Graduate enrollment, investment rising at SUNY Oswego as undergraduate enrollment falls

OSWEGO, N.Y. — Even as enrollment in undergraduate programs has declined at SUNY Oswego, graduate program enrollment has continued to climb, bringing with it further investment.

In 2015, the school’s enrollment totaled 7,937, with 7,104 undergraduate students and 833 graduate students. Entering the fall semester of 2025, however, SUNY Oswego enrollment totaled 6,483, with 5,293 undergraduate students, and 1,190 graduate students.

“Graduate Studies is definitely the area where we’ve seen the most growth, sort of cumulatively, across the university,” said Dr. Jennifer Knapp, Dean of Oswego’s College of Communication, Media and the Arts (CMA).

“They’ve had great leadership in that area,” Knapp said.

Currently, that leadership most prominently includes Dean of Graduate Studies Dr. Kristen Eichhorn. She largely credits the growth of her department to an increase in public awareness and connectivity.

“We’ve done a lot more intentional outreach,” she said.

Eichhorn specifically points to information sessions, the openness of most graduate programs to any undergraduate major, and collaborative efforts across the state, from New York City to Skaneateles.

“We launched an MBA program at Baxter, which is a medical device company in Skaneateles,” she said.

Of course, the decline in undergraduate enrollment has also contributed to Graduate Studies becoming an increasingly large and important part of SUNY Oswego.

“People call it the ‘demographic cliff,'” Knapp said. “There are fewer college-age students running around in the Northeast because people are not having as many children, or any children at all.”

Eichhorn echoed this, also citing the cost of attending college, and the smeared reputation of academia in the face of recent and widespread vocal attacks.

She remains optimistic, however.

“I’m super excited about the enrollment growth,” she said.

One reason for that excitement is the additional investment coming with that growth. According to Eichhorn, Graduate Studies recently acquired 10,000 square feet of space at SUNY Oswego’s Syracuse campus. Knapp, too, noted that Hewitt Hall’s new graduate student lounge was influenced by the increased enrollment.

Unfortunately, a shift towards online learning in CMA graduate programs has left the space underused.

“It’s a good-sized program, but most of them are online,” Knapp said.

Still, it remains a testament to SUNY Oswego’s investment in Graduate Studies – much like the cadence of new graduate programs entirely, be they online or in-person.

Though it has fluctuated over the years, the rate of new graduate program launches at SUNY Oswego is now settling into a pace similar to, if not faster than, that of new undergraduate program launches.

This is sure to continue, as Knapp has teased the creation of a new CMA program.

“If you think about what our biggest strengths are, they definitely are in the media, ‘content creation’ sort of space,” Knapp said. “‘Is there something there?,’ I think, is what we’re pursuing. And what would that look like?”

If SUNY Oswego Graduate Studies continues to grow at its current pace, we will surely find out soon.