WSU faces small enrollment decline

Washington State University’s top administrators said in a pair of virtual town halls Thursday that enrollment and school finances have suffered under the pandemic but not as much as was first feared.

WSU President Kirk Schulz and Provost and Executive Vice President Elizabeth Chilton hosted an hourlong Zoom conferences with the school’s Division of Academic Engagement and Student Achievement, the College of Arts and Sciences and Honors College Thursday.

Chilton acknowledged in the meeting overall enrollment for the WSU system did take a hit compared to last year’s fall numbers but that’s better news than it might seem.

“We were very pleasantly surprised to learn that overall, in terms of system-wide enrollment, that we are down less than 2 percent from the all-time record last fall of 31,600,” Chilton said. “This is much better than we had feared. Of course, we always want to see enrollment holding steady or even increasing, but we feel like the reputation of WSU has really helped us ride out this really challenging time in higher education.”

Chilton said while enrollment system-wide — particularly on the school’s Pullman campus — fell, other sectors of recruiting are going better than ever. She said WSU’s Department of Health Sciences has had its largest enrollment year ever with 1,727 new students. The school’s global campus saw the biggest increase of any college, bringing in 4,021 more international students than it did last fall — a 23 percent increase.

Schulz said WSU finances are also in relatively good shape. He said revenues are expected to be down by tens of millions of dollars in the coming fiscal year because of the pandemic’s effect on enrollment, athletics and other revenue streams.

Luckily he said, WSU just concluded a 3-year fiscal recovery program that went better than expected, turning a roughly $30 million operational deficit into a surplus of more than $28 million by the time it ended in June. He said the hope was to begin reinvesting in projects once the school was back in the black but those plans were scrapped when the pandemic hit.

“That was our plan all along and then pandemic hit,” he said. “While that’s not great, the fiscal discipline that the university has put in place has meant that it gives us a lot more flexibility moving forward.”

Chilton and Schulz will host another town hall with the Carson College of Business today from noon to 1 p.m., and again on Tuesday with WSU Everett at the same time of day.

Scott Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.