College works to raise enrollment rates

Fall enrollment numbers are in for Buffalo State, and the college is using them in its ongoing investigation to help the college understand how to better accommodate the student body.

The figures show that enrollment has been steady over the past three years, hovering around 11,700 overall students.  Still, the enrollment office plans to improve on these numbers over the coming years with a number of initiatives.

According to Mark Petrie, associate vice president for enrollment management, the office will first look to increase graduate enrollment by 50 students a year over the next five years.

"We've opened up a couple of new programs, and we have some very popular programs in the graduate school that should see increased enrollment," Petrie said.

Next, Petrie said the college will look to facilitate "top of mind" with the "Because of Buffalo State" campaign. This means, through marketing, administrators want prospective students to think of Buffalo State first when they are looking for colleges.

Finally, the college is looking to increase its retention rate, or the percentage of students that continue their education at Buffalo State, versus the percent that transfer to a different institution.

Currently, Buffalo State's first-year retention rate is about 75 percent, which, according to the SUNY Annual Report Card, is low compared to the SUNY average of 83 percent.

The enrollment office formed the Campus Committee on Retention two years ago to address this issue.

"The Committee on Retention was designed to create a forum in which people from across campus would talk specifically about the issue, and how we might share best practices and make certain initiatives campus-wide instead of initiatives only in a particular unit of the campus," said Scott Johnson, dean of University College.

The committee, directed by Johnson, is made up of five administrators, the associate deans of each school, and a representative of the faculty from each school.

Johnson said that among the initiatives the committee has looked at are improved advising practices, academic roadmaps for majors and departments, and building an organized data set so it can be analyzed and shared more easily.

"There's a lot of really good information on campus, but it's in a lot of different places," Johnson said. "Rather than thinking we need another survey, we're trying to get the most out of what we already have at our disposal."

In the last decade, the first-year retention rate has been as high as 78 percent in 2003, and as low as 70 percent in 2002, according to a study by the Buffalo State Office of Institutional Research.

Moving forward, Johnson said the committee is looking to stabilize first-year retention rates at around 80 percent and second-year retention rates at around 60 percent.

One of the most influential factors in the data set for retention is Buffalo State's large commuter population. 

Petrie said that Buffalo State is made up nearly 70 percent of commuters, meaning that the vast majority of students have jobs, as well as a number of other off-campus obligations.

According to the National Survey of Student Engagement, Buffalo State students work an average of 13 hours a week compared to next closest SUNY school average of only 3 hours a week.

As a result of this, Petrie said that commuters tend to naturally have a lower retention rate than residents.

"Some students may feel they have to stop out, work for a semester or two, and then come back to school," Petrie said. "Not that that student doesn't end up graduating six or seven years from now, but it counts as a negative number."

As a part of the improved advising practices, Johnson said that the Committee on Retention will be collaborating with the different schools to identify common exit points and help students consider different options that may help them stay in school. 

This, he believes, will make Buffalo State more competitive in the future.

Brian Alexander can be reached by email at alexander.record@live.com.