SUNY Niagara among statewide leaders in community college enrollment metrics

SUNY Niagara among statewide leaders in community college enrollment metrics

Dec. 21—SUNY Niagara is not only experiencing its first enrollment increase in more than a decade, it is among the leading colleges statewide in growing its student body.

VP of Student Services Alissa Cummings, the school’s chief enrollment officer, reported the campus already received 1,700 applications for the fall 2025 semester, along with 246 new admissions for this coming spring semester. That makes it three straight years of fall enrollment increases for the community college, with applications up 20% compared to fall 2024 and close to 80% compared to fall 2023.

“It’s going to be a considerable improvement,” Cummings said.

Systemwide for community colleges, enrollment has gone up 1.9% between fall 2023 and 2024 and by 3.7% from fall 2022 to 2024. Of that, SUNY Niagara was third and first respectively, trailing only SUNY Duchess and Finger Lakes Community College, with increases of 7.8% over the one-year period and 18.5% over a two-year period.

For first-time students at community colleges, systemwide, SUNY Niagara was down 1.6% between fall 2023 and 2024, while up 2.3% between fall 2022 and 2024. SUNY Niagara was ranked third and second for community colleges, behind Clinton Community College and Fulton-Montgomery and SUNY Ulster respectively, with increases of 16.6% and 27.2% over those respective periods.

Cummings attributed the increases to following up on incomplete applications, how they advise students to get them registered, and implementing an early alert system through EdSights to track any student mental health issues.

“In one situation, we even sent the police to a student’s house for a welfare check,” Cummings said.

SUNY Niagara’s fall semester enrollment started increasing again in fall 2023, with SUNY data reporting a total of 4,217 students. That number is still 36.4% below the 6,630 total enrolled back in the fall of 2013.

For the spring 2025 semester, they plan on having 13.6% higher enrollment than spring 2024, expecting the number of non-traditional college-age students to increase.

Student retention has also gone up by 6% since 2019 when the college started its Student Success Center, helping students with course schedules, career information, and other concerns.

With SUNY predicting there will be a drop off of high school students enrolling in community colleges in the future, the system is encouraging a focus on increasing enrollment for those ages 25 and older. Cummings, who will be leaving the college to be assistant vice provost of enrollment management at the University of Buffalo, said whoever becomes chief enrollment officer, will work to create a new strategic enrollment plan aligning with the school’s strategic plan.

President Lloyd Holmes, who has previously served as VP of student services at Monroe Community College, will take on that position’s duties until a replacement is found.