JAMES LILLIN
Staff Writer
For the past few years the SUNY system has been fighting plummeting enrollment numbers, and SUNY Fredonia was no different.
According to the Spring 2017 Demographics Report, a total of only 4,261 students were enrolled at Fredonia last semester, with the school’s various departments scrambling to work together to reverse the decline. Fortunately, things are looking up at Fred.
“This is the second largest first-year entering class we’ve had in our record keeping, which goes back many, many decades,” said Director of Admissions Cory Bezek.
Fredonia is currently welcoming in a class of 1,160 first-year students, compared to 934 last year.
“We’re up in every area across the board, and almost every major,” said Bezek. “We’re up in visual arts, but we’re also up in business. We’re up in STEM, but also in Education. It’s really great to see.”
This rise isn’t attributable to demographics, as New York graduating classes are not on track to grow in size for almost another decade. Rather, the increase is the result of a campus-wide effort to demonstrate what Fredonia has to offer prospective students.
“We decided to rethink all basic assumptions and just get down to the fact that we are a destination, and to focus on how we get people to recognize that,” said Bezek. “This was an effort made by the entire campus to come together for the same goal, focusing on not just new student recruitment, but also on retention, all the while focusing on student success as the main goal.”
Many changes were made internally, including changes to the admissions systems and an overhaul of the Open House process.
“When we sat down to look at it we made over 80 changes to processes, communications and everyday things we do in the Admissions office and across campus,” said Bezek. “We’ve reinvented our Open Houses to give students a better idea of what it’s like to actually be a student rather than just touring the campus.”
These Open House changes include a new ‘micro-class’ system, where prospective students can take short 15-20 minute classes in different disciplines during Open House to get a better feel of what an average student can expect to find during their day-to-day lives at Fredonia. This multidisciplinary approach may have helped to attract students looking to explore a wide variety of interests.
“One of the things I was looking for when I looked up schools was having the ability to take the things I wanted to take,” said freshman musical theatre major Sarah Friedman. “My interests are all over the place, and a lot of schools won’t let you combine interests, but at Fredonia it’s no problem.”
One crucial change was expediting the admissions process, which allowed prospective students to get information on admittance and financial aid much sooner.
“We’ve become able to get financial aid awards out right around Thanksgiving, when that normally happens in March,” said Bezek. “Students were not only able to know if they were accepted to Fredonia very quickly, but also what it was going to cost months ahead of time. “
Admittance numbers started trending up higher as early as January, meaning that the recently-implemented Excelsior Scholarship may have had little to do with the increase in enrollment.
“Excelsior wasn’t announced until early-to-mid April, at which point we were already up by double-digits,” said Bezek. “Most students already know where they’re going at that time, so it certainly may be helpful, but likely wasn’t a deciding factor.”
Bezek sees this year’s enrollment spike as a sign that growth at Fredonia will continue and is eager to see what the Class of 2021 will accomplish during their time at SUNY Fredonia.
“Every class has its own unique personality,” said Bezek, “and I say it every year, but I’m most excited to see what this class is going to become.”