Ball State's on-campus enrollment drops below 14,000
The school in October reported on plans to add more than three dozen new staff, create a task force and take other steps to address student enrollment, retention and success.
MUNCIE — Ball State University’s on-campus enrollment has fallen below 14,000 for the first time this century — thanks to the pandemic, increased competition from Indiana and Purdue universities for fewer and fewer college-bound Hoosier high schoolers, and other factors.
Generally speaking, fewer students taking classes on campus is not good for Muncie’s economy.
The university is taking steps to address student success, retention and enrollment issues, including adding more than three dozen new staff positions, such as academic advisors, success coaches, faculty success fellows, One Stop staff, director of communications strategy, Latinx recruiter, and transfer-student recruiters.
Facing an overall decline in retention, the school also set up an Executive Student Success and Retention Team consisting of President Geoffrey S. Mearns and his cabinet, and a Student Success and Retention Task Force chaired by Jason Rivera, associate vice president for student success and dean of University College.
BSU stopped publicly reporting its on-campus attendance figures several years ago — as its online enrollment began rising —but will still provide it on request.
Here are the on-campus numbers for the past five years (see a chart below for the years 1999-present):
2017 — 16,825
2018 — 16,166
2019 — 15,969
2020 — 14,109
2021 — 13,962
The good news is that on-campus enrollment fell about 12% during the first year of the coronavirus outbreak but only 1.04% during the second year of the pandemic.
In other welcome news, international enrollment remained stable at 294 this year compared to the 304 students who crossed borders to study here in 2020. However, BSU hosted 431 international students in 2019, so there was a 30% drop during the first year of the pandemic.
The other positive news is that Ball State’s general fund budget, acted on by the board of trustees earlier this semester, increased from:
$378.8 million for 2020-21, to
$381.9 million for 2021-22, despite a $3.8 million loss in revenue from student fees during that time ($211.1 million to $207.4 million; BSU boasts of having the lowest tuition rate among all 12 Mid-American Conference schools).
The decrease in student fees was offset by an increase in state appropriations from $154.9 million to $161.8 million.
However, the decrease in on-campus enrollment apparently impacted residence hall budgets, which dropped from $65.1 million to $63.2 million over the past two years.
Meanwhile, off-campus enrollment (primarily online) this fall looked more like 2019 than 2020, when a significant number of courses were transferred online to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms. Here are the figures:
2015 — 4,594
2016 — 5,190
2017 — 5,688
2018 — 5,718
2019 — 6,572
2020 — 7,567
2021 — 6,447
Also during their meeting on Oct. 1, the board of trustees was informed:
Freshman enrollment declined 8%, from 3,566 to 3,278, on the heels of the record-breaking freshman class of 4,060 in 2019.
The freshman class this fall was 62.2% female and 37.8% male.
The trustees were advised that enrollment this fall was affected by the university’s inability to recruit at high schools in person due to COVID-19; the lack of guided, campus tours for the same reason; higher enrollments at the main campuses of Indiana and Purdue universities, thanks in part to a change in admission policies at those schools, which enrolled more in-state students than normal to offset their loss of international students; and the ongoing decline in the number of Indiana high school graduates who attend college.
(Like Ball State, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Indiana State University saw their enrollments drop this fall).
Initiatives announced by BSU in October to help enrollment rebound included social media marketing; enhanced virtual campus tours; recruiting more students from neighboring states; recruiting more international students; continuing to focus on Latinx recruitment; and adding half a dozen new staff positions, including director of communications strategy, marketing content specialist, Latinx recruiter, assistant director of orientation, and undergraduate Slate.org coordinator.
Two more new positions were added to recruit additional Ivy Tech Community College and other students to transfer to BSU.
To help improve student retention, 30 new positions were announced in October, including 10 new academic advisors, five success coaches, seven faculty success fellows, a data analyst, a success-coaches coordinator, an administrative coordinator, and several One stop staff.
Other retention priorities include improving summer orientation, welcome week, Living Learning Communities, and engaging faculty in student success.
Indiana’s college-going rate is at its lowest point in more than 10 years, according to the state’s 2021 College Readiness Report on the 2019 high school graduating class (the most recent data available).
In 2019, 59% of high school graduates in Indiana proceeded to some form of higher education, a drop from 61% in 2018. The state’s college-going rate has been steadily declining since 2015 (65%).
The report also highlighted an increase in graduation waivers awarded to 2019 high school graduates. Nearly 1 in 8 high school graduates were awarded waivers that year, the highest number in at least 15 years.
Graduation waivers are awarded to students who cannot pass Indiana’s requirements for graduating high school.
Here are the on-campus enrollment statistics for Ball State since the turn of the century. On-campus enrollment means taking at least one class on campus:
1999 — 17,459
2000 — 17,490
2001 — 17,662
2002 — 18,059
2003 — 18,310
2004 — 18,043
2005 — 17,728
2006 — 17,285
2007 — 16,828
2008 — 16,901
2009 — 17,627
2010 — 18,183
2011 — 18,241
2012 — 17,851
2014 — 17,005
2015 — 16,602
2016 — 16,808
2017 — 16,825
2018 — 16,166
2019 — 15,969
2020 — 14,109
2021 — 13,962
(CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story reported on the ongoing decline in the number of high school graduates in Indiana. I should have said there is an ongoing decline in the number of Indiana high school graduates who go on to college).
Previously, in Greater Muncie:
$80 million reportedly committed to BSU Village revitalization