Cal Poly Humboldt Faces Funding Reduction After Failing to Meet CSU Enrollment Target for the Second Straight Year

Humboldt State College was officially named in 1935.  In all these years the enrollment has grown to 6.049 students, full and part time.  But the Administrators believe this will grow to 11,000 by 2028.  Not a typo.  The bigger question is what are they smoking or is this just another government lie?  Seriously this shows why government should never be believed.

“Enrollment at Cal Poly Humboldt was supposed to explode after its conversion into the state’s third polytechnic university, which was boosted by a $458 million investment from the state. A 2021 prospectus predicted that student growth could increase by 50 percent over the next three years, and double in the next seven.

Instead, enrollment growth has been incremental. Rather than growing by half, student numbers have increased by just 5.6 percent over the past three years. And the current numbers are well below the all-time high of 8,790 students in 2015.”

They invested $458 million.  The results?  They LOST 25% of their enrollment.  Another great government success!

Cal Poly Humboldt Faces Funding Reduction After Failing to Meet CSU Enrollment Target for the Second Straight Year

Ryan Burns,  Lost Coast Outpost    9.5.24  https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2024/sep/5/cal-poly-humboldt-faces-funding-reductions-after-f/

Cal Poly Humboldt’s preliminary enrollment for the fall semester grew by a mere 73 students compared to last year, bringing total enrollment of full- and part-time students to 6,049 and falling well short of the target set by the California State University system.

That means the university will lose a chunk of funding under a CSU spending plan that was announced last year amid systemwide enrollment declines. The terms of that plan say any campus missing its enrollment target by 10% or more will permanently lose up to five percent of its state enrollment funding, which will then be sent to campuses that exceed their enrollment targets.

Cal Poly Humboldt News and Information Director Aileen Yoo said administrators saw this coming.

“While the number of students has been steadily increasing, the University knew that it would not meet the CSU’s enrollment level by Fall 2025,” she said. “We have planned accordingly for multiple years of reductions in CSU funding, taking a conservative approach by budgeting for a headcount of 6,131 students in 2024-25.” 

Cal Poly Humboldt’s target enrollment set by the CSU was 7,603 full-time-equivalent (FTE) students, and Yoo said the university would have needed a total headcount of 8,500 full- and part-time students to reach that goal.

Thanks to its conservative financial planning, the university has a balanced budget for the current fiscal year, according to Yoo, but it looks likely that Cal Poly Humboldt won’t even meet this year’s lowered enrollment expectations, which are a far cry from what was anticipated just a few years ago.

Enrollment at Cal Poly Humboldt was supposed to explode after its conversion into the state’s third polytechnic university, which was boosted by a $458 million investment from the state. A 2021 prospectus predicted that student growth could increase by 50 percent over the next three years, and double in the next seven.

Instead, enrollment growth has been incremental. Rather than growing by half, student numbers have increased by just 5.6 percent over the past three years. And the current numbers are well below the all-time high of 8,790 students in 2015.

This year’s enrollment figure won’t be final until after the add/drop deadlines expire on September 23, so theoretically the number could climb a bit higher. Yoo said more students are returning this year than in previous years, and many incoming freshmen delayed their decisions due to “unprecedented difficulties” applying for federal financial aid.

Around this time last year, Cal Poly Humboldt Vice President of Enrollment Management and Student Success Chrissy Holliday said in a memo to colleagues that despite the slower-than-expected enrollment growth, the university was still on track reach 11,000 students by 2028.

We have yet to see such a prediction this year.