UW enrollment is up, Evergreen down as freshmen prepare for fall quarter

Evergreen State College is scrambling to recover from a series of blows that include lower enrollment to financial shortfalls. Meanwhile, the University of Washington is celebrating its success in the same areas.

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The Seattle Times reports that the University of Washington is boasting its largest freshman class ever across two of its three campuses. This is true for both in-state and out-of-state enrollment.

A total of 4,450 UW freshmen this fall will hail from Washington state — 63 percent of the class. This comes after the university received an uptick in applications — 6 percent or 13,108 applications.

Evergreen State College, on the other hand, is facing the opposite. Evergreen has been forced to cut nearly $6 million from its budget while raising fees because of lower-than-expected tuition revenue. The Olympian reports that Evergreen has suffered massive losses in enrollment numbers.

Between fall 2017 and fall 2018, Evergreen’s enrollment dropped by 18.5 percent — going from 3,800 to 3,100. Winter 2018 enrollment is estimated to be down 38 percent. Part of the problem is the loss of out-of-state students, down by 23 percent from the previous year. The school can charge more tuition for those students. This low point is the culmination of a downward trend that began in 2009 when the school hit a high of 4,596 students.

Evergreen is experiencing the massive drop in numbers after a highly controversial incident in spring 2017. Students and staff reported assaults and even kidnapping as student groups took over the campus. The campus-wide protests came after a professor objected to a day of absence demonstration. In previous years, minority students stayed off campus to make a point about their place in society. In 2017, school groups aimed to have white students stay off campus. Professor Brett Weinstein questioned and objected to the entire method of the demonstration, which sparked outrage throughout the school leading to protesters taking over the campus.

UW has not been immune from protests on its own campus, which have resulted in a shooting and fights. But it has weathered the fallout better than Evergreen has. In another twist of irony, however, as Evergreen recovers from bad press, UW officials are noting the opposite on their campus. The Times reports that the new freshman group is a “historically diverse class.”

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