BYU-Idaho Enrollment Increases

Brigham Young University Idaho released statistics that show total campus enrollment is up by 3.9 percent from last fall.

This comes after the university had a decline enrollment two years ago when the LDS church announced a new missionary age.

University officials say that this is a good thing for the university despite the initial drop in enrollment numbers.

Instead of going straight to college many 18 and 19 year old LDS high school graduates plan to leave to go on their mission.

“There were definitely some logistical issues to be dealt with in terms of the changes in enrollment but those were very easily managed because of the flexibility in our scheduling we were able to deal with those effects quite easily, ” said Marc Stevens, a BYU-Idaho spokesperson.

Garth Hall, a former vice president of BYU-Idaho and current mission president says he sees the new mission age as an advantage for the college.

“They come back and what they bring is they bring the maturity, they bring this experience, they bring this perspective to the campus and it blesses everybody. I think they are going to raise this whole level of the learning environment at BYU-Idaho,” said Hall.

Basic enrollment is not the only thing that’s rising at BYU-Idaho.

The university’s online enrollment has skyrocketed by 57.4 percent since this time last year.