YSU opens today with increased enrollment

YOUNGSTOWN

For the first time since 2010, Youngstown State University’s fall enrollment increased this semester.

Wednesday marked the first day of classes with 12,801 students compared with last fall’s 12,375.

The numbers are unofficial until the 15th day of the semester.

Ron Cole, university spokesman, attributed the increase to multiple efforts.

“We’re more effectively reaching out,” he said.

YSU is using a company to get leads for potential students, and participation in the Crash Day recruitment effort has increased.

“It’s a personal, hands-on type of recruitment,” Cole said.

Last year about this time, Jim Tressel, YSU president, gave each member of his leadership team a list of about 10 names of prospective students to contact.

They had applied and been accepted at YSU for this fall but had not yet enrolled, Cole said.

“He wanted us to be their point of contact to guide them to enrolling,” he said.

Cole still gets emails from some of them when they have questions.

“It gets into that grass-roots recruitment,” he said.

In a news release, Tressel said reversing the downward enrollment trend is a step toward increasing excellence across campus.

“While growing enrollment will remain a priority, we also are working hard to ensure that, once here at YSU, students have the resources to find success, graduate on time, with as little debt as possible and with a job,” he said in the release.

Read more about the situation in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.