“We are really in the process of analyzing [the numbers] so there will be more to come, but I think the headline here unfortunately is that our growth this semester is not as robust as we had hoped for and that will have some potential consequences for us,” said Chancellor Mel Netzhammer, from closed captioning for a slide at the State of the Campus event.
At the 2019 State of the Campus, hosted at WSU Vancouver last February, low enrollment numbers were brought to the attention of the community.
Upon a deeper look into the issue, Netzhammer explained that the fall in student enrollment correlates to a decline in community college enrollment.
According to the WSU website, between 2016 and 2017, enrollment increased by 120 students, whereas enrollment increased by 31 students in 2018. Netzhammer said, last spring, the graduating class of 2019 was the largest group to graduate from WSU Vancouver yet, accounting for approximately a third of the student population graduating.
“For WSU Vancouver, because of our roots as an upper-division institution, we have always depended on community college graduates to come to our campus,” Netzhammer said. “That’s where our enrollment base of two-thirds has come from.” The other third of the enrollment comes from high school graduates, he said.
Associate Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Laurel Rea said, “Clark College is our primary feeder school [for transfer students] and they have seen significant decreases in their enrollment over the last several years.”
(Laura Rider/photographer)
“Of all the choices, increasing enrollment has been the best way to meet the needs of the campus and the student body,” Netzhammer said. Increased enrollment helps meet mandatory expenses and could mean more class options and fewer tuition hikes. “We work very hard to keep tuition increases moderate,” he said.
Due to the high number of students transferring in with junior status and graduating quicker, WSU Vancouver has to attract new students more frequently.
“We are having conversations about residence halls and how that might create opportunity for students,” Netzhammer said. Options such as residence halls on campus are being considered to draw in new students among the competition of other colleges.
There are no concrete numbers yet for enrollment of fall 2019. “We graduated the largest class ever last year, over a thousand students,” Rea said. The number of graduates from the previous year impacts the population and enrollment numbers for the following spring.
“We seem to be on par with last year,” Rea said. “We have strategies in place to grow in a healthy way.”
According to Rea, a few strategies include digital communications, advertising and marketing as well as working closely with high school counselors and community colleges. Setting up booths at high school college fairs and providing transfer advisors to help part time at community colleges are aimed at making the transition to WSU Vancouver as seamless as possible.