BUTTE - Montana Tech’s fall enrollment numbers have continued to slip since 2011 as the Butte campus reports another drop this fall.
”It’s not panic time, but there is a since of urgency,” said Chancellor Les Cook.
This year, the school’s fall enrollment is 2,421, which is down 162 students from last fall. This was not unexpected since student enrollment is down across the country.
“We witnessed a demographic decline, not only in Montana, but nationwide,” said Cook.
Tech opened its Student Success Center this fall, one of many aspects that university officials believe makes the Butte university attractive.
“We have a very affordable tuition and we know that the students that come here and go through our programs and graduate have incredible job opportunity that open up in front of them,” he said.
The campus has already hired two outside consulting agencies to work on marketing the campus and have put together four teams on campus to come up with creative ways to tackle the enrollment issues.
“Look at recruitment, look at student success, to look at our marketing and messaging and also to identify, you know, what our campus looks like, how do we present ourselves,” said Cook.