Reporter Jordyn Brown. Some snippets below, full report here:
UO’s overall enrollment is down about 3%, a drop of about 678 students, according to preliminary data shared with The Register-Guard. The majority comes from its freshmen class, which has 610 fewer students over last year’s class — a 13.3% drop. …
[UO’s $278K VP for Strategic Communications Kyle Henley and his flacks] did not respond to multiple calls for comment about its financial outlook in light of these preliminary numbers.
… UO has faced decreasing enrollment for the last decade, with just a couple of years showing slight bumps. Based off this year’s early estimate of 3% fewer students, it’s the largest drop in enrollment the university has seen since 2017’s 2.76% decline.
Unlike UO, Oregon State University has seen its enrollment increase over the last decade. Overall, its enrollment went up by about 1% this year between its Corvallis campus, OSU-Cascades in Bend and online school. Cascades’ enrollment went up more than 1% and its Ecampus went up 21%. …
A decline of 3% seems not so bad on its face, but undergraduate and graduate school enrollment usually increases significantly during recessions as people decide to go back to school when jobs are harder to find. A decline in enrollment during a recession is worrisome.