Behind the numbers – UI enrollment numbers appear to be up, but appearances can be deceiving

University of Idaho administration has some cause to celebrate with this year’s enrollment report.

New student enrollment is up 20 percent since the fall of 2015 and total enrollment is up by 3.6 percent. These numbers initially appear positive in the grand scheme of things.

Beneath the surface though, these numbers are not entirely truthful.

UI has experienced a drastic spike in new student enrollment. However, after a 1.4 percent decrease in overall enrollment last year, the recent numbers only put UI enrollement up by about 2 percent overall during Staben’s tenure. Still an increase, but an even smaller one in context.

Also, the numbers show there has been decreases in almost all categories of returning students since 2015. Undergraduate continuing students are down 3.4 percent, graduate continuing students down 6.1 percent and law continuing students are down 15.2 percent. As a whole, continuing student rates are down 4.5 percent from last year.

These statistics are rather alarming.

There may be an overall increase in enrollment, and it shows that administrative focus on bringing new students to campus is working, but there is a large population of students that are not returning to campus. Roughly 350 students did not continue at UI this year. That may not seem like a significant number when total enrollment is 11,780 students, but every person matters when the university is trying to increase enrollment 50 percent by 2025.

According to the strategic plan, UI should be at 12,000 students by now, but the university still has not reached the the 2016 goal. That means to get back on track, enrollment will have to increase by over 5 percent to achieve 12,500 students overall in 2017.

These numbers force community members to wonder where UI goes from here. As student numbers increase, staff and faculty numbers will have to go up. This is especially important when facing a fear of low faculty member population, which could translate into larger class sizes and a reduced quality of education.

There is also the question of where all the additional students will go or how the increase of tuition money will be spent. Will it be spent giving faculty and staff raises so UI can be competitive, or will it be spent on a proposed arena project? Questions such as these are ones students should be looking into and the administration will have to answer.

All in all, UI still has a long way to go, despite the recent numbers. The increasingly lackluster perception of UI throughout Idaho forces administration to make some marketing decisions to keep the 20 percent increase in new students as well as the overall 3.6 percent increase in enrollment.

So celebrate for a while President Staben, but know that the work is only beginning.