Provost Torrey Lawrence spoke about the 2026-27 academic year estimated enrollment numbers at the March 10 University of Idaho Faculty Senate meeting.
“It appears that we’re still on track to actually have a larger class, but application numbers certainly have people’s attention,” Lawrence said.
Concerns were raised about a report presented to some faculty on Monday stating that the total number of applications received by UI was down compared to previous years. Lawrence confirmed the report, but said the number reflects a change in university shopping behavior and was not a cause for concern.
“What we’re wondering is if some of those applications that we’ve gotten in the past were never very serious about us, and if [those students] are more focused on the schools that they’re really pursuing,” he said.
UIdaho Bound attendance and FAFSA submissions are up compared to previous enrollment cycles, which Lawrence said are better indicators of future enrollment.
Lisa Victoravich, Dean of the College of Business and Economics, was invited to provide a UI Strategic Plan update as the champion for Pillar 5.
Victoravich reminded faculty of a survey in progress to provide input on a formal data structure and data warehouse for the university, which falls under one of her subsections of data governance and modernization.
The other subsections under Pillar 5 include simplification and automation through AI; university employee attraction and retention; and the creation of collaboration and project execution culture.
While discussing automation processes underway UI, Victoravich spoke about an AI recruiter chatbot, named Jane Vandal, which is currently being trained.
“This is on the front end to help with recruiting, so our students can get more customized information up front, and she talks in many different languages,” Victoravich said.
Once the chatbot is up and running, Victoravich said the team developing it would be able to provide a demo to faculty senate.
Other automation processes include faculty assistance with inbox items, intern recruitment and training and reimbursement pipelines for expense reports.
Within the topic of employee retention, Victoravich mentioned excellence awards which received multiple questions about how it would be decided. Faculty expressed complaints about the current system which prioritizes grant money rather than the impact of a given scientific contribution. Victoravich suggested further senate partnership for retention and campus culture policies.
Lawrence also reminded faculty of the next gathering happening Tuesday, March 24, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the seed potato germplasm laboratory classroom in the Germplasm Building on the West side of campus. An RSVP for the event would be sent out soon, Lawrence said.
Joshua Reisenfeld can be reached at [email protected].