PRIVATE COLLEGES
Colleges ramp up recruiting outside WNY to keep attendance high
College freshmen classes have never been larger, thanks to the children of baby boomers.
But the days of increasing enrollment will not last forever.
While the number of high school graduates jumped 25 percent from 1993 to 2005, the growth will slow to about 6 percent over the next 10 years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“Without a doubt, this demographic trend presents different challenges for private colleges and universities than for larger state institutions,” said Daemen President Martin
J. Anisman.
Area colleges already have
begun to plan for the time when filling a freshman class will not be as easy as today, when they are experiencing record numbers. Some are revamping their retention programs or trying to increase their appeal to transfers and older students.
Some, like Daemen, are looking outside Western New York.
“Over the last few years we have begun implementing recruiting strategies which have broadened the geographic range of the students now enrolled at Daemen College. This allows Daemen to draw an increasingly larger number of students from outside of the Northeast — and also the U. S., as Daemen welcomes more international students,” Anisman said.
Going outside Western New York and the country may be a sound strategy. While the number of high school graduates is expected to increase slightly nationwide, in the Northeast the number is expected to drop by 5 percent.
Canisius College also has ramped up its efforts to recruit outside Western New York, to places like Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and Long Island. It also has done well in attracting students from northern Ohio and New Jersey.
But trying to woo students from other states carries a hurdle for colleges in New York.
“It’s problematic because some of our tuition assistance programs aren’t portable,” said John Hurley, executive vice president of Canisius.
Admissions officials also know that if the projections are correct, they may not see to-day’s enrollment numbers for years. “In 2020 it still doesn’t come back to where it is today,” said Michael Konopski, dean of enrollment management at Niagara University.
Going farther afield to find students increases recruitment costs. Konopski said 85 percent to 95 percent of students want to go to college four hours or less from home.
Niagara’s enrollment of 4,255 is up 21 percent since 2003, he said.
“We’re really at capacity for undergraduates now,” he said.
But that puts the university in a strong position for the future, he said.
He said Niagara is working on strengthening its efforts to retain its students, and to improve its graduation rates. Niagara also is expanding its recruitment of transfers, since many students in the area are attending community colleges.
The school also is examining its undergraduate and graduate offerings to make them as attractive to prospective students.
“We’re thinking of offering some different concentrations in the MBA program at the graduate level. There are a lot of people out there trying to retool,” Konopski said.
St. Bonaventure University already does a fair amount of marketing outside the area, said Director of Admissions Jim DiRisio. The college also has set up several joint programs with other universities in which students study for up to four years at Bonaventure and then go to the other school for graduate work in medicine, dentistry and physical therapy.
Hilbert College has received a record number of inquiries and applications this year, said Peter Burns, vice president for enrollment management.
Enrollment has been steady, at about 1,000, the past few years.
But “we’d like to do a better job of attracting adults back to campus,“ Burns said.
The college is doing that by offering a more flexible schedule and trying to use financial aid more wisely. Hilbert also is building another dorm to attract younger students looking for the live-in college experience.
While the number of teenagers graduating from high school will slow in the coming years, Burns and others are not sure how the expected downturn will affect local colleges.
“In the past, in the early 80s, when there was downturn, it was never felt by colleges because adults went back to school,” he said.
Gregory Florczak, vice president for enrollment management and undergraduate admissions at Medaille College, thinks that colleges that have a solid marketing plan will weather the downturn.
“Those that have been proactive, I think, will find they’ll fare well,” he said.
Medaille is experiencing its largest enrollment as well as the best retention of students in the school’s history.
“If you’re proactive,” he said, “you’ll see some positive results.”
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