A new fall semester is just around the corner for students and staff at Morehead State University. MSU President Jay Morgan said enrollment of students is staying steady. He added there will be an estimated 3,000 students living on campus this semester, with about 500 moving in each day this week.
However, Morgan also said he was concerned about a so-called “enrollment cliff” connected with the 2008 economic recission. He added the expected drop in enrollment is due to the low birth rates during the years surrounding that event, resulting in fewer college ready students for the 2025 fall semester.
“Those are the students that are set to enter U.S colleges starting this fall. I don’t know where we’ll land on that. The average that regional public institutions were forecasted to be down, this was numbered about a year ago, was projecting about a 6 percent decrease in entering classes because of that,” Morgan said.
Despite the enrollment cliff looming, enrollment at MSU this semester is on par with previous classes. Morgan said he will continue to monitor the student enrollment and reserve judgement of the numbers until after drop/add passes.
“We’re sitting here almost the first day of class and I really like to reserve judgement and make that count maybe toward the latter part of August. I do think it’s strong enough to say at this point within our entering class that we don’t see any major dips but I can’t help but to think we might have a little ebb and flow. More info in a few weeks” Morgan said.
The MSU fall semester begins Monday.