Quarantine Housing Concerns | Photo by Qusai Takuri | The Wright State Guardian
Wright State University's housing administration expects higher residential numbers in alignment with the University's projection of increased enrollment numbers for fall 2022.
Housing
With the start of the fall semester quickly approaching, the Wright State University administration is expecting a robust return to campus in the ‘new normal’ post-COVID era.
According to Jennifer Attenweiler, associate director for resident life, the Forest Lane and Village apartment complexes are full for the fall semester. Attenweiler further explained how around 60% of the first-year class live on campus and only half of this population return to campus housing after freshman year.
Enrollment
This increase is in line with the University's projected enrollment increase.
“We remain cautiously optimistic that we will see an increase in the first-time cohort,” Susan Schaurer, WSU’s vice president for enrollment management said.
Schaurer accredited this optimism to an 11.9% increase in statements of intent from the incoming class along with increases in new student orientation registrations and attendance.
Past trends
The administrator explained how the university saw a decline in enrollment leading up to the COVID pandemic and when the pandemic hit, another wave of decline ensued.
Data from the office of institutional research shows enrollment in fall 2018 was 13,793 students on the Dayton campus. In fall 2019 that number went down to 11,596 students and in fall 2020 down to 9,992 students.
Schaurer maintains that enrollment numbers are increasing and regrowing from pandemic lows.
“We aren't really back yet to what we were seeing in fall 19 but we are certainly ahead of what the last two years were thus far,” Schaurer said.
The University does not have specific fall 2022 enrollment numbers and is waiting for the census date, Sept. 5, to comment on specific fall numbers.
