Washington State University’s declining enrollment is continuing this Spring with the student population down nearly 7% from a year ago.
WSU’s current enrollment systemwide is just under 27,000 students down nearly 2,000 students from a year ago. That’s the lowest Spring enrollment at WSU since 2014. The student population on the Pullman campus is down over 5% to just over 17,000 students down about a thousand students from a year ago. That’s the lowest WSU Pullman campus Spring enrollment in at least a decade.
This semester’s year-to-year Spring enrollment decline at WSU is by far the largest in recent years. The only other year-to-year Spring student population decline at WSU since 2013 was in 2020 when enrollment dropped by a few hundred students.
WSU began enforcing its vaccine mandate on students this Spring semester. Students at WSU are required to get vaccinated or have an approved medical or religious exemption. The student vaccine mandate from WSU was announced by the institution last Summer but unvaccinated students were able to stay in class during the Fall semester. Unvaccinated students who don’t have an approved exemption couldn’t enroll in class for this Spring semester at WSU.
WSU enrollment dropped by about 1,300 students or about 4% last Fall when compared to the Fall of 2020.