Thomas Attebery
Staff Writer
The 10th day enrollment numbers for the fall semester showed a decline of 2.1 percent from those same numbers last year; with the largest decrease being international students. The comparison of the 2015 and 2016 end-of-term enrollment numbers was slightly more optimistic, with a 0.4 percent increase.
ISU’s Enrollment Management offices have been focusing more on recruiting domestic students. The expanded effort to reach students within Southeast Idaho and the larger local region include the Experience ISU event, which this year had hundreds of students coming to see what it’s like in an ISU classroom.
“We’ve tried to enhance and make larger some of the events,” said Scott Scholes, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management, for example, two years ago Experience ISU…we had roughly 180 participants, this year we were at maybe 630. So we’re sort of expanding the size and reach of many of our events.”
According to the end-of-term numbers, international students enrollment has decreased by more than 500 individuals, but undergraduate and graduate enrollment is up slightly, with an increase over last year of 6 and 92 undergraduates and graduates respectively.
In his State of the University address in August, President Arthur Vailas said that ISU would work to improve its outreach to domestic students.
“There is belief by the administration that we need to keep extending outreach specifically to Southeastern Idaho. We’re trying to do our part to serve the state as a whole, but also Southeast Idaho specifically,” Scholes said.
The expanded outreach efforts seem to be having an effect, with the in-state residency enrollment numbers showing an increase of 2.6 percent, from 8,739 students to 8,966 (according to the 10th day headcount).
Scholes said, “Enough of these changes are new that it’s really hard to evaluate. If you look at all things considered…I think there’s some good indicators that our enrollment is growing healthier.”
Another factor is the numbers of high school students currently taking college-level courses and gaining college credits and college prep through Dual Enrollment, the Early College program and the Bengal Bridge program.
“Dual Enrollment is an interesting thing because the students don’t really get to pick the college, they basically are provided the course by whoever provides Dual Enrollment for their school. We’re seeing a lot of students choosing to dual enroll and get scholarships at the same time. Whether that turns into a larger group of students going on to colleges and universities, it’s a little early to tell,” Scholes said. “It’s going to be a year or two before we see whether students that participate end up coming to colleges at a higher rate.”
The end-of-term numbers indicate a significant increase in Early College participants, growing by 588 students. The Dual Enrollment also increased according to the 10th day figures by 326 students.
