Assistant Vice President for Undergraduate Admissions Cathy Davis said that Wright State’s near 2,500 drop in overall student enrollment from 2011 to 2012 could be explained by declining high school demographics in Ohio, and a bad economy.
Projections indicate that beginning in 2009-2010, the number of public high school graduates is expected to drop by about 9,500 by 2014-2015. The number of White non-Hispanic public high school graduates is projected to drop about nine percent between 2010 and 2020, and Black non-Hispanics are set to drop about 22 percent over the same time frame, according to Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
“We’re facing declining demographics,” Davis said. “We don’t recruit a lot from out of state. That’s something that we’re looking at as a university.”
Davis said that the recession also played a major factor.
“We continue to be affected by the economy,” Davis said. “We’re trying to figure out how we can help students financially come to Wright State.”
Beyond the recession and demographics, Davis said that enrollment numbers often fluctuate up and down, forming trends and patterns. She said that Wright State enrollment was experiencing a steady growth, and that a decline was inevitable.
“Eventually, you’re going to hit that peak, and then you’re going to start declining,” Davis said. “Typically, in enrollment, you’re going to see patterns.”
Davis also said that Wright State was “stricter” in adhering to the attendance policy in 2012, turning down more students than in previous years.
Vice President of Multi Cultural Affairs Kimberly Barrett said that Wright State should attempt a more individualized approach to recruitment in order to improve enrollment.
“We need to take a more personal, individualized approach,” Barrett said.
Barrett also said that improving individualization in recruiting was “resource intensive at a time when state funding’s decreasing.”
Wright State is working on developing a “new strategic plan,” in which they are assessing their academic programs, their partnerships with local two-year schools, their outreach to out of state and international students and their transfer market, according to Davis.
“We are trying to really define who we want to be for the next five years,” Davis said.
