Enrollment dip? Officials say UW-Green Bay on track to approach target

Preliminary numbers indicate overall enrollment is holding steady for the UW System this fall, but a news release issued Wednesday offered partial numbers that suggest several institutions are trailing last year’s totals. One of them is UW-Green Bay, which as of the mid-September cutoff date for preliminary reporting stood 500 headcount shy of last year’s grand total of 6,667.

UW System spokeswoman Heather LaRoi explained to the Wisconsin State Journal that UW-Green Bay has a high percentage of nontraditional, late-enrolling students, which accounts for most of the apparent 7.5 percent gap.

Additionally, UW-Green Bay spokesman Christopher Sampson told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that enrollment tabulations from University classes offered in local high schools were running late this year, missed inclusion in Wednesday’s report, and will account for hundreds of additional headcount enrollments when finalized. Sampson said that even with smaller freshman classes the last two years, total headcount enrollment has been relatively stable as gains in categories including online degree programs have helped offset declines in any one area. He noted that UW-Green Bay recognizes and is now mobilizing to address its enrollment challenges — it has been an early priority of Chancellor Gary L. Miller — but the partial-to-total comparisons made in the UW System progress report and subsequent news reports don’t accurately reflect the nature of the challenge.

See the UW System news release and campus-by-campus numbers.
Read a short Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel summary of the story.