Kent State announces 2.5 percent decrease in enrollment

There are fewer students on all Kent State campuses this semester — 861 fewer students to be exact.

Kent State announced a 2.5 percent decrease in total student enrollment yesterday.

Because of the enrollment decrease, the full-time equivalent, which is the system the state uses to measure enrollment for funding purposes, has also decreased by 2.07 percent.

Pete Goldsmith, vice president for enrollment management and student affairs, said the decreases would not affect the university’s budget.

“Because we knew we would have a large graduating class (last spring), we knew that the numbers would be down in the fall,” he said. “It won’t affect the budget because we planned for it.”

Ron Kirksey, executive director of University Communications and Marketing, said the state takes the total of all courses being taken at the university and divides that number by 15 — the equivalent of a full course load to determine the full-time equivalent.

Kirksey said because students often take classes at more than one campus, the university uses an unduplicated head count to determine enrollment. This system counts students only at the campus where they take the majority of their classes.

While the unduplicated head count at the Kent campus has decreased by 933 students since Fall 2005, the regional campus total has increased by 72 students since Fall 2005, according to the press release.

Goldsmith said the university is experiencing other increases as well.

“Minority enrollment is up, I believe, 10 or 11 percent in the entering class,” he said.

Contact College of Communication and Information reporter Kristen Russo at [email protected].