EDITORIAL: Maintain enrollment momentum

Oct. 6—This academic year, the first fully open one amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the first for a highly restructured system, is a major test for state universities operated by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

Enrollment at the 14 campuses has plummeted by about 25%, from 120,000 in 2010-11 to 89,000 for the 2021-22 school year.

Official enrollment for this year is expected to show another overall decline of about 4.5%, to about 85,000.

That decline obscures a genuine cause for optimism, however.

This year's freshman class is between 5% and 7% larger than the 2021-22 freshman class. Whether that signals a true reversal of the system's fortunes remains to be seen.

However, as system Chancellor Daniel Greenstein put it, "If you're going to bend your enrollment, you've got to start with your incoming class."

The system must deal with the overall decline in college enrollment nationwide, about 9.4% since the pandemic bean, but its problems are more acute for multiple reasons.

It maintains campuses in areas that have been particularly hard hit by population declines, and the system is not as well-funded as many of its counterparts in other states.

This year, Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield universities have been consolidated into the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania.

But that has not stopped the enrollment decline. Greenstein estimated that overall enrollment is down by about 3% on those campuses and that freshman enrollment declined by about 5%.

The system also consolidated Clarion, California and Edinboro universities into Pennsylvania Western University. Overall enrollment there declined by about 11% but freshman enrollment rose by about 1.5%, Greenstein said.

The other schools in the system are Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Kutztown, Indiana, Slippery Rock, Shippensburg, Millersville and West Chester universities.

East Stroudsburg experienced a 46% increase in the freshman class, including transfers, but that was largely due to the last class being tiny due to the pandemic.

It appears that some of the system's initiatives, beyond the consolidations, have had a positive impact — especially holding tuition flat and providing more employment-specific programs.

The Legislature should help the system maintain momentum by providing enough funding and aid to hold down tuition costs.