More sobering indications from campus: Enrollment is down again.
Official numbers wont be available for a little while, but the university provost told the Manhattan Rotary Club this past week that enrollment has dropped this fall. Its been down now for five straight years; it was already off by 10 percent since the 2014-15 school year, when it peaked at just under 25,000.
Weve said this before, and well say it again: That is the biggest problem in our area.
This is a college town, and the region depends on K-State and Fort Riley to serve as pillars of the economy. Fort Rileys level of employment wobbles from time to time, and sometimes theres the threat of closure or major cutbacks. We all get pretty worked up; there are commissions and big public meetings, as there should be. We have to always remain aware of its importance and work to strengthen it.
The same needs to be said of K-State. Its easy to take for granted that the college in our college town will always be there. We arent going to hold a big rally to support continued enrollment, unless you consider a home football game essentially the same thing, and we might agree with you to an extent.
But we shouldnt take it for granted. Enrollment is leaking away, and it will take sustained effort to turn that around. A consultants report in late 2017 proposed a plan, but at this point there are no results to point to. The provost this week indicated that it would take three years to see substantial change.
K-State itself, and the state Board of Regents and the state government, are responsible for fixing the problem. But we can all help, both by thinking about it, coming up with suggestions and taking action in whatever way we can. Manhattan is a great college town, partly because of the actions we all take every day. So lets just continue, and keep the issue front-and-center.
Lets also encourage state and local leaders to put student enrollment near the top of their priorities. There really arent any more important issues for us.
