Most of Northeast Ohio's colleges and universities saw enrollment drop again this fall, though the declines were small for many.
The schools face a common demographic challenge of fewer high school students in the potential enrollment pool, which has been an issue for years. The question today is what schools are doing to try to stem the declines and overcome that trend.
Crain's collected headcount enrollment for the public and private colleges and universities in Northeast Ohio, as well as for the community colleges in the region. Some of the schools noted that numbers for 2019 weren't yet finalized.
The community colleges fared well this year, with all seeing small increases or decreases of less than 4% in either direction.
At the four-year public schools, the University of Akron was the only school with a drop greater than 5%. UA saw enrollment fall by about 6.5%.
The only public school that saw an increase this year was the Northeast Ohio Medical University, which saw its nondual enrollment — or enrollment that doesn't count students multiple times if they're in multiple programs — grow by nearly 2%.
Among the private schools, 10 saw declines in enrollment. (In addition to the schools included in the chart, the College of Wooster saw a decline of about 3%, according to full-time equivalent numbers the college submitted to Crain's. The college did not provide figures for headcount.)
Like the publics, most of the declines at the private schools were pretty small.
One of the exceptions was the Cleveland Institute of Music, which has intentionally been trying to shrink its enrollment. CIM saw a decline of about 7%.
Another exception was Malone University in Canton, which saw enrollment drop by about 8.6% this fall. The drop there is due to the loss of the intercollegiate football program, said chief of staff Tim Bryan. He said the university made the "difficult decision" to cut the program last February as part of its strategic planning process, saving about $1 million annually.
The university knew it would see a decline as students either opted not to come to Malone or transferred out. Going forward, Bryan said the university is seeing growth in athletic programs like swimming and diving, cross country and track and field, as well as in some of its new majors. Malone has already seen applications grow, and he expects enrollment to rebound by next year.
"We knew that we would grow our headcount again, but just in a different way," Bryan said.
Three private schools experienced enrollment growth this fall. Both Hiram College and Oberlin College had an increase of about 2% this year. Ashland University saw the most dramatic increase in the region, growing by nearly 10%.
Catherine Williams, Ashland's interim vice president of enrollment management and marketing, attributes much of that growth to the university's correctional education program. This fall, Ashland has a little more than 2,600 incarcerated students in the program, which allows them to work toward associate's or bachelor's degrees, Williams said.
The university has offered the program since the '60s, but it's been growing in recent years, expanding to new states and facilities. Williams said the university has been working with the corrections departments in different states to expand its technology offerings.
Hiram also attributed much of its growth to pools of nontraditional students. President Lori Varlotta said that as the college has started serving more populations of students, like those in its community college and high school partnerships, enrollment has grown. In particular, enrollment from the College Credit Plus program, which allows high school students to enroll at higher education institutions, has played a "significant" part in that growth, Varlotta said.
College Credit Plus also has helped to increase the pipeline of students attending Hiram after graduation, she added.
"Each year, we see an increasing number of students who take our courses as part of their high school dual enrollment fall in love with Hiram and matriculate to Hiram," Varlotta said. "So it is helping grow our full-time, degree-seeking population, as well."
For many schools, enrollment is a complex balancing act.
Take Ursuline College, which saw enrollment decline overall by about 2% year-over-year this fall. Undergraduate enrollment at the school has grown steadily in the past three years, while graduate enrollment has dropped.
On the graduate side, Ursuline is working to learn what's leading to the decline, said Susan Dileno, vice president for enrollment management. The college is in the midst of a market research project examining pricing and trend data.
On the undergraduate side, the college has been making a variety of changes, from updating its brand to focusing more on digital marketing to changing how it manages recruitment.
"There were a number of things that were changing this past year. It's hard to pinpoint what was the thing, the silver bullet," Dileno said. "And I don't think there was one. But I think, collectively, it all seemed to help us remain steady-state."
Of course, enrollment is about more than just the students a college is bringing in. It's about those it's keeping enrolled. Dileno noted that retention at Ursuline increased as the college has added more intentional outreach and supports to undergraduate students.