UI sees student numbers on rise

MOSCOW, Idaho – Identifying troubled students and getting them help early in the semester helped the University of Idaho post a 3 percent enrollment gain over last spring, according to the university.

Steve Neiheisel, assistant vice president for enrollment management, said those efforts and others are improving what colleges and universities call retention, the number of students who come back semester after semester and eventually finish their degrees.

“That early intervention and the other programs helped us,” Neiheisel said.

Last fall, UI started administering a survey to freshmen that gauged not only how new students were doing academically, but personally. It even offered incentives like free sweatshirts to the living groups who got 100 percent participation in the survey.

Neiheisel said the information gathered was used to find the students at risk of dropping out and getting them into programs to help straighten out their college careers.

And it appears the new initiatives are working, he said. Student retention lingered around 89 percent for the past several years before jumping to 93 percent in just one year.

He said first-year students can get into academic trouble for several reasons, including poor time management and an increased level of freedom living away from home.

“You change the living environment and you create a whole different set of dynamics and experiences,” Neiheisel said.

UI enrollment on the 10th day of spring classes was 10,283 in Moscow, a 2 percent gain over last spring, and 11,512 statewide.

Applications for next fall are running at 14 percent ahead of a year ago, a rate Neiheisel said could translate to a 4 percent or 5 percent net enrollment gain for next semester.

“We’re looking at growing at a fairly steady pace,” Neiheisel said, noting UI President Duane Nellis’ goal of a 16,000-student institution.

Efforts to enroll more transfer students are also paying off. The university counted 277 new transfers this spring, 81 more than last spring.

Neiheisel reminded prospective students and their parents of the Feb. 15 priority deadline to apply for scholarships and financial aid.