AMANDA DEDIE
Assistant News Editor
The campus can seem like a crowded place at times, especially with the influx of longboarders when the weather begins to cool down and with the long lines at Starbucks that accompany the need for Pumpkin Spice Lattes. However, what many don’t know is that the student population has plummeted in recent years.
Since 2009, the student enrollment rates have dropped drastically, from close to 6,000 students to a little under 5,000. However, the drop is not due to anything of Fredonia’s doing, per se, but simply because of local circumstances.
Director of Admissions Cory Bezek states that low enrollment is due in part to the decrease in high school graduate numbers.
“Total enrollment on campus is around 4,900 undergraduate and graduate students, which is down from our peak enrollments in 2009, when we were about 5,700 total enrollment on campus, and that’s largely due to the demographic changes of our primary feeder markets, mainly western New York,” said Bezek. “Western New York looks very different now than it did five years ago. We saw our population peak in 2009, and then we saw a decrease in the number of high school graduates going on out all the way.”
In order to combat the change in enrollment numbers, the school is implementing various changes to try to raise the number of students who enroll in classes at Fredonia every year. From reaching out to other markets to simple things like changing their marketing materials, everything will be considered.
“We actually have a pretty long list of [strategies], but one thing we’re doing is reaching more downstate, which all the state [schools] are doing, and because of the distance of New York City and Long Island, we haven’t had the presence there that a lot of other schools have had,” said Dr. David Herman, vice president of Student Affairs.
“We’re increasing our social media presence. We’re increasing our mailing and publications and we’re doing more out-of-state recruiting. We’re working on getting more of an out-of-state discount to assist students that have to pay that extra 11 to 12,000 dollars a year, to make it more competitive,” continued Herman.
Despite the lower enrollment rates, Herman believes that Fredonia is one of the top schools in the state for numerous reasons, and that the decreased enrollment isn’t synonymous with how Fredonia is run as an educational facility.
“Fredonia is really one of the top ranked colleges in the SUNY system, and we have a really high quality product. We have really small classes. A lot of schools, to save funding, have gone to much bigger classes,” said Herman.
Increasing enrollment, however, is not just on the shoulders of the administration. There are several ways in which students and alumni can help, starting simply with just word of mouth.
“We ask students every year to join the peer recruitment program,” said Bezek. “That’s when you go back to your high school or previous college and talk to students who haven’t applied yet, or students who have applied, or students who are accepted, all about your Fredonia experience, and connect current students with students they went to high school or college with.”
Additionally, the decrease in enrollment can be attributed to the past three years of large graduation classes. The university has also seen more and more students graduate in less than four years, due to advanced placement credit being applied to their transcripts. Also, western New York has undergone decreases in the number of students graduating from high school; the ones who are graduating apply to more colleges, so recruiting colleges have lesser chances of being chosen.
That, however, doesn’t deter Bezek.
“This place is not like any other place that I have experienced, and I know that’s [a feeling] shared by a lot of current students,” said Bezek. “If we can convey that to the outside public, I think we’re going to be able to bring in the right kind of students that are going to be the most successful here.”