As the chancellor noted in his announcement of the budget reduction process, the university's budget shortfall is largely the result of revenue declines from decreased enrollment. Enrollment is determined by the recruitment of new students, retention of current students and the size of graduating classes.
As previously noted, the college leads the university in the recruitment of incoming freshmen, first to second-year retention and graduation rates. Future budgets will be impacted by how well, not only the college, but the campus succeeds on these metrics.
Let’s take a quick look at where things stand on recruiting students for the fall of 2023.
Recruitment is a cycle of generating applications, admitting qualified students and encouraging them to pay their enrollment deposit, which is a good indicator of their intention to enroll.
In recruiting the fall semester is focused on application generation, with most applications received between August and December.
Cumulative applications received by month.
To date, the college’s applications for fall 2023, have increased 13.9% over fall 2022, increasing from 435 at this time last year to 505 today. Additionally, students admitted to the college have grown 14.7% from 367 last year to 430.
Unfortunately, the college’s success is not mirrored across campus. University-wide applications are currently down 3.3% from the same time last year, dropping from 17,934 to 17,367. Admitted students are down even more, dropping 5.8% from 15,353 to 14,511.
In the spring, the rate of applications slows dramatically, and the focus of recruitment shifts to encouraging enrollment deposits. The college’s current enrollment deposits stand at 3.8% above last year, growing from 100 to 104.
While the college is up, the university is again down, dropping 8% from 3,184 to 2,947.
In the coming months, the campus and the college will be focused on encouraging students to pay their enrollment deposits to increase the overall size of the incoming class in fall 2023.
Additionally, Academic Services and Enrollment Management (ASEM) will undergo a strategic enrollment planning process to reverse the enrollment trends the campus is experiencing. The planning process will take place over the next three to four months and will be facilitated by Ruffalo Noel Levitz.