By Rusty Brooks

CUNY over the previous several years has bucked the trend of nationwide declining enrollment numbers, until COVID-19 came to turn the entire world upside down.

Last fall, CUNY reported a 2.8 percent increase in enrollment for its freshmen class, or 40,768 new students, which was a record, according to the NY Post. This semester saw a complete opposite, a decrease 4.4 percent for at least the fall semester, according to early figures reported by many of its 25 campuses

“As several of our colleges are on different academic calendars, offer rolling admissions or delayed their commitment dates in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is premature to project a final university enrollment total,” said CUNY spokesman Frank Sobrino to the NY Post.

SUNY colleges however have not bucked the trend of declining college enrollment and has seen a 5% decrease in enrollment, continuing a down trend.

The NY Post reported:  State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Queens), chairwoman of that body’s Higher Education Committee, said she has no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt college enrollment.

Many colleges and universities are offering most, if not all, of their classes online to help avoid new outbreaks of the killer virus.

“Obviously COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on all colleges and universities,” Stavisky said.

Regardless of COVI-19 college enrollment has been down in recent years.

College enrollment in the U.S. has decreased for the eighth consecutive year, according to new data released by Student Clearinghouse Research Center in 2019

The report covers 97 percent of enrollments at degree-granting postsecondary institutions that are eligible to receive federal financial aid.

The overall decline this spring compared to last year was 1.7 percent, or roughly 300,000 students, the center found. Last year’s decrease was slightly larger, at 1.8 percent.

Community colleges continued their enrollment slide with a decline of 3.4 percent. Four-year public institutions saw a drop of 0.9 percent, the center found.

Four-year private institutions bucked the trend with an increase of 3.2 percent. However, the center said most of this increase was due to the conversion of large for-profit institutions to nonprofit status, according to Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

States with the largest decrease in student enrollment numbers were Florida, California, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania, according to the center, in that order. Alaska, Florida, Illinois, North Dakota, Hawaii and Kansas had the largest percentage declines, this was from 2019