Kentucky State Projects Enrollment Plunge After New Law

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Kentucky State University projects its enrollment will drop by about 20 percent by next spring, partly due to a new state law that forces the institution to disenroll students who owe the university money, a spokesperson says.

“The projected enrollment drop includes a number of factors, of which the financial components of SB [Senate Bill] 185 are significant,” said Michael Strysick, the university’s chief strategic communications officer.

He said total in-person and online student enrollment in the spring, including dual enrollment high school students, was 2,873, but the university estimates that will decline to 2,300 by next spring. Still, he cautioned that this is just a projection based on “like four, five different factors, and none of them are solid.”

Strysick added that the university expects the law, which seeks to transform it into a “polytechnic” institution that also offers liberal arts programs, will help with enrollment in the future. He also noted that state lawmakers had provided “unprecedented” funding for the institution.

SB 185—which the GOP-controlled General Assembly passed and Democratic governor Andy Beshear signed into law in April—gives the state significant financial control of the historically Black university. Among many other things, it says students who owe the university $1,000 or more for over 60 days will be disenrolled.

It also tasks the university with maintaining employee levels to support an enrollment target of at least 1,000 in-person students and says it can’t—with some exceptions—offer more than 10 academic areas of study during its financial exigency period, which could last five years.