HILO — Fall enrollment at the University of Hawaii at Hilo declined for the fourth consecutive year, prodding administrators to revamp recruitment materials in hopes of attracting — and retaining — more students.
The number of for-credit students at the Hilo campus was 3,666 this week, according to the UH Institutional Research Office. That’s about a 4.2 percent drop from fall 2015 when 3,829 students were enrolled and a nearly 12 percent drop from fall 2012 — that’s when enrollment peaked at 4,157 after eight years of continual growth.
“The number of students overall continues to decline, which is not what we wanted to see at all,” UH-Hilo Chancellor Donald Straney said last week, adding the campus originally predicted a drop of about 1 percent in enrollment this year. “… We have to do significantly better with retention of out-of-state students and we have to do a better job recruiting in-state students who stay.”
Straney said he wants to see UH-Hilo enrollment hit 4,000 in five years, roughly where counts stood when he assumed his position in 2010. He said the campus revamped its recruitment brochures for the first time in six years in hopes of giving a more “accurate portrayal of what you get when you get here.”
Student retention at UH-Hilo was about 63 percent last school year, a number that’s been as high as 70 percent in recent years, he added.
Previous brochures were themed “Seeking Adventures” and featured colorful cover photos of attractions around the island. New materials are themed “Inspirations” and feature a more simple cover design with photos inside instead. New materials aim to better describe academic achievements, new buildings and programs on campus and portray a more “authentic and comprehensive … expression of who we are as a university,” said Zachary Street, UH-Hilo director of admissions.
“We want people to know we’re a high-quality academic institution and we want that to be clear in our materials,” Street said. “… Being that it would draw students who are well matched and begin with us, stay with us and graduate with us.”
UH-Hilo also is looking at separating its massive College of Arts and Sciences into two colleges next year in an effort to better manage retention and student graduation within those programs.
Straney said dwindling high school enrollment statewide in recent years influenced UH-Hilo numbers, and that trend is eventually “set to turn around.”
Data from the state Department of Education shows 7,607 students were enrolled in the Hilo-Waiakea Complex Area this fall, up from 7,569 last school year. In the Ka‘u-Keaau-Pahoa Complex Area, 5,353 students were enrolled — identical to the previous year. In the Honokaa-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Complex Area, fall enrollment was 9,932 students, an increase from 9,803 in 2015-16. DOE fall enrollment statewide was down slightly this year compared with last year.
Fall enrollment at Hawaii Community College also declined. Data from the UH Institutional Research Office showed 2,957 were enrolled this week, a 4.2 percent drop from fall 2015 when enrollment was 3,087 and nearly 1,000 students fewer than fall 2011.
HCC Chancellor Rachel Solemsaas said Monday the drop is “no surprise” and coincides with declining community college enrollment nationwide. She said HCC is constantly looking at ways to draw more students and boost retention — currently about 51 percent among first-time freshman, according to the 2016 update of the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard.
Solemsaas said HCC also is adding a new recruitment outreach specialist position — hoped to help recruit, improve retention and draw students from underserved populations.
“If the economic situation is good, our enrollment tends to go down because people tend to be at work instead of going to school,” Solemsaas said. “… But (declining enrollment) is definitely not our goal. We were not expecting to be down 4 percent. Our goal was to be a little higher than last year. So, we will continue to look at the data locally and on a system level … It’s really finding what the community needs and (deciding) ‘Are we serving and providing opportunities in that way?’”
Enrollment dropped this fall at nearly every other UH campus excluding UH-West Oahu, which is up about 250 students from fall 2015. Systemwide, fall enrollment was 53,425 — a roughly 11.4 percent drop from fall 2011 when there were 60,321 students among all the UH campuses.
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.