Enrollment Drop Continues at LHU, State System

HARRISBURG – Numbers released Tuesday by the State System of Higher Education show a continuing enrollment drop for ten of its 14 schools, including Lock Haven University.

The state system headcount shows enrollment has dropped for nine straight years at the state-owned schools. At Lock Haven University, enrollment this fall is reported at 3,162, a drop of 263 from the fall of 2018 when 3,425 students were enrolled. The drop equates to a percentage loss of 7.68 percent, second only to Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s drop of 8.16 percent.

The system as a whole has 95,802 students enrolled statewide, comparable to the enrollment figure from 20 years. System-wide there are 2,561 fewer students than last year, a 2.6 percent drop.

Only four schools showed growth. They were Cheyney, Mansfield, Millersville and West Chester.

The figures for Lock Haven come almost a year after the local school announced a series of initiatives geared toward stabilizing enrollment figures.

Statewide enrollment has been dropping since 2010 as there are fewer high school graduates in Pennsylvania, a problem in much of the Northeast. .