CONNOR HOFFMAN
News Editor
Declining enrollment is a problem that has plagued Fredonia’s campus for the last few years, and a recent report released by Student Affairs confirms that that this trend continues for enrollment and admissions this year as well.
According to the report, admissions dropped from 7,325 applications in 2013 to 6,384 applications in 2016.
Corey Bezek, the director of Fredonia’s admission department, explained why Fredonia has seen this decline.
“Demographics. We saw a peak of high school graduates in New York State in about 2008. And from 2008 through 2026, there’s actually a decrease in New York State graduates every single year,” said Bezek. “So there’s just overall less students applying to college.”
Also, Bezek said that the University did not want to lower its admissions standards to try to increase enrollment.
“The one thing we’ve tried to do is to say that the quality of the student is important. We know the type of student that’s going to be successful,” said Bezek. “We want to make sure we are admitting students that have the chance to be successful … we don’t want to take drastic swings one way or another, necessarily, to chase a number if it’s going to impact the quality of these students.”
The report also shows a huge dropoff in the number of students who enroll after being accepted. According to the report, of the 6,384 who applied in 2016, only 31 percent. Bezek said that competition from nearby universities is a huge reason for this dropoff.
Bezek also explained why the Dunkirk schools were not one of the top schools the university receives students from despite their close proximity.
“It has to do with the size of their graduating classes,” said Bezek. “Dunkirk High School does not graduate as many as any of the Williamsvilles or Orchard Park or Hamburg. Going back … as far as I have records, Buffalo has always been our top feeder.”
Vice President for Student Affairs Cedric Howard, explained how the University’s Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) plan is expected to help increase enrollment. He said that Fredonia, up until this year, has used a “traditional enrollment funnel” with its admissions.
“When you look at a traditional enrollment funnel, which Fredonia has used, it is a funnel that starts off wide,” said Howard. “It starts with students who may have an interest in, then it goes to [those] who are prospective students, then it goes to students who have applied, down through admitted, confirmed and, ultimately, those students that enroll.”
He explained how the SEM plan is different from a traditional enrollment funnel plan.
“In the traditional model, pretty much 99 percent of the recruiting is done by an admissions recruiter,” said Howard. “In an enrollment management model, pretty much everyone has a role to play in the recruitment and retention of students.”
Bezek explained how the SEM plan is going to affect the University’s admissions process, as well.
“Admissions and new student recruitment always used to be a one-year proposition, meaning that we’re really trying to focus on what happens next Fall,” said Bezek. “What the SEM process is going to be doing is it’s taking it from us, looking at one-year recruitment cycle to a 18-month to a 24-month recruitment style.”
He also said that most of the students applying now hear of Fredonia by their junior year in high school, and that admissions is going to focus more on reaching students at younger years.
The report also pointed out a few excellent categories regarding admission. Some of these categories of admission excellence include 87-93 high school GPAs, 1000-1160 SAT scores, 22-26 ACT scores, 2.6-3.5 transfer student GPA, 597 Fredonia students receiving merit awards, 33 percent are first generation students, 38 percent are Pell Grant eligible and 53 percent are Tuition Assistance Program recipients. Bezek said that these categories have really remained the same over the years, and that their consistency shows the university still values high standards in their applicants.
Bezek said that the SEM plan is the “roadmap” to how everyone on the campus will help increase enrollment and retention.
“That’s the direction that’s going to provide the structure that guides the rest of us in what we’re doing in terms of increasing overall head count at the University,” said Bezek. “There’s all these pieces that look at it so that enrollment doesn’t just look at new student enrollment.”
This story is the first in an occasional series of stories looking at how enrollment and admissions have changed at Fredonia