While strolling the halls of Langston University this semester you will find that there are fewer students on campus than there were in the fall.
There has been a significant decrease in enrollment for the spring 2023 semester in comparison to the fall 2022 semester. In fall 2022 there were 1903 students enrolled in classes, and 1573 students enrolled in classes for the spring 2023 semester. This 330 student decrease is due to a lack of returning students.
Alyssa Dawson, Resident Director of Young Hall and Cimarron Garden apartments, has noticed a large decrease in returning students living in on-campus housing.
“Last semester, I didn’t have any open rooms and this semester, I have a complete floor on each side,” Dawson said.
This floor housed 100 students last semester who have decided not to return to Langston University this spring.
“Fifty rooms that are usually double occupancy are now completely empty,” Dawson said.
In fall 2021 there were 1960 students enrolled, and 1686 students enrolled in spring 2022. Comparing enrollment from fall to spring in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, there was a 20% decrease in returning students.
Heath Burge, the president for strategic enrollment and academic advising services at Langston University, explained that it is typical for universities to experience a decrease in enrollment from fall to spring semesters.
“We have seen a decrease in continuing students from the fall…some students decided after the holiday break that they wanted to stay home so they did not return,” Burge said.
Some reasons why students might decide not to return to Langston University for the spring 2023 semester are outstanding account balances, deciding that they no longer want to pursue a degree or making the decision to pursue education elsewhere. Student account balances must be under $200 in order to enroll in classes.
“It is the university business office policy that bills are paid down to a certain amount in order for enrollment for the following semester to occur,” Burge said.
Dawson suggested that the lack of the HERF COVID-19 relief grant opportunity this past semester may also be a contributing factor as to why students were unable to pay off their bills and return to school this spring.
“This is the first semester in about three years that we haven’t gotten HERF funding…I think a lot of students were expecting that money to come in, but it never did,” Dawson said.
Another reason why some students have decided not to return for the spring semester is they no longer want to attend college.
“Once they are at college away from the comforts of a home environment they may think twice about returning to college,” Burge said.
Universities frequently recognize a trend of decreased enrollment of returning students in their second year of college.
“There’s a natural drop off…between fall and spring, and then there’s often an additional drop off between first year and second year students”, Burge said.
Some former students at Langston University may have decided that attending college was not the right fit for them.
“College isn’t for everybody,” said Dawson.
Burge also believes that some of the students who have decided not to continue their education at Langston University have chosen to transfer to other universities.
As for future enrollment, Burge expressed that he has a detailed plan for how to get more students enrolled in classes at Langston University next fall.
“My goal with this new responsibility is to develop a more strategic kind of approach to how it is that we recruit and even enroll students,” Burge said.
He revealed that the plan for future enrollment will involve analyzing recruit numbers based on the time of year Langston University has held high school outreach events in the past as well as beginning the recruitment process as early as middle school.
“Historically, I think enrollment managers have sort of looked specifically at second semester juniors and seniors when they think about recruiting. There is a new school of thought that is starting to think about rather than looking that late, perhaps we need to go a bit earlier,” Burge said.
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The Gazette serves as the student voice of Langston University. It is produced within the Department of Communication as a teaching tool and local news source for the campus community. The views and opinions expressed within are those of the writers whose names appear with the articles and do not necessarily represent the views of Langston University.
