Northern sees enrollment drop

Spring student enrollment at Montana State University-Northern has dropped, even as Montana State University in Bozeman continues to break enrollment records

Information from the Registrar's office at Northern showed headcount for the spring 2018 semester was 1,119 students compared to 1,154 during the fall 2017 semester and 1,182 last spring.

Potter said reasons students gave for not coming back in the fall include Montana's historically bad wildfire season this summer, harsh drought conditions and a rise in tuition.

Potter said in an email that because of cuts made to the state university system, Northern raised tuition and fees by 25 percent for lower-division students and 5.7 percent for higher-division students.

The number of full-time equivalent students, the number of credits taken at the university divided by 15, fell from 996.55 last fall to 930 this spring at Northern, the lowest of any spring since 2011, the last year for which numbers were available at the university Registrar's website.

The decrease in headcount for Northern's spring semester comes as Montana State University saw student enrollment reach 15,496, a 272 student increase from last spring, continuing a decade-long trend.

Potter said Northern is taking steps to try and increase their headcount by doing more marketing, promoting Northern online and looking to recruit students from farther away than they have done traditionally.

He also said that when the campus' long-awaited Diesel Technology Center opens in spring that will also attract students.