Logan Ramsey
Associate Editor
ISU has seen another drop in overall enrollment for the Fall 2018 semester in undergraduate students.
In Fall 2017, there was a 3.3 percent drop in overall enrollment numbers and this year, the university saw another 2.5 percent drop in undergraduate enrollment, meaning the university lost 256 students from its 12,643 total students in 2017.
The last time overall enrollment didn’t decline at ISU was 2014 when it saw neither a significant increase or decrease in enrollment numbers.
Total enrollment in Fall 2016 was 13,062 students. In Fall 2017, it was 12,643 and now, in Fall 2018, the total enrollment for the university is 12,387.
Kris Clarkson, Director of Student Life, said the drop in enrollment numbers isn’t what he would call “alarming” and is still optimistic for the future of ISU.
Scott Scholes, Associate Vice President in the Office of Enrollment Management, said that you have to look at specific groups of students to understand why enrollment is falling and where there are optimistic points to look at.
Scholes said that the university is seeing a drop in international student enrollment because they haven’t been able to bring in freshman classes of those students for several years.
In 2016, Middle Eastern ISU students alleged discrimination by the Pocatello community and the issue gained national coverage by the New York Times.
Now, the university is feeling a drop in international student enrollment as the current Middle Eastern students at the university are graduating and not being replaced by freshman students.
The number of international students at ISU was rising for several years while enrollment of Idaho students fell, and now Scholes says this has turned.
New Idaho freshman enrollment numbers went flat in 2018 after an 11.5 percent increase last year and Scholes said this is a bright spot to look at.
Scholes said the fear was that the College of Eastern Idaho in Idaho Falls would negatively impact ISU enrollment numbers by taking away Idaho freshman in the region and says maintaining that increase this year is a positive sign for the university.
Scholes said that the university is working to make itself a more culturally accepting place again by instituting new programs for underserved Latino and Native American students.
Scholes also pointed out that there was an 11.9 percent increase in transfer students and he says the university is working to make the process for transfer students easier.
“It’s important that we have smooth pathways, so students can transfer here and have their credits work for them nicely,” Scholes said.
While Scholes said the fall enrollment numbers aren’t necessarily linked to mistakes made by the university’s previous administration, he believes the new Satterlee Administration has an opportunity to have a positive impact on enrollment.
“I think there is a new energy and a new excitement that I think has a definite chance of having a positive impact on enrollment next year,” Scholes said. “(Satterlee has) created an exciting time and it’s an exciting feeling, and I think an enthusiastic population within the faculty and the staff at the university is only going to have positive effects for the students that are here and for the possibility of getting new students here.”
Clarkson added that Satterlee would have a positive impact on enrollment.
“I think President Satterlee is an optimistic and positive thinking guy and that’s going to help us in the long run,” Clarkson said.
