Missing Students:
Higher Ed's Enrollment Crisis

Our veteran reporter Kevin Richert spent months investigating the fate of higher education in Idaho, following a pandemic-altered year when enrollment plummeted.

Kevin studied the numbers and talked to school and state leaders. He also spent a great deal of time talking to young adults about how the pandemic changed their lives and their college plans.

Why they showed up: Three students tell their stories

For students who returned to campus for the 2020-21 school year, showing up was a matter of setting aside concerns about the coronavirus, or accepting required protocols.

Eighteen months, 5,000 students: Idaho colleges and universities face a deep enrollment decline

Not unlike the scientists and infectious disease experts who have tried to unlock the mysteries of the coronavirus, college and university officials have been trying to determine the pandemic’s effects on their institutions. Here's what we know about 2020-21.

The student experience: adjusting to classes and campus life in a pandemic

For first-year students and for returning college students, the coronavirus was a constant specter, looming over an uncertain school year.

Even as the pandemic recedes, students might not return to campus

Is Idaho's college enrollment decline a blip, caused by the coronavirus, or a sign of a bigger trend? Many of the early numbers for 2021-22 are ominous.

Students came from the across the globe — and stayed in Caldwell

International student enrollment fell precipitously during the pandemic. But the College of Idaho grew its international student community, by supporting students who had to stay in school and couldn't go home.