KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — After years of declining enrollment, WMU President Edward Montgomery confirmed for Board Members that at least for this year, their freshman class is bucking the trend.
He says preliminary enrollment numbers show a 24% increase in the freshman class this fall term. This, after the student population fell by over 8% in the spring, marking the largest drop in school history.
“We had some indications that the freshmen class would be robust but you never know until actual people show up,” said Montgomery who also said that their application numbers for next year are up by 8%, and that the number of students living on-campus this fall is also higher.
“Our residence halls are at the highest levels they’ve seen in years, so occupancy overall has been really positive and up. We had over 4,000 students I believe in our residence halls and apartments.”
But Montgomery acknowledged to the board that it would be premature to declare this as a victory, at least right way.
“So those are all positive trends. They are trends that are occurring in the context of nationwide and statewide trends which are going in the opposite direction,” said Montgomery acknowledging also that the bump could be just a reaction to the end of Covid restrictions.
He says it will take continued hard work to repeat future increases in enrollment.
Western has seen its student population shrink by nearly a third since nearly 28,000 Broncos attended class here in 2004.
reporting by: John McNeill
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