Spring semester enrollment at YSU increases by 400 students

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

youngstowN

The trend of increasing enrollment at Youngstown State University continued spring semester.

Enrollment for spring semester, which started Jan. 18, is 14,253, up about 400 students from spring 2010, said Ron Cole, university spokesman. Spring 2010 enrollment was 13,837 students.

Since 2000, spring enrollment has increased 31 percent.

Jack Fahey, interim vice president of student affairs, attributed the increase primarily to the economy.

“Historically, any time the economy goes badly, enrollment increases all over the state,” he said.

For the past several years, though, YSU has seen an increase in freshmen applications, transfers and minority applications because of the many initiatives it launched to increase enrollment, Fahey said.

A few years ago, YSU began offering a lower tuition for residents of several Western Pennsylvania counties. Besides Mercer and Lawrence, the lower tuition is offered to Butler, Allegheny and Crawford counties.

“That really has helped our enrollment too,” he said.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com