Fall enrollment at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs has sunk to a 10-year low, creating stress on the campus’ budget — one of several struggles this academic year.

Other challenges include a 15% annualized employee turnover rate last year, about 1 in 3 freshmen not returning and ongoing debt repayments for new facilities.

But some students and employees say there also seems to be a renewed spirit of hopefulness and vibrancy on campus as the first semester barrels on, in tandem with the search for a new chancellor.

“There’s a stronger sense of belonging,” Aidan Clark, student body vice president, told faculty, staff and students who attended an annual State of the University presentation

on Oct. 18.

Student body President Axel Brown mentioned another sign that UCCS might be leaving COVID-19 pandemic wounds behind and is poised to overcome persistent challenges.

More students have been engaged and involved with the daily workings of college life, Brown told the crowd, mentioning that recent homecoming attendance was up by 30%, with 1,200 students participating.

A sense of optimism and energy is palpable, said interim Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet.

“The changes we want to make begin with all of us,” she said during her address.

She moved into the role July 1, after working at the CU Denver campus since 2016 in administrative roles, most recently as executive vice chancellor of administration and strategy. She’s also a candidate for chancellor of UCCS.

Slight bumps — one tenth of one percent growth in the retention rate of last year’s freshmen, for example — point to “a trajectory that we’re going to turn things around,” Sobanet said in an interview.

And she’s counting on what she identifies as a top asset to help turn the enrollment tide.

“One of our greatest strengths is the incredible connection we have with our community,” she said. “This community is so dedicated to our students, and they want to partner with us to support our students through scholarships, internships, the workforce pipeline, research and in economic development.

“It’s a strong, symbiotic relationship, and I think that’s unique.”

Enrollment peaked in 2018

The campus has been in what some staff and students described as “chaos” during a brainstorming session during the State of the University presentation.

Overall enrollment is down by about 1% this semester over last fall, Sobanet said, admittedly lower than officials had anticipated.

After continual fall growth in students since 2007, enrollment decline began before the pandemic. The campus hit an all-time high in the fall of 2018 with 12,572 degree-seeking students.

This year’s 10,687 degree-seeking students represents a 15% decrease from 2018, the lowest fall enrollment since 2013, records show.

The good news, Sobanet said: “We’re seeing enrollment stabilize,” meaning this year’s dip is not as great as during pandemic years.

Another encouraging statistic, she said, is that enrollment of new graduate students is up by 21%; overall new students are up by 2%.

Offering programs students and the market are demanding, beefing up tuition assistance for active-duty military and easing the transfer process are among the ideas to attract more students, Sobanet said.

Other issues include:

• While new students have increased by about 3,100 this semester, gains tend to be offset by weak retention of freshmen, which was 67.7% at the onset of this semester. That’s a sliver of improvement over last year and down from 69.3% for the 2018 freshman class. The campus goal is to hit retention rate of 73.6% by fall 2026, according to administrators.

Plans to institute “stackable nondegree credentials,” so students can earn certificates in building their way toward a degree are underway as a retention strategy.

“We’re trying to be flexible but give students skills they can take into the marketplace,” Sobanet said. “The success of our students is the heartbeat of what we do.”

She also wants to rebuild a sense of community and belonging, something that staff and students say was lost during the pandemic and has not recovered.

• The graduation rate at UCCS is 43%, which is lower than the average rate of 55.87% at similar colleges in the category of public research university, according to collegetuitioncompare.com.

• “Massive” understaffing remains a problem in some areas, staff members said when sharing comments with the group at the State of the University. However, the numbers are no longer at the “critical level.”

As of Friday, the campus employed 1,126 faculty and 892 staff and had 120 positions open, officials said.

Employees at the Oct.18 event said instability among top administrators has created a lack of continuity and direction.

The College of Business alone has had three deans and two interim deans (one served as interim twice) in the past five years.

In all, 12 people working at the dean level and up to chancellor positions have vacated their jobs in the past six years, according to statistics The Gazette requested.

• The UCCS budget declined in three of the four previous years before increasing 4.5% this year. The budget increased in the 2021-22 academic year from a massive influx of pandemic-related federal funds.

Much of the declines were triggered by lower enrollment, since nearly half of the revenue the campus collects comes from tuition and student fees, which remain below pre-pandemic levels.

Budget revamp delayed

UCCS operating revenue has increased just 1.9% in the past five years to $200.7 million, while expenses have jumped nearly nine times faster at 16.7% to $248.1 million, according to detailed budget data The Gazette requested.

Revenue is budgeted to increase faster than expenses during the current fiscal year that began on July 1 with revenue growing 4.5% and expenses growing nearly 4%.

The campus has been able to make up some of the gap between expenses and revenue from federal student aid grants and pandemic aid as well as a 67.8% increase in gifts.

However, the biggest source of money to close the funding gap comes from the University of Colorado system, much of which pays for initiatives launched by the university president.

The relative size of the UCCS budget compared with the University of Colorado system budget has declined from 6.4% in the 2018-19 academic year to 5.5% in the current academic year that began July 1.

UCCS had planned to move to a new budgeting model under an initiative called Budget Model Redesign launched by former Chancellor Venkat Reddy, but Sobanet announced during the State of the University event that the move would be delayed for three years due to the change in campus leadership.

Under the new model, funding will become more decentralized and allow colleges, schools and divisions at the campus to keep the revenue they generate, she said.

The delay feels “alarming,” one participant at the State of the University event said. Departments feel siloed, not unified, another voiced. Others pointed to “a scarcity of resources” and the desire to “nurture the existing community before focusing on growth.”

“We’re proud of being lean and mean, but it’s also tiring,” one State of the University attendee said.

Fall enrollment a mixed bag

Previously touted amid the four-campus CU system as the fastest growing, UCCS has fallen from that perch.

The system’s largest, CU Boulder, posted a nearly 3% enrollment increase for 37,153 students this semester, school officials announced Sept. 25. The Anschutz Medical Campus saw a bump of 19 students with a count of 4,494, and CU Denver’s enrollment dropped by 541 students to 13,968 (compared with UCCS’s 10,687).

Fall enrollment elsewhere has fluctuated across the state.

Colorado State University, with campuses in Fort Collins and Pueblo and a global online program, reported a slight increase of 245 students this fall semester, for a total of 33,648.

Enrollment at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley decreased by 516 students, with 8,420 this semester.

After a three-year decline, Adams State University in Alamosa posted a gain this semester for 2,774 students.

Leaders are expecting UCCS’ five-year enrollment decline to reverse soon; others say it portends a change in direction, not a blip.

Some programs are counting on increasing demand.

Construction of a $22 million Anschutz Engineering Center, driven by College of Engineering and Applied Science enrollment doubling since 2008 is scheduled for completion in January, in time for the spring semester.

The School of Public Affairs, recently renamed the College of Public Services, also is growing and has three new academic departments: criminal justice, public administration and social work.

Though some analysts, including southern Colorado economist Tatiana Bailey, founder of the nonprofit Data-Driven Economic Strategies, predict that the wave of enrollment decline won’t recede, particularly for midtier public universities. Here’s why.

Going to college became part of the American dream in the 1970s, as manufacturing jobs and trades’ work slowed nationwide, Bailey said.

At the same time, many baby boomers entered college age and filled seats. Existing colleges expanded, new institutions materialized, and money flowed into higher education coffers, she said.

“It set us up for the current situation, where both things aren’t necessarily in play anymore,” Bailey said.

“Universities have gotten used to having a lot of money, and they’ve continued to spend that way.”

Declining birth rates translating to fewer high school graduates and abundant job openings have led many young adults to find decent-paying positions without going to college.

“The paradigm shifted,” Bailey said. But “universities have gotten used to having a lot of money, and they’ve continued to spend that way.”

Pairing industry, education

Sobanet said she’ll stay until a new chancellor is named, which could come by year’s end. In the meantime, boosting enrollment under a new management plan is one of her top goals. She said she’s also changing the decision-making process to strengthen communication and wants to improve financial transparency.

Increasing philanthropic contributions and the school’s research work will create a stronger financial picture as well, she believes.

This year, research funding has ballooned by 108% over last year, said Monica Yoo, faculty president and an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning.

The infusion of money has led to 130 faculty submitting proposals and 371 students assisting with research projects, she said during the State of the University.

UCCS was founded in 1965 as a satellite location to the CU Boulder campus and became its own entity as an independent commuter school in 1974. Founders intended to pair industry with education and develop degrees that would meet the needs of the local workforce — a concept that remains.

The campus’ enrollment doldrums are a far cry from the days when Pam Shockley-Zalabak was the chancellor from 2001-2016, and the school grew from a commuter campus with 6,500 students to a “residential academic and research mainstay in southern Colorado with more than 12,000 students.”

Shockley-Zalabak oversaw an enrollment growth of 75%, development of new academic programs and a $500 million expansion in campus facilities.

She led ambitious expansion projects to meet the growing enrollment, including adding and renovating academic space, constructing residence halls and student-support facilities and building health care, athletic and cultural buildings.

She also helped launch the National Cybersecurity Center, a nonprofit organization that is working on providing collaborative cybersecurity knowledge and services to the nation.

In the past nine years, UCCS has added four large academic and public-facing buildings on sites away from the main campus: the $18.5 million Lane Center for Academic Health Sciences opened in January 2014; the $70 million Ent Center for the Arts opened in January 2018; the $61 million William J. Hybl Sports Medicine and Performance Center opened in August 2020, and a $7 million expansion of the O’Neil Cybersecurity Education Research Center debuted in May 2022.

While infrastructure initially did not keep pace with explosive enrollment of the past, debt repayment on construction in recent years adds $17.5 million in costs, or about 5%, to the UCCS budget.

Kathy Kaoudis, vice chancellor of administration and finance, doesn’t view the buildings as a drain since they are intended to be student laboratories.

“These are not standalone businesses,” she said.

But they are designed to generate income to support student services.

According to budget breakouts provided to The Gazette, expenses have exceeded income for the Cybersecurity and Lane centers every year they have been open, and the Ent Center’s income exceeds expenses only because it receives more than half of its income in student fees. The Hybl Center’s income has exceeded its expenses since opening.

The facilities are subsidized to a certain extent through rental agreements for space, student fees, philanthropic donations and community partnerships.

CommonSpirit, formerly Centura Health, leases the first floor of the Hybl Center and operates a sports medicine clinic, physical therapy treatment for patients of all ages and an athletic performance center.

The number of students studying exercise science, nutrition, athletic training and a new Doctor of Physical Therapy program has grown by 14% since the Hybl Center opened three years ago, with 561 students this year, according to campus data.

In the adjacent Lane Center, which includes the UCCS Gerontology Center, about 18% of the building is owned by Peak Vista Community Health Centers.

Bailey, the economist, mentions an industry joke: that every new chancellor has an “edifice complex,” with a need to build new buildings.

“That’s not always necessary and financially responsible in the era of declining enrollments,” she said.

Some remain upbeat about a campus recovery.

“The campus is improving its financial position each year slightly,” Kaoudis said. “In time, we think we’ll be in a good financial position.”

Alum Becky Medved, a donor and a volunteer, said she’s optimistic about where UCCS is heading: “I feel good about the momentum going into next year.”

“One of our greatest strengths is the incredible connection we have with our community. This community is so dedicated to our students, and they want to partner with us to support our students through scholarships, internships, the workforce pipeline, research and in economic development. It’s a strong, symbiotic relationship, and I think that’s unique.”

Jennifer Sobanet, UCCS interim chancellor