has.
In the end, unless they are really, really confident in their automated systems' ability to keep the ship running even with catastrophic damage, the crew numbers NGTM1R suggested sound realistic.