Within UM’s Mountain Campus, the number of four-year undergraduates dropped by 8.5 percent.

Rose DeRoche, a junior studying social work, transferred into UM from Salish Kootenai College as a sophomore, then took two years off. Coming back, she said, “all my classes seem smaller than when I first came to this school.”

At the same time, she continued, “I feel like a lot of things have really improved with the teachers and classes. … They’re trying to be more involved with us as students.” DeRoche has also seen improvements to the university’s online Moodle portal.

She speculated that the university’s high-profile sexual assault allegations drove recent years’ decline.

Even as undergrad enrollment has dropped, law and other graduate student enrollment ticked up by 3.7 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. But one of those grad students, nursing student Devin Thomas, sees room for improvement.

“We have a great atmosphere when it comes to sports … but then it just comes to adding new things. We need to be more versatile in the things we offer.” He identified a physician's assistant program as one potential gain for the university.