UI has seen improved enrollment numbers this semester compared to the prior 2020 fall semester, with increased numbers in almost all categories.
Though the pandemic continues to affect the daily lives of the students, faculty and staff at the University of Idaho, the recent census has been evidence of the positive reception to the steady return to normalcy and the reintroduction of more traditional modes of instruction.
In his recent memo on enrollment, UI President Scott Green noted that early estimates indicate that the university will “end the year with a revenue excess of $2.5 million,” a surplus that is in no small part a result of the improved enrollment numbers.
While UI’s 4.7% increase in total enrollment was encouraging for Strategic Enrollment Management and the university at large, it also proved to be significant relative to other institutions throughout the region and the nation that have struggled with undergraduate enrollment. Vice Provost for Strategic Enrollment Management Dean Kahler said that the 16% increase in the incoming freshman class was particularly encouraging.
“That’s great particularly when across the nation you’re seeing institutions that were seeing a second year of being down overall,” Kahler said.
Director of Admin & Fiscal Operations DeLaina Storhok said that the SEM staff had to make a significant effort to adapt to the constraints of the pandemic that barred the more traditional forms of recruitment.
“They pivoted, they used new platforms for events when we couldn’t have in-person events (and) they found ways to make them virtual,” she said.
Storhok said that one of the more impressive recruitment approaches comes in the form of a virtual campus tour that would be hosted live by Vandal representatives, providing potential students a remote walkthrough of the Moscow campus.
Though enrollment overall was up for the fall semester the challenge for UI has been working to retain students. First-year retention has declined 2.2% over the prior fall semester and Kahler said that a variety of factors, including the ongoing pandemic, have played a role in the observed decrease.
“We’re still in the pandemic and there’s students that don’t want to take the risks of going to school,” Kahler said, adding that upended finances, a general disconnection from campus and the prior year’s emphasis on online courses all factored into the retention rate.
Kahler added that part of UI’s focus in addressing retention will need to be shifted towards minority students. Though African American, Asian and Hispanic/Latino enrollments were up this semester at 4.9%, 13.2% and 8.5% respectively, the challenge of retention remains present across all groups.
Kahler, who noted that the Latinx community remains the second-largest group at the university, said that creating a campus environment that can allow minority students to feel both engaged and comfortable will be crucial not only for improving retention numbers but also for allowing the university to work towards its ultimate goal of getting and keeping students for the duration of their postsecondary studies.
Of the measured demographics, international students saw the biggest gains in terms of undergraduate demographics at 38%, a number that Kahler admitted was a product of the travel restrictions that were present in the prior year.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer,” Kahler said. “Once the country opens back up and we’re allowed to bring international students back, that’s going to make it look like the numbers are crazy good.”
According to Kahler, the university had just 30 first-time international students and 13 transfer international students in the previous fall semester.
Overall, the numbers were encouraging for the SEM staff that has been continually working to determine how best to approach recruitment in a world still gripped by COVID-19.
“They were so responsive to the ever-changing times,” Storhok said of the recruitment staff. “You know how COVID went. One week you had one set of guidelines and the next week you had another and they were really so responsive (in finding) new ways to do things. I think that’s a real credit to the team.”
Royce McCandless can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @roycemccandless