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Economy, incentives fuel YSU growth
By Denise Dick
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.
Other area universities also see the upward trend.
At Eastern Gateway Community College, enrollment is growing, particularly at expansion counties.
The college is on pace to exceed last spring’s enrollment of 2,033 by 4 percent to 9 percent, according to Patty Sturch, dean of enrollment management.
“We are still enrolling dual-enrollment students at several high schools” and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers students, she said. Dual enrollment means taking some classes at the main campus and some at a branch campus.
The target to double enrollment of students in the expansion counties of Columbiana, Mahoning and Trumbull from last spring’s 209 has been met and surpassed.
“We targeted 418 and now have 444, which is 6 percent above the goal,” Sturch said at a trustees’ meeting earlier this month.
She said EGCC continues to attract new students.
“We have an increase of new students of at least 13 percent,” Sturch said.
Online classes continue to be popular with more than 800 students taking at least one class via the Internet. That’s up 31 percent from last year’s 614 students.
Kent State University reported a 4.56-percent increase from spring semester 2010 to this spring. Spring 2011 enrollment of 39,936 students compares with 38,196 for spring semester 2010. The head count is 24,909 for the Kent Campus and 15,027 for the regional campuses. Students are counted only once at the campus at which they hold the majority of their course load.
KSU-Trumbull realized a 9.72-percent increase in spring enrollment compared with last spring. The university reported 3,052 students enrolled in the current session, compared to 2,776 for spring 2010.
“Our continued growth continues to show what a valued asset we are as the choice for higher education in the area,” said Kent-Trumbull Dean Robert Sines. “All of our faculty and staff strive to provide an excellent educational experience for all students. We feel strongly that these numbers reflect the summation of value and quality that our student body receives.”
The Salem Campus experienced a 17.34-percent increase in student head count — 2,017 students in spring 2011 compared to 1,719 students in spring 2010 for a net increase of 298 students.