Eddy

Emporia State University has shown a decrease of 90 students from last year’s enrollment count, according to Kansas Board of Regents Web site. ESU was one of two of the KBR schools that experienced a decrease. The University of Kansas has also reported a smaller enrollment number for this fall with a drop of 98 students.

“We are working hard on recruitment plans for next fall,” said Laura Eddy, director of admissions. “We would really like to see a growth in enrollment for 2010.”

On Sept. 24, the KBR released the enrollment numbers for the six Board of Regents schools. The state overall has experienced an increase of 1,435 students, or 1.6 percent since fall 2008.

Fort Hays State University showed the biggest enrollment increase with a total of 1,201 students, and Kansas State University showed the smallest enrollment increase of 61 students. Pittsburg State University had an increase of 150 students, and Wichita State University showed an increase of 211.

In addition, ESU has 520 international students on campus this fall.

Last year, Emporia State’s student headcount was 6,404 – it has declined to 6,314. The university overall has experienced increases and decreases in enrollment since 2000 but ultimately enrollment has risen by nearly 700 students from 5,616 in 2000.

Statewide, enrollment has increased by over 5,000 students from 88,817 in the fall of 2005 to 93,307 in the fall of 2009.

That makes for a 5.1 percent increase for the state of Kansas over the last five years.

The number of students taking classes from off-campus has increased by 114, in addition to ESU seeing an increase of 17 for the non-resident student category. Statewide, the only decrease in enrollment is in the number of resident students, which has only decreased by 35.

“To increase enrollment for next year, we want to offer more special on-campus visits and special scholarship promotions and programs,” Eddy said. “We will also be traveling more in Kansas and the NEARR states.”

The NEARR program is a plan that gives students in certain states near Kansas the option of getting a tuition that is lower than out-of-state tuition but not as low as in-state tuition.

“The ‘NEARR states include Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Nebraska,” Eddy said. “We are set up to travel to forty different college fairs from Kansas City to Liberal in the next year.”

Emporia State also plans to increase the number of Hornet Nights, as well as hold fairs that are targeted towards students with specific backgrounds, such as Minority Recruitment Days.

“We also plan to host more visits specifically for international and transfer students,” Eddy said.

A lot of the enrollment recruitment is also done through advertising and the view books that are sent out in the mail to prospective students.

“Hopefully with these new recruitment plans in place, we can bring enrollment up next fall,” Eddy said. “We are really working on getting the information out there and getting faculty more involved in the recruitment process as well.”

Shawna Berry/The Bulletin

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