CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Board of Trustees May 13, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY – Enrollment Management College enrollment trends during the pandemic continue to vary greatly across institution type and region. Some of the variance can be explained by the variety of ways institutions responded to the virus. While some institutions moved to mostly online course modality and limited residential housing and programming, other institutions did not. CWU’s transition to mostly distance education modalities last spring offered a safer environment for our students and community, yet negatively impacted overall enrollment. Currently, CWU carries this decline in enrollment through spring 2021, with 584 fewer students over the prior year, a 6 percent decline. This is slightly greater than CWU’s 5.4-percent, year-over-year decline last fall. These figures include students with admit types of first-year, transfer, post-baccalaureate, re- admit, and graduate. CWU continues to see year-over-year increases in re-admit (+66 students, +15 percent) and graduate (+62 students, +12 percent) student enrollment in spring 2021. Much of the decline in year over year enrollment for spring 2021 can be attributed to fall to spring persistence. While our fall 2020 transfer cohort persisted at a similar rate than past cohorts (90.5 percent), our fall 2020 first-year cohort persistence rate from fall to spring dropped to 83.9 percent, a 3.4 percentage point drop from the prior five year average of 87.3 percent. The overall impact of the lower persistence rate is amplified by the lower than anticipated fall 2020 first-year cohort. For comparison, 1819 of our fall 2019 new first-year students were enrolled the following spring, compared to just 1402 of our new fall 2020 first-year students, a difference of 417 enrollments. CWU is projecting a slight decline in fall 2021 overall enrollment: about 10,700 graduate and undergraduate student headcount in fall 2021, which is a decline of 471 students from the prior year. Given the plan to resume in-person learning and increase student housing this fall, enrollment declines are expected to slow, and then to rebound in the next 12-18 months. Fall 2021 Recruitment Cycle Currently, 9,392 first-year students have applied for fall 2021, a 1-percent increase over this time last year. These figures demonstrate application-pool strength above expectations, given the inability of CWU recruiters to visit high schools and host campus tours. Fifty-four percent of the pool is comprised of Traditionally Underrepresented Student Groups (TUSGs), a record for CWU. Eighteen percent of the application pool is domestic, non-resident, compared to just 15 percent last year. To date, CWU has admitted 8,554 first year students, a 3-percent increase over last year; eight-percent fewer have committed (1,775 vs 1,939 last year), which may demonstrate a delay in decision-making. However, these figures are encouraging, given the significant changes in our recruitment strategies due to the pandemic. Early projection modeling suggests 1,885 to 2,068 new, first-year students will enroll in
Enrollment Management 400 East University Way • Ellensburg WA 98926-7467 • Office: 509-963-3130 • Fax: 509-963-3065 EEO/AA/TITLE IX INSTITUTION • FOR ACCOMMODATION E-MAIL: CDS@CWU.EDU
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