ISU enrollment stalls after promising increase

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - Declining enrollment has been a focus of Idaho State University for a while.

That's why ISU started its first ever statewide marketing and advertising campaign.

"By all indications that was working. It was working very well," said ISU President Kevin Satterlee.

ISU saw an increase in applications, admissions, housing and scholarship applications before the pandemic hit, Satterlee said.

"The trend line was looking very good for this fall and I think we would have seen that statewide brand, image campaign come to fruition with some good numbers. But we don't know what will happen now," Satterlee said.

In Fall 2019, ISU reported a 0.3 percent increase in enrolled students from the previous year, primarily because of dual-credit and graduate students. That's a total of 38 more students.

A Virginia study polled students planning to enroll in college in the fall. One in five students said it was likely or highly likely they would not attend because of the pandemic. 

ISU administers their census in the fall and won't truly know the impacts of the pandemic until then.