20% of 2007 Valley grads enroll at YSU

The university has set an enrollment goal of 14,000
students for next fall.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Nearly 20 percent of this spring’s high school graduates in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties are freshmen at Youngstown State University this fall.

That number was a factor in the university’s reaching its highest fall enrollment number this year in 13 years — 13,497, said Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president.

The fall picture is “very encouraging,” Sweet told the YSU Board of Trustees on Friday, noting that the university has experienced growth in the number of students in all but one of the last seven years.

The goal is to obtain, retain and graduate students, he said.

Continuing to capture that percentage of local graduates could be a significant factor in the university’s on-going efforts to boost enrollments because the number of tri-county graduates is expected to increase, he said.

The university needs to draw in “more than our regular share of [local] spring graduates,” if it expects to reach its goal of 14,000 students next fall, YSU’s centennial year, Sweet said.

Creating a kindergarten through college educational pipeline to align educational requirements, something Sweet proposed in his State of the University address in August, can be a key factor in sustaining enrollment growth, providing both motivation and preparation for college, he told the board.

Retention of students

Retention of students is another major key component, he said.

YSU’s Center for Student Progress, created in 1996 to ensure that students are integrated into the social and academic communities of the university and acquire the skills needed to succeed, has been instrumental in that area, Sweet said.

The university has maintained a 75 percent retention rate among first-time, full-time undergraduate students who have made use of the center’s services, he said.

That compares well with the national retention rate of just 64 percent of first-time, full-time undergraduates, Sweet said.

YSU’s Center was recently recognized by the Educational Policy Institute, a national organization, with an outstanding Student Retention Program award.

Attracting students who have completed some college work in their past but never earned a degree, providing centers of excellence that will draw in new students and developing a local community college offering two-year programming — all goals on which YSU is working — will also improve enrollment numbers, Sweet said.

gwin@vindy.com