Andrew Crighton
News Editor
On September 9, 2016 the Fall 2016 10th day enrollment numbers for Idaho State University were released. Tenth day numbers are used as a rough estimate of the number of students enrolled at ISU and how they are distributed throughout several categories.
Overall enrollment is down by 2.1 percent from this time last academic year, with the total headcount reaching 11,025 students.
This drop in enrollment was around half that between the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 academic years, where the dropped was 5.7 percent.
The majority of this decline came from international students.
This time last year there was a total of 1,431 international students at ISU, with this year’s total being 918. That’s a loss of 513 students, representing a 36 percent drop within the category.
One other main category that saw a decrease is overall undergraduate enrollment.
This area has been experiencing a drop every year for several years. From the 2015-2016 academic year to this year there was a loss of 323 students, 3.4 percent. The year before there was a larger 5.9 percent drop of 586 students.
However, there have been increases within other areas.
The main increases can be seen within the dual enrollment/tech prep. and graduate areas. Here, there was 291 percent increase of 326 students and 4.8 percent increase of 89 students, respectively.
The main focus of the university though is the increase in domestic students, from both the in-state and out-of-state areas.
The university has been working to improve its recruitment and outreach techniques to domestic students.
ISU President Arthur Vailas mentioned this during his State of the University Address in August.
Vailas commented that going beyond sending out press material in the mail is a key to strengthening the relationship between ISU and prospective students, and will increase the likelihood of ISU being students’ choice for post-secondary education.
Executive Vice President and Provost Laura Woodworth-Ney commented that the university is in the process of completing a technological update of the logistics involved in the recruitment process.
These new recruitment strategies focused on domestic students appear to be working, although effects were expected to be seen between 2017 and 2019.
The in-state residency enrollment numbers increased 2.6 percent, from 8,739 students to 8,966. This is a change from the 7.9 percent decrease of in-state enrollment from the fall 2014 semester two years ago.
Other domestic student enrollment also increased this year by 4.8 percent, a change of 52 students.
Official semester enrollment numbers are not released until October 15. The university notes within the release of the 10th day numbers that there is usually an increase of approximately 1,800 students overall by the time enrollment is finalized.
