Northern enrollment increase continues, work to improve continues

Montana State University-Northern is continuing to see a slight increase in enrollment, up from a six-student increase it saw in the fall.

Chancellor Greg Kegel said Wednesday that, compared to last fall, enrollment numbers had increased by 42 students in the spring semester.

"We are actually up in enrollment, which is always a good thing," he added. "We are winning on this campus in every other area that I can win in. Enrollment isn't growing as fast as I'd like it to, but in order for it to grow like I want to make it grow, I have to go further away."

Fall semester 2019 had 1,086 and the university now has 1,128 students.

The last head-count increase the university saw was in 2013, when the number of students enrolled in the fall was 1,334, up from 1,282 in fall 2012.

Kegel said he is continuing to work on projects to try to increase enrollment, including the planned multi-sports complex at the university.

He said the university has obtained 85 percent of the funding for the first phase of that project, building a football stadium on the practice field west of Hagener Science Center.

He said the first phase of the complex is to get to the bowl created for the football field, to get the scoreboard and goal posts up, the artificial turf down, the bleachers in place and a press box up.

Getting all these components completed is called "Game-day ready," he added.

"That's one of the dreams we have for this campus is to have game day on our campus and all the activities and the events go around that Saturday morning right before kick-off," Kegel said. "The excitement, the student body, everybody is excited they want to be part of it."

Kegel said the project is not just about football, but about getting Northern right-sized as quick as they can with students, improving retention and the ability to recruit.

  The sports complex is one of a number of initiatives he is working on right now, he said.

"I love what we are doing, all these things are fun, and the Diesel Technology Center was one of those initiatives, and it's beautiful. We just had the gala over there; it was awesome and the community loved it," he said. "We are going to keep going with these things that help us draw kids from further away, so that way I can get my critical mass at where I need it."

Kegel said his goal for Northern is to be better than anyone else.

After getting the stadium up and going, he said, he is working on building an equine center.

"I'm working on kind of an interesting project with our ag outreach technology program. We have embedded an equine minor underneath that program," he said.

Northern has as successful Rodeo program, he added, but they don't have a facility.

"We continue to have some struggle with some students who rodeo to do the activities that they do on horses, he said. "And then a place to call their own, have their own, and so then you combine that with an equine program, and we're looking at a Western stock horse emphasis in that minor."

He added that they have found a location west of town, past the North 40 Outfitters location, that "is an absolutely perfect location to put a facility."

"That's a fun project to be working on," Kegel said. "We're grinding away on things that make Northern noticeable."

The university also is the top-ranked school in the state - and 15th in the nation - for upward mobility, starting college in the bottom 20 percent of income distribution and moving into the top 20 percent, he said.