Samantha Hedin/ Winonan
In recent years, enrollment demographics for universities have shown a decline in numbers, since less people are choosing to attend college. Yet, the lesser numbers in these demographics are not showing at Winona State University.
“18 years ago people weren’t having so many babies. After World War II, there were lots of babies, lots of young people wanting to go to college,” Thomas Grier, a mass communication professor at Winona State, said regarding a common question within universities across America.
“The baby boomers were all having kids, but we’re coming out of that,” Grier said.
Due to the recent decrease in college-aged people, colleges and universities across the country are experiencing a drop in enrollment, some more drastic than others. The enrollment at Winona State has remained consistent compared to many others.
This, according to Grier, is simply because “we’re a good school. We deserve to be full.” During a time like this, other colleges may suffer due to the low enrollment numbers.
“Even when there are less humans going to college, we want them to go to Winona State,” Grier said.
Fortunately, this is the school many students are choosing.
“Even when the number of people available goes down, people still want to go to the best school,” Carl Stange, the director of admissions, said. Stange believes several factors work out in Winona State’s favor that allow for the success in enrollment. One of those factors being the university’s emphasis on being technologically updated.
“We help students meet the demands of employment in our changing society,” Stange said. “I think our aggressiveness in embracing technology has made it easy for students to adapt to what they’re used to. Our students have the cutting edge skills to walk into a firm or an agency and already be familiar with the latest products.”
Another factor Stange suggested was the location of Winona State.
Stange said, “We are able to draw from three strong communities: Illinois, Wisconsin center to the Milwaukee area and of course, two hours from the Twin Cities.”
This temporary decline will soon be swapped with an opposite predicament.
Grier said, “The numbers of young people will go up again. More people will want to come here, and we won’t have room for them. But then it will happen again in five years, and we will down size. We want to maintain enrollment at a reasonable number that we can handle. We’ve always been a very selective school.”
Winona State, unlike many others, has remained selective enough to ensure the students here are serious about their education and aim for success. While several universities around the United States suffer a decrease in students, Winona State takes pride in being a school of excellence and remained a consistent top pick for college students.
“We are very fortunate that Winona State has a very good academic reputation,” Grier said. “More students come here because they know it’s a good product, and they want to buy it. That helps protect us. We’re getting a little more than our fair share of students, and we like that.”
