The pandemic accelerated a trend that college deans and finance chiefs throughout the U.S. Midwest have been dreading: There are fewer 18-year-olds to fill classrooms, dorms and dining halls.
That means less revenue, increasing the likelihood of budget cuts affecting staff, the curriculum and sports programs, while schools are forced to offer bigger financial incentives to attract students.
Tumbling birth rates across the region will also become a bigger problem for many mid-size public colleges, compounding the devastation wrought by Covid-19.
“We can see in our K-12 system what’s coming,” said Sean Broghammer, interim vice president for enrollment management at Kent State University, which draws about 80% of its students from Ohio.
The damage is mounting.
Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant dismissed some non-tenured faculty members earlier this year, after cutting its men’s track and field team in 2020. St. Cloud State University in Minnesota eliminated athletic programs including football and golf. Southern Illinois University in Carbondale is filling only critical positions when needed.
Even as most undergraduates returned to campuses for in-person classes in August and September, schools such as Southern Illinois and Indiana State University in Terre Haute have fewer students this fall than the previous one.
The main campus at Kent, located in the Northeast Ohio city of the same name, reported a 1% enrollment decline, while headcount across its eight-campus system has dropped 4%, or 1,500 students.
Kent State said in June that it would offer more aid for tuition and fees to lower-income students from Ohio studying at the main campus, after other scholarships are depleted. About 20% of the freshmen class qualified, costing the university about $5 million annually, Broghammer said. That figure may change depending on how many students qualify each year.
“We’re all recruiting from that same pool, and the pool is declining,” he said.