BOLIVAR, MO –Despite many challenges in the economy and in higher education, in general, Southwest Baptist University faculty and staff were greeted by good news during SBU President Pat Taylor’s State of the University address given during the Faculty-Staff workshop on August 20. The University ended the 2008-09 year in the black, hired several new faculty and staff, and has budgeted a 5% salary increase for the 2009-10 academic year.
In addition to these announcements, Dr. Taylor told the faculty and staff to expect another record or near-record enrollment this fall. “First day attendance proved Dr. Taylor correct as the Bolivar campus was flooded with new students on Monday when classes began,” said Dr. Stephanie Miller, vice president for enrollment management. “While final numbers will not be determined for a few days, we are blessed with a great freshman class. On Monday, we had 459 new freshmen enrolled and 87 transfer students.”
Dr. Taylor said, “We have a total of 1,624 students enrolled on the Bolivar campus. This includes 1,078 returning students. Our retention from last year has been very good and it appears that we will retain more than 85% of our freshmen from last year. In 2006, we had 459 freshmen which is our record. Last year, 2008, we had 453 freshmen, which was our second best year. The total headcount enrollment last year was 1,577. We will exceed that number this year as we already have 1,624 enrolled. From this point, we normally increase our enrollment by 10-15 students; therefore, we will have a final enrollment of more than 1,600 students on the Bolivar campus.
The St. John’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences at SBU‘s Springfield campus also has been blessed, Dr. Taylor said. “Enrollment has increased significantly on the Springfield campus. Last year we had an enrollment of 612. As of yesterday, we had 719 students enrolled on the Springfield campus. It appears that we will have a small increase in the enrollment on the Mountain View and Salem campuses as well.”
Dr. Taylor outlined the factors that have led to SBU’s increase in enrollment, “I believe there are at least five reasons why we have improved enrollment:
1. Under the leadership of Dr. Stephanie Miller and Director of Admissions Darren Crowder we have developed a very good recruiting team. Along with the good team in admissions, we all have become more conscious of recruiting strategies and have become more active in the recruiting process. We understand our niche and have done a better job of marketing to our niche. We have learned that successful recruiting involves everyone on campus.
2. We have learned to better leverage our financial aid. Our financial aid staff gets the financial aid packages out earlier to students and financial aid is much more data driven than in previous years.
3. We have better facilities than we ever have had during our past. When we get prospective students and parents on campus, we have a great chance of getting them enrolled. We have good facilities and a beautiful campus.
4. We have been able to keep our costs reasonable. This year our total cost of attendance is $22,000. Many of our independent competitors have a total cost of more than $30,000. With the bad economy, more families, even the wealthier families, are price conscious and are considering colleges that cost less. In this way, the poor economy has helped families focus on SBU.
5. We have remained faithful to our mission. We never have forgotten who we are. We understand our mission and we recruit students who desire to attend a Christ-centered campus. I believe that God is blessing us and will continue to bless us as long as we remain committed to our mission statement.
After also outlining some of the challenges ahead in enrollment and fundraising given the current state of the economy, Dr. Taylor said, “We will continue to be successful if we stay focused on our mission. For 131 years we have been committed to being a Christ-centered Great Commission university. We must never forget that ‘Southwest Baptist University is a Christ-centered caring, academic community preparing students to be servant leaders in a global society.’ God will continue to bless our commitment to this mission.”
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Southwest Baptist University is a leader among private universities in truly integrating Christ-centered academic pursuits with comprehensive professional programs at an affordable price. Since 1878, the faculty and staff have created a caring, academic community to prepare students to be servant leaders in a global society. The University has been named one of America’s Best Christian Colleges® for 12 consecutive years, one of America’s 100 Best College Buys® for 13 consecutive years, and it has been named among institutions with America’s Best College Scholarships ® for the past three years by Institutional Research and Evaluation, Inc. For more information, visit www.SBUniv.edu.
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