Evergreen enrollment expected to top 2,000 students, but not by much, official says
Fall enrollment at The Evergreen State College in Olympia is expected to top 2,000 students, but not by much, the chief enrollment officer told the Board of Trustees at its retreat this month.
Eric Pedersen told the board that he doesn’t expect enrollment to climb any higher than 2,100 students, but that number is better than an initial fall forecast of 1,940 students.
Data on Evergreen’s website says there were 2,281 students enrolled in fall 2020. The college’s highest enrollment was 4,891 students in the fall of 2009.
“Things are good,” Pedersen said, but he added: “We’re not going to bounce back to 4,000 students in a heartbeat.”
At the Sept. 14 retreat, new President John Carmichael led the board through a sobering discussion about the challenges facing Evergreen and other colleges and universities throughout the country.
He said the college has half the enrollment it had five years ago. And out of the 786 four-year public institutions in the country that report enrollment data to the U.S. Department of Education, Evergreen ranks 770th in size, Carmichael said.
“The enrollment challenge we have is very, very significant,” he said. “I know I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but I feel it’s important we have it clearly in view and look at it with a steely-eyed gaze as we think about how to move forward.”
Some of the enrollment decline can be attributed to the pandemic, and Carmichael praised the college for pivoting to remote learning as quickly as it did.
He also said the country is so polarized politically there has been a loss of confidence in public institutions, which has become a challenge for some students.
“We know a liberal arts education is excellent preparation for citizenship and careers as well, but it’s a harder sell than it used to be,” Carmichael said.
Enrollment also will continue to be a challenge because the birth rate dropped off dramatically during the Great Recession, he said.
“There’s going to be a real shortage of 18-year-olds in a few years,” he said, but added that will be a temporary challenge.
Overall, colleges and universities in the country are operating at 75 percent capacity, chasing fewer students, he said.
More specific to Evergreen, the completion of federal financial aid forms, which Carmichael acknowledged is cumbersome, fell sharply among low-income students and students of color.
“That form is the gateway to financial aid and the gateway to higher education for many students,” he said.
Trustee Monica Alexander wanted more information about why the college couldn’t reach those students.
Chief Enrollment Officer Pedersen attributed it to the pandemic, saying there was a segment of the population that needed extra support with applications and forms that just wasn’t available remotely.
“Yes, there was Zoom, but it’s not the same,” he said.
The good news, he said, is now that K-12 schools and community colleges have returned to in-person learning, he does expect those students to return in the future.
Trustee Ed Zuckerman wasn’t convinced that students of color were tripped up by technical matters. He wants to make sure Evergreen’s academics are aligned with the kind of curriculum students of color want.
“There’s a potential area of huge growth for our enrollment, but we have to align it academically,” he said.
Pedersen said the college continues to explore ways to connect with adults who attended college but left before obtaining their degrees. The college also is exploring a direct admissions program with what he called “home school consortiums,” one in Seattle, the other in Los Angeles.
This story was originally published September 25, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
