Slippery Rock University reported that 8,424 students are enrolled at the university this school semester, which is a 5.1% decrease from last year.

A news release from the university said an official count taken Sept. 13, the 15th day of classes, showed that undergraduate enrollment is at 6,921 students, which is down 6.6% from last year. Despite the overall loss, there are a record-breaking 1,503 graduate students enrolled this semester, and 168 students returned to the university after previously pausing their education — the highest number for a fall semester in five years.

“The pandemic brings about many challenges for all colleges and universities as well as students and their families,” chief enrollment management officer Amanda?Yale said in the news release. “We continue to be encouraged by our record number of graduate students and the persistence of all our students.”

Additionally, 81.2% of the 2020 fall freshman cohort are back in 2021, a decrease of just 1% compared to last year.

The top five undergraduate majors by enrollment are exercise science, with 635 students, safety management with 425, early childhood/special education with 409 and psychology with 327.

Of SRU’s students, 88% are from Pennsylvania, 59% are female and 15.4% identify themselves as an ethnicity other than white/non-Hispanic, all numbers that are similar to last year, according to the news release.