Columbia’s enrollment rebounded this fall after a historic drop last spring, when the number of students fell below 4,000 for the first time in more than two decades.
Total enrollment increased from 3,958 in Spring 2026 to 4,265 students for Fall 2026, according to figures presented at the State of the College on Wednesday, Oct. 7.
The one-year student retention rate, which measures the percentage of students who stayed from one year to the next, also reached 71.2%, the highest it’s been since 2018. That is above the national average of 69.1%, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
“The enrollment numbers look really good, so that’s a good sign in terms of vitality of the college and sort of appealing to students,” said Greg Foster-Rice, associate provost for Student Success Initiatives.
The enrollment and retention gains come as Columbia continues to address the financial problems that led to significant cuts in staffing and other expenses last year.
“I owe you all the truth,” President and CEO Shantay Bolton said. “We are not in the clear, as you heard before. Our financial position remains serious.”
Interim Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Bethke told the Faculty Senate on Sept. 25 that Columbia is projecting an $18 million operating deficit for this fiscal year, down from the $40 million projected deficit it budgeted for the fiscal year that ended in August, as the Chronicle previously reported.
The projected deficit was not disclosed at Wednesday’s address.
Since January 2025, the college has laid off 54 full-time faculty members, and, according to the staff union, 23 union employees lost their jobs in the past five months. Columbia also laid off several senior administrators.
“The scale of the financial adjustment has been substantial,” Bethke told the audience of mostly faculty and staff who gathered at the Student Center for the State of the College.
Bethke said the college’s expense budget for this fiscal year is approximately $30 million below the current estimate of last year’s expenses. The college has reached a staffing level aligned with its fiscal year 2027 budget, which began Sept. 1.
“We also need to be clear about where we stand today. Columbia continues to face a substantial operating deficit, even after those changes,” he said.
Last year, at Bolton’s first State of the College as president, she received a standing ovation after outlining her three-year strategic plan, Renaissance Rising. She also delivered sobering news about the financial state of the college, announcing a projected deficit of $40 million for the fiscal year that ended in August.
This year, she thanked faculty for continuing to show up during a period of restructuring.
“A renaissance does not erase what has happened in the past, but rather builds upon it,” Bolton said. “And now, we are beginning to see what your efforts, what your work has made possible.”
She said the college “cannot cut our way to greatness.”
“The decisions we have made have made meaningful changes in some progress, and particularly in our cost structure,” Bolton said. “But expense reduction alone will not secure Columbia’s future.”
Brian Marth, associate vice president for Student Success, said the energy at the address was different this year and less scary now that the college knows what steps are next.
“I think last year there was a little bit of the unknown,” Marth said. “We didn’t know what we were, what the welcome was going to be about. Excitement and a little bit of fear. I think this year there’s less of an unknown. But there is the reality that there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Bethke said the next steps will be monthly budget reporting and enhanced financial monitoring, coordinating enrollment, aid and revenue management for better forecasting and maintaining targeted expense control.
“After the reduction is already made, we need to be especially careful about further cuts that would impair teaching, student support and our ability to recruit and retain students,” he said.
Emmanuel Lalande, senior vice president of Enrollment Strategies and Student Success, said the number of transfer students also increased this fall, up 14% from Fall 2025. The college enrolled 317 new transfer students, according to data he shared.
“More students are choosing Columbia,” he said. “More students are staying, and we are strengthening the support, engagement and experience that will help them succeed.”
Charee Mosby-Holloway, director of Student Belonging and Persistence, said that it’s important for Columbia to keep the students it has, and if they don’t feel a meaningful connection to their college campus, they will leave.
“You can have everything going right,” Mosby-Holloway said. “You can be doing well academically. You can be doing well financially. But if we’re not addressing that piece of belonging, it can present a real barrier and challenge to a student’s ability to persist from semester to semester, and to be retained until graduation.”
Additional reporting by William Blakley, Marc Balbarin and Katie Peters
Copy edited by Isaac Russo
Resumen en español
Tras una disminución histórica en matrícula, la universidad cuenta con 307 estudiantes más que el semestre de la primavera, según los números presentados en el discurso del Estado de la Universidad. El discurso, llevado a cabo el miércoles 7 de octubre, también reportó una buena retención estudiantil, la cual alcanzó el 71,2%, el nivel más alto desde el año 2018. Además, la universidad proyecta que este año fiscal, el déficit caerá a 18 millones de dólares, bajando de los 40 millones proyectados previamente, en parte, debido al despido de 54 profesores de tiempo completo y varios altos administradores, desde enero de 2025. Después del discurso, los asistentes expresaron que se adentran al año con menos incertidumbres.
Resumen en español por Sofía Oyarzún
