UNO enrollment continues to say no, however no additional finances cuts anticipated
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- UNO enrollment drops 12% this fall, dropping 800 college students
- College faces $30M finances shortfall, spending freezes, and layoffs
- Transition again to LSU System anticipated to spice up enrollment
- Lawmakers and officers hopeful LSU alignment will stabilize future progress
Enrollment on the College of New Orleans is down about 800 college students this fall because the college offers with an ongoing fiscal disaster from a years-long enrollment stoop.
There are 5,670 college students enrolled on the college this semester, UNO President Kathy Johnson stated in a campuswide e mail this week. The rely is down about 12% from a 12 months in the past.
“This quantity is decrease than we’d hoped, but comprehensible given the challenges we’ve skilled over the course of the previous 12 months,” Johnson stated. “The long run stays extremely vivid as we put together to transition again to the LSU System with a realigned finances.”
The lower in enrollment at UNO has spanned twenty years. The varsity had a pupil physique of round 17,000 earlier than Hurricane Katrina, with an instantaneous drop to round 6,000 after the storm. For a number of years earlier than Johnson took over the college in 2023, college officers didn’t align spending with enrollment. The varsity confronted a $30 million finances shortfall final fiscal 12 months and carried out a spending freeze, layoffs and employees furloughs in an try and make ends meet.
The lack of college students means UNO will usher in about $1 million much less in income than anticipated, although Johnson stated the college is not going to cut back its finances. Johnson stated UNO can be “considered” in changing college students and requested school and employees to chorus from purchases except they’re primarily or paid for with exterior funds.
The enrollment decline comes as the college is getting ready to transition again to the LSU System. The Louisiana Legislature handed a invoice earlier this 12 months to provoke the switch, which might undo lawmakers’ resolution to maneuver the college from the LSU System to the College of Louisiana System 14 years in the past.
The primary assembly of a transition committee to start work on the switch might be in early October, LSU Board Chairman Scott Ballard stated.
Lawmakers and college officers hope the switch may have a constructive impression on enrollment. Regardless of nationwide traits of falling enrollment, each college within the LSU System has reported growing, usually record-breaking enrollment over the previous a number of years.
