Northern's enrollment stays steady

Havre’s branch of the university system reported that after a decade of struggling with enrollment numbers, it has been holding strong for several straight years and has increased its number of freshmen students for the third straight year.

 “This year we have realized several gains,” Montana State University-Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel said in a press release. “Our number of full-time equivalent undergraduate students is up by over 40 students. We have more full-time students as a result of better advising, retention and recruiting efforts.”

Northern reported Thursday that it has 1,232 students attending classes.

“Most of the programs we are seeing growth in, such as diesel, plumbing, electrical, and criminal justice programs, are the result of listening to the needs of the regions and responding to those needs,” Kegel said. “We recently added a psychology minor as a direct response to what people wanted, and now we are hoping to expand it into a four-year psychology major.”

  Matt DeLong, Northern's interim director of institutional research, said in the release that the number of students is only one way to count enrollment.

“There are several ways we look at our enrollment numbers to get an accurate picture of our overall student enrollment profile. Headcount is only one of the indicators,” DeLong said in the release. “We prefer to count the numbers of full-time equivalent students. This number is achieved by taking the total number of credit hours students are taking and dividing it by the average full-time course load of 15 credits. This FTE number tells us how many students we would have if everyone were taking 15 credits.”

Northern's residence halls are running at near-capacity for the second straight year, with 302 students living on campus, up from 280 last year.

The university also is reaching out farther.

  “This past year, we stepped up our out-of-state recruiting efforts with more trips to Washington, Oregon and Idaho. These efforts have really paid off, as we have 25 more out-of-state students than we did last year,” Kristi Peterson, Northern's director of admissions and recruiting, said in the release. “We have also been using more social media and videos to help reach out to prospective students. This has proven to be a very successful recruiting strategy.”

Northern’s enrollment had been up and down for nearly 15 years, with a steady decline for several years following its peak in 2002, when it had 1,531. The university saw some modest growth in some years following that, with other years in decline

“The significance of these numbers is that we are building an enrollment base that we can build on for the next four years,” Kegel said in the release. “It will also help us to gear up for our new Diesel Technology Center which will allow us to expand our growing diesel program. I believe the new Diesel Technology Center and the improvements to the east side of campus will increase Northern's ability to recruit and retain students. This building would not have been possible without the help of the Montana Legislature and our corporate partners. So once again, I say thank you.”