Kansas State University is trying to keep a positive outlook when it comes to recruitment efforts.
At Wednesday’s Board of Regents meeting, K-State President Richard Myers shared statistics showing freshman in-state admissions are up a half percent at all campuses for the upcoming fall semester while out-of-state admissions are up nearly 15 percent. Myers says while those numbers are impressive, how many of those will actually become enrolled for the fall is yet to be seen.
“We’re ahead of ourselves for next fall right now but we’ll be getting close to the writing the check point here shortly. This is a good trend for us and you can see from where we’ve been, some of these reorganization efforts and strategizing differently are starting to pay dividends,” he said.
Myers says the university relies heavily on in-person visits to pull in potential students. Much of that has had to shift virtually during the pandemic. Myers expressed some optimism about a return to more normal campus activities by the fall.
“Most of us are being very positive that we can return to a better normal situation next fall than we left in the spring of 2020, but that remains to be seen. I believe we will be,” he said.
The percent positive rate of infected K-State students since testing began almost a year ago is about 7.3 percent. Since the start of the new year, that infection rate has steadily decreased.
“We started off the first week in January with a 10.25 percent positive rate. That’s not good – anything about 5 percent is community spread. The week before last it was 6.6 percent and then last week it was 1.79 percent positive rate, so the trend is going in the right way,” he said.
Those numbers reflect trends in Riley County, which saw a 2.6 percent positive rate this past week. Testing rates have also decreased dramatically. Myers says they continue to bring testing to students this semester, alternating Tuesday through Fridays at Kramer Dining Hall, the Rec Center, Derby Dining Hall and the student union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“We’re trying to go where students are and get asymptomatic testing so we can keep track to see what’s happening with our students,” he said.
In addition, WellHealth saliva-based COVID testing is also continuing to be offered at Riley County’s new alternate testing site at the former Holiday Inn, 419 Holiday Drive, through March 20.
