Pool of rural high school grads smaller

Sitting amid wheat and milo fields in western Kansas, the challenge for Fort Hays State is recruiting rural high school graduates to enroll, according to FHSU president Tisa Mason.

“We are really working hard to get students here but it’s not easy to grow the on-campus population,” Mason said Tuesday morning at an informal gathering of Hays and Ellis County commissioners.

“It used to be several years ago it was said the population that is not going to college are students of color,” Mason said. “Well, now the biggest population not going to college are rural students.”