FILE PHOTO: With 95,802 students enrolled, the State System of Higher Education now has about the same enrollment as it had 20 years ago, according to the official fall semester student count released on Tuesday. At Shippensburg University (shown here), enrollment declined by 312 students this year, for a total of nearly 6,100.
Dan Gleiter / PennLive
Dan Gleiter / PennLive
FILE PHOTO: With 95,802 students enrolled, the State System of Higher Education now has about the same enrollment as it had 20 years ago, according to the official fall semester student count released on Tuesday. At Shippensburg University (shown here), enrollment declined by 312 students this year, for a total of nearly 6,100.
Airdate: Monday, June 24, 2024
The coronavirus pandemic not only changed everyday learning for high school students, but higher learning education expectations. Grace Halsey was a senior in high school when the COVID19 pandemic struck in 2020. For Grace, she didn’t get to experience most of the things high school seniors most look forward to.
“When it happened, it was a week away from opening my senior year musical, which ended up not happening. I didn’t go to prom. I didn’t have a live big graduation. So, the rest of my senior year was definitely cut short.”
After graduating high school, Grace was off to begin her freshman year in the Fall of 2020 at West Chester University. By that time, classes were still held online so she did not get the chance to move in on campus. However, Grace still decided to join extracurricular activities like the choir to connect with other college students.
“We had to practice in a parking garage and social distance the whole time… And through that, I met my two best friends throughout the rest of college.”
Dr. Carrie Sipes is the Communications, Journalism, and Media Department head and professor at Shippensburg University. She joined the university faculty in the summer of 2006. As the COVID shutdowns forced classes online, Dr. Sipes found herself making a lot of adjustments in a short amount of time.
“We did the best that we could, you know, redoing what we were kind of envisioning for our classes for that second half of the semester, because you know, a lot of what we do in our department is hands on learning.”
Piper Hull graduated from Shippensburg University in May of 2024. She described her experience as very different from other people’s college experiences. When students returned in person to campus, it took her awhile to adjust.
“I remember in 2020 there wasn’t many people out. And then the following spring, there was so many people than I was used to. Campus felt really crowded and overwhelming at first. But then I got used to it.”
Piper describes her class as resilient. She said many students she knew dropped out because the college experience during and post pandemic was so difficult.
“We were really resilient, and we made it work. And we are all grateful to the wonderful professors who also helped to make it work. And we created something really beautiful with it.”
