Three hundred and eight new students stepped onto Baker University’s campus last fall, but estimations for the upcoming fall semester show a possible dip in the number of new students Baker will welcome in August.
“We are watching (enrollment) very carefully,” University President Pat Long said. “Right now, if we’re comparing today with a year ago today, we’re under where we were a year ago.”
Long said it was going to be difficult to replicate the enrollment Baker saw last year because wrestling and women’s bowling will not bring in the same number of new students they brought in last year as new sports programs.
“It’s going to be hard to hit where we were a year ago because we brought 40 new students in for the wrestling program,” she said. “When I say we’re watching enrollment carefully, what we want to make sure is we hit our numbers that we’re using for budget, and our goals.”
Planning the budget and setting goals for enrollment for the 2010-2011 school year has been done in a conservative manner, Chief Operating Officer Susan Lindahl said.
“We did plan conservatively and we certainly hope and certainly believe that we’ll come in above that,” Lindahl said. “In the past, the projections for enrollment were based on the needs of the university and what we’re trying to do is look more at enrollment trends that are impacted by the current economic climate and then have a more realistic number.”
Lindahl said the administration’s goal is to get within 10 percent of the number of new students Baker had on campus last fall.
“This year, we’re looking at a flat (enrollment) or even anticipating that it could be down as much as 10 percent,” she said. “We hope that is certainly not the case, but we don’t want to plan for more and then be looking in the budget for money.”
New strategies and special efforts are being put into recruitment for the upcoming school year. Director of Admissions Daniel McKinney said Facebook, social networking, blogging and live chats are news ways enrollment management is trying to recruit students.
While the goals set for the budget and enrollment are conservative, Lindahl, Long and McKinney all believe they are still optimistic, but realistically optimistic, this year.
“We’re a very positive-thinking, optimistic, hard-working group of people here in enrollment management. We’re turning over every stone, we’re coming in early and leaving late,” McKinney said. “I think there’s reason to believe that we can make our goal, but I think I’d be less than honest if I said I wasn’t concerned. We are so concerned that we meet our goal that we’re taking extra steps in order to be successful.”
