Trusteeship - November/December 2020 - 14

TAKEAWAYS
■ All institutions are feeling

the enrollment impact of
COVID-19, but some more so
than others, especially those
that are heavily dependent
on international student
enrollment.
■ Enrollment uncertainty has a

cascading effect as students
make decisions into the start
of the fall semester.
■ Institutions that have

maintained enrollment have
seen a change in the makeup
of their incoming classes.
Public universities have
admitted greater numbers
of in-state students while
out-of-state and international
enrollment has declined.
■ Undergraduate enrollment

was 4 percent lower than
it was last year, according
to the National Student
Clearinghouse Research
Center (as of September 24,
2020). Freshman enrollment
was particularly low-
approximately 16 percent
fewer freshmen enrolled
in fall 2020 versus fall 2019.
Community colleges saw a
drop of 23 percent in firsttime student enrollment
and an overall drop of 9.4
percent. Graduate enrollment
grew more this fall than the
previous fall (up 2.7 percent
vs. .9 percent in fall 2019).
■ Colleges and universities have

had to be more flexible in
terms of policies regarding
standardized testing,
deferrals, leaves of absence,
and transfer.
■ Retention of current students

should be a major priority for
all institutions.

14 TRUSTEESHIP NOV. DEC. 2020

As of September 24, 2020, undergraduate
enrollment was 4 percent lower than it was
last year, according to the National Student
Clearinghouse Research Center. Freshman
enrollment was particularly low-approximately 16 percent fewer freshman enrolled
in fall 2020 versus fall 2019. Community colleges saw a drop of 23 percent in first-time
student enrollment and an overall drop of
9.4 percent. Graduate enrollment grew more
this fall than the previous fall (up 2.7 percent
vs. .9 percent in fall 2019).
Enrollment figures vary by geography.
Undergraduate enrollment fell across the
nation, but the Midwest suffered more
than others, with a decline of 5.7 percent,
followed by the West (-3.7 percent), the
South (-3.6 percent), and the Northeast
(-3.4 percent). Graduate enrollment is up in
38 states with both Arizona and Mississippi
having the most notable increases (both up
16 percent or more over fall 2019).
Individual institutions have also had
wildly different enrollment patterns. The GW
Hatchet, the student newspaper for George
Washington University in Washington, D.C.,
reported that GW's total undergraduate enrollment fell by 7.2 percent based on preliminary
estimates, with around 850 fewer students
enrolled on the first day of class compared to
the same time last year. In Illinois, enrollment
at some community colleges has fallen by
20 percent compared to last fall, with a few
reporting declines of as much as 40 percent.
Other institutions have actually seen
enrollment bumps. Georgia Southwestern
State University (GSW) has seen a jump of
more than 11 percent with its largest firstyear class in the last 50 years, while Mansfield
University in Pennsylvania announced a 7.8
percent increase in total headcount enrollment for fall 2020 compared to fall 2019.
Stefanie Niles, the vice president for
enrollment and communications at Ohio
Wesleyan University (OWU), says that
OWU's first-year class came in 20 students
short of the target. But the number of students requesting deferrals this fall is three
times the number that they typically have in
any given year. "If we enroll those students

in the spring or [next] fall, we will realize
the class goals," she says. "Many of those
students are international students who
couldn't obtain a visa in time to get here."
She says that most deferral requests
were filed in the last few weeks prior to the
start of classes. "We saw that real change in
activity as students started to really face the
reality of what their experience might look
like and if remote learning was for them or
not," she says.

A Cascading Effect
Enrollment managers say that uncertainty
has a cascading effect. "Traditionally, there is
a massive resorting of students throughout
the country that happens throughout the
summer and then sort of levels off," Perez
says. This year, some institutions will continue to admit students even as late as September, which means they are "taking those
students away from other institutions."
Perez says that the enrollment fluctuations will continue throughout the academic
year as students make decisions about the
spring based on their experience with living
on campus and remote learning. "The resorting of students will continue at most institutions throughout the country until we can
get back to some sense of normalcy," he says.
"The pandemic has made competition
even tougher because you're seeing schools
that were at higher spaces in the marketplaces making different decisions on their
admits," says DJ Menifee, the vice president
for enrollment at Susquehanna University
in Pennsylvania. That has a trickle-down
effect to other schools with less selective
admissions policies, he says.
Rutgers, The State University of New
Jersey, has seen a slight overall enrollment
increase due to returning students, even
with a smaller first-year class, according to
Courtney McAnuff, the vice chancellor for
enrollment management. He says that Rutgers made an early decision to go remote
because New Jersey was a COVID-19
hotspot in the summer.
For many institutions like Rutgers, the
composition of their incoming classes has

Trusteeship - November/December 2020

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