Kent State’s enrollment has decreased by 2.5 percent, but the lower enrollment numbers won’t affect the university’s budget too much, said David Creamer, senior vice president for administration.

University administrators originally planned the budget with a 3 percent enrollment decrease in mind, but estimates at the beginning of the semester suggested the decrease might be as high as 4 percent.

Creamer said there is always some flexibility in the university’s budget to accommodate unplanned spending, such as repairs and improvement programs. However, this semester’s lower enrollment will decrease the amount of money available for such expenses.

“We’re going to have less flexibility to respond to some of those issues,” he said.

Creamer said the administration will continue to monitor enrollment throughout the semester. In the meantime, the university will control its spending.

“We still have to monitor the budget,” Creamer said. “The goal is to find a way to get through the year without cutting funding for any of the units.”

Official 15th Day statistics, which were released Tuesday, calculate the total number of students at Kent State by the 15th day of school, including part-time students. Students who deregister from classes or choose not to attend are not included in this count.

Sally Kandel, associate vice president for research planning and institutional effectiveness, said another method used to determine enrollment is the full-time equivalent statistic, which only accounts for students taking 15 credit hours or more. Kent State’s full-time equivalent enrollment decreased by 2.07 percent this year.

The state of Ohio determines how much money each public university will receive based on schools’ full-time equivalent statistics.

Creamer said the predicted 4 percent decrease was in part based on last year’s graduating class, which was larger than average.

“The decline in transfer and graduate students has made it impossible to replace all of the outgoing graduates,” Creamer said. “It is good news that more students are being successful at Kent State, but we must be able to maintain our enrollment, especially with the expectation of smaller high school graduating classes in the future.”

Contact student affairs reporter Caroline Lautenbacher at [email protected] and administration reporter Kate Bigam at [email protected].

Five-year history of Kent State’s 15th Day Enrollment statistics (all campuses) • 2006 33,630 students -2.5 percent decrease • 2005 34,491 students -2.73 percent decrease • 2004 35,458 students 0.07 percent increase • 2003 35,433 students 2.72 percent increase • 2002 34,494 students 3.63 percent increase