As Ohio’s economy blossoms, fewer students attend regional campuses
Editor’s Note: This is the first article in a two-part series examining the financial and cultural impact of shifting enrollment trends at Ohio University.
When Ohio’s economy booms, regional campuses take a hit.
Since 2010 Ohio University's regional campuses have seen decreases in enrollment, and officials think the improved state of the economy may be to blame.
Increases to income and the number of available jobs tend to make individuals pursue a liberal arts education — widely available on the Athens campus — versus a technical degree at a regional campus.
“If you look at historical enrollment patterns of regional campuses at Ohio University, they go down when the economy is strong and up when the economy is weak,” said Stephen Golding, vice president for Finance and Administration.
OU’s regional campuses — Chillicothe, Eastern, Lancaster, Southern and Zanesville — have experienced an overall enrollment decline of nearly 3 percent for the 2013-2014 academic year, according to Ohio Board of Regents data.
While that figure is below the state average of nearly 4 percent, officials are still taking the drop in numbers seriously.
“Is that of concern to us? Yeah,” Golding said. “We have to maintain some level of investment in our regional campuses in order to ensure they serve the role they're expected to serve.”
Regional campuses across the state have also experienced losses in enrollment.
Throughout Kent State University’s seven regional campuses, only its Geauga campus in Burton, Ohio, saw an increase in headcount for Fall 2014, according to state documents.
Bowling Green State University, Miami University and Ohio State University have seen similar trends.
“If the economy is good, students are more likely to attend four-year campuses,” Chad Mitchell, OU’s budget director, said.
When more jobs are available, fewer workers seek out technical degrees, said Bill Willan, executive dean for Regional Higher Education at OU.
“Students who have those opportunities and find positions easily out of high school typically don’t come into the program until there’s a downturn in the economy,” he said.
The only exception for OU is the Zanesville campus, which saw a nearly 5 percent increase in enrollment for Fall 2014.
“There’s a very strong focus on the nursing program at the Zanesville campus,” Willan said, attributing the increase to the success of the program.
Students transferring to OU’s main campus in Athens from regional campuses, officials said, may also explain the loss in enrollment.
In the 2009-10 academic year, about 350 students transferred from OU’s regional campuses to Athens; that number has hovered between 400 and 660 students each year since.
“I transferred because the program that I wanted was not available at OU Zanesville,” said Courtney Barker, a junior studying communication sciences and disorders who attends the Athens campus.
Barker, originally from Frazeysburg, Ohio, said that reduced tuition rates caused her and many of her friends from high school to attend the Zanesville campus for two years before transferring elsewhere.
“The economic downturn occurred in 2008 to 2009 and for the two-year schools and the regional campuses enrollment swelled at that point,” Willan said. “Since that time there's been a gradual decline.”
Enrollment declines have also caused OU’s regional campuses to have financial deficits, Mitchell said.
Officials have proposed tuition increases for all regional campuses in response, but tuition changes may vary by campus and number of semester hours.
Students enrolled full-time taking 60 semester hours or less — also known as being in the “lower division” — at Chillicothe, Lancaster or Zanesville may see a 2 percent increase, or $49 per semester, for the 2015-16 academic year. That would bring tuition to $2,579 per semester.
Eastern and Southern campus students in the lower division may also see similar increases, totaling $2,483 in tuition per semester.
Upper division students, or those taking more than 60 semester hours, may see a 1.1 percent increase, or $28 per semester, at all regional campuses. Those students would pay $2,579 per semester.
“We have asked for a modest increase,” Willan said. “During the economic downturn, we knew that the stresses on the families in our area … were intense and we did not request a tuition increase between 2007 and 2011.”
Officials are also attempting to simplify tuition rates at the regional level by merging costs and making all the campuses cost the same amount.
“Students are much more likely to take courses on multiple campuses and so it causes confusion a lot,” Mitchell said.
New tuition rates for the regional campuses were approved at the Budget Planning Council’s meeting Feb 13.
Besides raising tuition, regional campus officials are focusing on improving programs with the goal of increasing enrollment.
“We don’t want to become content with the programs we have and think those are always going to be in demand,” Willan said. “First of all we want to make sure students have access to the courses they need.”
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