Whistling past the college graveyard
By NewsPress Now
On Oct. 1, a press release from Northwest Missouri State University proclaimed that enrollment had surpassed 9,000 for the second straight year.
It was a true statement, but a closer reading of the release showed that the total headcount had actually dropped 5.3% from the previous year. Northwest tried to put a positive spin on things – noting that enrollment had increased for six consecutive years in an “unprecedented period of growth.” Who says there’s no need for creative writing classes in college?
At least Northwest felt like it had a story to tell. Missouri Western State University appeared to observe radio silence when other institutions of higher education were releasing 20-day enrollment figures. A new state report tells us why. The Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education released statewide enrollment data that shows Missouri Western experienced a 2.3% year-over-year enrollment decline.
While that’s not a huge drop, the longer trend is more disconcerting. Over the last five years, Missouri Western’s headcount enrollment has dropped 31.2%, from 5,413 to 3,726. Among four-year state universities, only Harris-Stowe in St. Louis experienced a steeper rate of decrease.
The best that Missouri Western could say is that misery loves company. Of 13 four-year, public universities in Missouri, nine experienced an enrollment drop over the last five years. (Exceptions included Northwest and the University of Missouri-Columbia). The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center found that first-year enrollment dropped 5% nationwide this fall.
Many universities give an impression of whistling past the graveyard amid these troubling enrollment trends, but they would be wise to avoid pinning the problem solely on a COVID hangover or last year’s bungled updates to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Universities face immense demographic challenges with a shrinking pool of future students in the pipeline. The DEI obsession created an impression that some campuses were not welcoming to those who didn’t toe the party line on progressive politics. The biggest challenge is skyrocketing tuition, which led to a broad re-evaluation regarding the value of a college degree for many cash-strapped families. The debate over student loan forgiveness did universities no favors because it postponed the kind of structural reforms that are necessary to align degree programs with the job market. Keep doing the same old thing if a government bailout is coming.
Western, to its credit, made many of those difficult decisions amid a financial crisis a few years ago. Its enrollment still took a nosedive.
Colleges and universities have to be wondering what happens next amid demographic challenges, funding constraints and a population willing to consider other post-secondary options. There are no easy answers to dismal enrollment trends, but the first step in recovery is always to admit you have a problem.
To stack or
not to stack?
An appellate court ruling last month throws new uncertainty into Buchanan County’s voter-approved tax on recreational marijuana.
The Eastern District of the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled that counties don’t have the authority to impose an additional 3% sales tax on top of the 3% that many cities place on recreational marijuana. This kind of “stacked” tax – making the combined local rate 6% — is exactly what happened following voter approval of separate marijuana levies in St. Joseph and Buchanan County.
The 3% tax has generated about $678,000 for St. Joseph and would presumably provide a similar amount to Buchanan County if it survives court challenges. That appears less likely now. In addition to the lawsuit in eastern Missouri, Vertical Enterprise directly sued Buchanan County Collector Peggy Campbell, claiming its dispensary would suffer “irreparable harm” with both a city and a county tax.
In terms of public benefit, the marijuana industry has certainly changed its tune from the heady promises made during the Amendment 3 campaign in 2022.
