USC stabilizes enrollment, boosts freshman diversity despite COVID 19 pandemic
While many colleges brace for enrollment losses amid the COVID 19 pandemic, the University of South Carolina is actually seeing a slight uptick in enrollment, the school said Tuesday.
Compared to this point last year, USC has increased enrollment by about 100 students, USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in an email.
Stable enrollment is a pleasant surprise for USC officials, who in May planned to see a 10% enrollment decrease because of the coronavirus pandemic.
That enrollment stabilization has come with an increasingly diverse freshman class.
The incoming freshman class has 103 more Black freshmen than in 2019, according to data USC provided during a virtual press conference.
“I’m thrilled and honored to greet this extraordinary class of first-time students to campus and to Columbia,” USC President Robert Caslen said in the release. “The diversity and academic talent represented in this new group of students will make us even stronger, and I look forward to seeing these students become an integral part of our Gamecock community.”
Between 1998 and 2018, USC had seen a decreasing percentage of its student body comprised of Black students, according to a previous article from The State. School officials at the time attributed that to an increase in out-of-state students — who tended to be wealthy white students — that was necessary to offset a decrease in state funding.
The diversity boost applies to more than just Black students. Freshman enrollment of underrepresented minorities is up 9% from last year, according to the news release.
Since a controversial presidential search that included no women and only one person of color, Caslen has faced pressure from students, faculty and more to boost diversity on campus.
Since taking office a year ago, Caslen has hired USC’s first Black provost, hired a chief diversity officer and been outspoken on renaming campus buildings named for racists, segregationists or slave owners.
USC held its first classes of the fall semester on Aug. 20 with a mix on virtual and in-classroom instruction.
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 4:21 PM.