Lake Region State College is optimistic enrollment slides experienced during the COVID pandemic have halted. In its official fall enrollment report released September 20th, LRSC reports 1,679 students enrolled for Fall 2022 up from 1,621 a year ago.
President Dr. Doug Darling said college recruitment and admissions staff expanded one-on-one communications and outreach with future students this past year. That, along with the return of campus-based events like Career and Technical Education Day made a visible impact in enrollment.
“When students and parents see the campus and programs first-hand and can visit with program faculty, it makes an impact,” Darling said.
An increase of 3.5 percent still means the college has additional ground to cover to return to pre-pandemic enrollment, but Darling said the college is on the right track.
“The pandemic changed the higher education landscape and LRSC is adapting and evolving with those changes . We stopped the COVID slide and are moving in the right direction but still have the challenge to return to anticipated enrollment goals.”
Full-time numbers are 416 compared with 422 last year and part-time totals 1,263, compared to 1,199 this time last year.
The college will continue to address recruitment and marketing of programs with goals of growing its student numbers long-term. In 2018, Lake Region State College broke its headcount and credit production record.
The fall fourth week count is a snapshot of the students served at Lake Region State College. A report will be issued summer 2023 that reports total students served during the academic year.