Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
Montana State University-Northern in Havre this fall saw first-hand a trend in the state university system: a large drop in enrollment. “The problem is, when you have an enrollment drop it isn’t just in one area. It’s a few here, a few there, like a shotgun,” said Chancellor Alex Capdeville. “We’re optimistic about turning it around.” Capdeville said that Northern is working on ways to try to recruit more students to stop a trend of lower enrollment. Northern has lost students in its fall numbers every year except one since 2001, when it had a total enrollment of 1,589. From 2005 to 2006 the university had a slight increase, going from 1,350 students to 1,388. Northern was in the spotlight during the September meeting of the Montana Board of Regents of Higher Education in Billings, when it was reported the university had the largest decrease in the state this year, dropping by 173 students to 1,215. But this year the decrease was almost universal. Montana State University- Billings saw a jump from 3,709 students at its four-year campus in the fall of 2006 to 3,752 this year, while every other campus in the state saw a decline.. Montana State University-Bozeman saw the second-largest drop, going from from 12,338 students last fall to 12,170 this year. The University of Montana dropped from 12,477 to 12,326, and the University of Montana-Western in Dillon now has 1,148 students compared to 1,176 last fall. Montana Tech of the University of Montana in Butte saw enrollment at its four-year campus drop from 1,928 to 1,900. By contrast, all of the colleges of technology in the university system, including the sister campuses of UM, Tech and MSU-Billings, saw increased enrollment this year. The largest increase was at the Helena College of Technology, which went up by 175 students from last year’s enrollment of 889 to 1,064 this year. The Montana State University- Great Falls College of Technology grew by 94 students and is the largest of the COTs, with a total enrollment of 2,067. Overall, the total enrollment at four-year campuses dropped by 505, with a final count of 32,511 students. The colleges of technology grew by a total of 405 students, for a total enrollment of 6,270. Greg Kegel, dean of the College of Technical Sciences at Northern, said a major factor in the decline is demographics. There simply aren’t as many people graduating from high school in the state, especially in areas like north-central Montana, to recruit. “There are so few available,” he said. Brad Eldredge of the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education said organizations have conducted studies of Montana demographics which indicate there will be a large drop in the number of 18- to 24-year-olds in the state over the next 10 years the bread-and-butter group for recruiting college students. The increase in the COTs could be explained by the larger percentage of nontraditional students typically attending those colleges, he added. More older students might be enrolling, causing that increase. Jim Longin, dean of the College of Education, Arts and Sciences and Nursing at Northern, said some programs are full, such as nursing, while others are seeing a decline in enrollment. “Teacher education here seemingly has taken a bit of a dip, but that is true throughout the state,” Longin said. “It isn’t just at Northern.” Part of that is out of the university’s control, he added. Comparatively low starting salaries for teachers makes it difficult to recruit for that program, he said. When people look at taking on $30,000 to $40,000 in debt, going into a career with starting wages of $17,000 to $25,000 isn’t very attractive, he said. Kegel said the loss of students is making it difficult to satisfy companies looking for workers. Many businesses come to recruit students from the College of Technical Sciences. “I don’t have enough graduates for what they need,” Kegel said. “They almost leave here upset that we don’t have enough students here.” Capdeville said 33 companies came to Northern last year to recruit from its graduates, ranging from local companies to major corporations including Toyota, General Motors, Ford and Caterpillar. Many of those companies, local, national and international, contribute to Northern’s programs including with grants and with equipment. “They make an investment here. They have an expectation of getting more graduates,” Capdeville said. “While it’s a good problem, it is a problem. How do we get more here?” Capdeville said the problem is probably more pronounced for Northern because this area is seeing a more drastic decline in demographics than other areas around the other units of the university system. Jim Potter, director of university relations at Northern, said another problem is increased competition with the workplace. “A lot of our students are opting to work,” Potter said. “When you have a lot of our students technically oriented, they are a great find for those companies.” When students are offered $20- to $25-an-hour to go to work, that impacts enrollment, Potter said. Capdeville said another problem is retention. The number of students at Northern usually drops from the fall to the spring semester, he said. “That is troubling,” he said, adding that the university needs to look at how it does things daily to reduce the attrition. “I think we need to focus on customer service. I think there are some things we can improve on.”
