By James Tatum, Editor in ChiefThis is the first in a series of articles about the increasing enrollment at Guilford College and its implications for the institution and the Guilford community. This article focuses on the Office of Enrollment, in particular the office of Admission.
Guilford College has the highest enrollment it has seen in years.
Currently, the college is enjoying the largest enrollment for a spring semester, 1,778 students, including traditional age, CCE, and Early College, in the institution’s history.
Applications are also up, with the college receiving a record total of 1,536 from both first-year and transfer applicants as of late February.
College officials expect that the college will surpass its all-time enrollment record of 1,862 students, set in 1965, when the incoming first-year class arrives this fall.
Interest in Guilford College is at an all-time high, said Randy Doss, vice president for enrollment and campus life.
Prospective students are making the judgment that Guilford not only offers a great academic environment but can also be life-changing. We’
ve challenged prospective students to be the change they wish to see in the world and to be willing to be challenged in every way. They are obviously seeking this kind of experience.
Why is enrollment up at Guilford? Why are more students applying than in previous years, and what if anything is the college doing differently to attract them? Where are these new students coming from, and in what age group, traditional, CCE, or early college, are they most enrolling? Will the college continue to enroll more and more students every year, or is there an ultimate goal, a cutoff point?
For answers to these questions, the Office of Enrollment is a good point of origin.
ENROLLMENT: WHERE IT ALL BEGINS
This year marks the forth enrollment cycle under the current Vice President for Enrollment, Randy Doss.
After the senior class, which was recruited by then-Dean of Admission Al Newell, graduates in May, the student body will be made up entirely of classes that arrived under Doss’S tenure.
“The purpose of enrollment is to support the educational experience,Doss said. “And that educational experience takes place in the classroom and it takes place out of the classroom. We have to build an enrollment sufficient for our needs and our wants. Frankly, we have to work right now on our needs.
Doss notes that the economic climate over the last three years has led to a lower return on the college’s endowment than originally projected, a problem Doss says is faced by other colleges as well. This, in turn, has forced the college to rely more heavily on tuition rates as a source of income.
“How you maintain your educational enterprise in an era of declining returns on investments is an unbelievable challenge,” Doss said. “The bigger an endowment you have, the less tuition driven you have to be.”
Doss notes that nationwide, students suggest they would prefer a slightly larger school.
A 1999 survey conducted by the research firm George Dehne & Associates found that 10% of students say they are interested in a college of 1500 students or fewer.
“The definition of big and small is so superficial, Doss said. Doss notes that Guilford students are spread among three age groups, Early College, Traditional, and CCE, and also encompass both residential and off-campus students. In designating a target size, Doss says Guilford will also have to decide how that size will break down into the different age brackets.
“What kind of student-faculty ratio do we want during the day?” Doss said. “What kind of student-faculty ratio do we want during the night? How many full-time people do we want during the day? Is that the same percentage we want during the night?
“These are] the kind of issues that budget committees are discussing and trying to work through.”
CCE ENROLLMENT CLIMBING FAST
One area that has experienced tremendous growth in the last few years is the Center for Continuing Education. CCE students this semester total 778, making up just under 44% of the total student population.
Bill Stevens, dean of continuing education, attributes the increase to three major factors.
“We have worked very hard to meet student needs with new popular night majors, including the state’s only forensic biology major, computer information systems, and education studies,” Stevens said. “We have more course offerings than ever before and we’re finally communicating clearly about the affordability of our adult programs. In other words, the secret’s out.”
Randy Doss applauds the efforts of the CCE program.
“We know that when the economy turns bad, a lot of adults go to college,” Doss said. “I think our CCE department is good enough that when the economy turns around, they will still be able to retain really good enrollments.”
CHANGING PHILOSOPHY OR TACTICS?
“The greatest challenge facing the enrollment dept. is to continue to make the case for small private higher education,” Doss said.
He noted that several factors, including the slow economy and the fact that North Carolina has the third cheapest public undergraduate education in the country, pose challenges for the admission staff.
“Private education will never be the cheapest game in town,” Doss said. “Therefore, you must have some sort of quality assurance statement that you must live up to and execute on a day-to- day and year-to-year basis.”
When asked about recent speculations that Admission was changing its target recruitment audience, Doss says there has been no such shift.
“Admissions doesn’t make those decisions,” he said. “(The college) trustees and the Strategic Long-Range Planning (SLRP) people make those decisions. We only execute decisions.”