Enrollment results vary at area universities

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The Toledo region's two major universities worked to improve their images and stock of students this fall in two very different ways.

Bowling Green State University embarked on a marketing surge, inviting more students and families to campus and dramatically increasing visits to national recruiting events.

After several years of declines, the school increased its freshman class this fall by 24 percent to 3,841 from 3,094 students last year.

The freshman class is the second-largest in school history.

"This is what we needed to do because we lost our way just a bit," BGSU President Carol Cartwright said. "We did it without a lot tuition discounting and without any decrease in academic standards."

The University of Toledo planned for a decline in freshmen this fall as it raised academic requirements for admission to three of its colleges - business, education, and nursing.

It's part of a new focus on increasing the academic preparedness of incoming students, which in the long run may increase the university's reputation and its future endowments.

Its incoming class this year of first-time adult students and freshmen fell to 3,955 from 4,371 last year, or 9.5 percent.

"UT does students no favors by enrolling those not yet prepared for college and accepting their tuition payments only to see them be unsuccessful at the collegiate level," said Larry Burns, a UT vice president who oversees enrollment efforts.

Figures released Tuesday on incoming freshman classes, along with total enrollment data for Ohio universities and colleges, demonstrate the varying strategies employed by colleges and universities as they fight for quality students, limited dollars, and increased national prestige.

Enrollment figures, like corporate earnings, are more than just numbers; they tell stories of success and failure and of strategic plans that are working out, or not.

It has been four years since the Medical College of Ohio and the University of Toledo merged to create Ohio's third-largest university.

Overall university enrollment grew for several years. This year, it increased only a fraction of a percent, just 21 students.

"This is exactly how we felt we would be in the fourth year since the merger," Mr. Burns said. "Over the next few years, we'll anticipate the enrollment to go up again. … But with the university in an even more respected [academic] realm."

Strategic plans aside, some institutions are seeing increases because people want safe harbor from a stormy job market.

Toledo-area colleges, such as Owens Community College, also fight for students and reputation as the schools recruit and plan.

Owens experienced a significant decline in students, down to 19,980 from 23,606 last year, more than 15 percent.

The decline brings the school back in line with 2008 enrollment numbers, said Renay Scott, interim executive vice president and provost.

She said the school lost about 2,000 students from onetime corporate training classes that are not a sure thing every year. They include first aid and OSHA training sought after by corporations for their employees, she said.

The school's registered nursing program, which is working to regain a key national accreditation it lost last year, has plans to intentionally decrease the number of new students it accepts each semester to 85 from 105 students, she said.

The school will allow all of those on the nursing school waiting list to be placed into the program over three semesters.

After that, there will be no more waiting list, and students either will be accepted for an available spot or not each semester, she said.

There are fewer nursing jobs out there, and the school has to be more selective, Ms. Scott said.

"The decision was certainly made based on job-need data," she said. "Nursing needs ebb and flow. We certainly could ramp up should there ever be a need going forward."

Lourdes College said it attracts students from as far away as Alaska by offering a personalized approach. No classroom holds more than 40 students, said President Bob Helmer, who is in his eighth year leading the Sylvania school.

Lourdes' enrollment grew to 2,616 from 2,319 last year, or by 13 percent. Enrollment has grown at the school for the past seven years, he said.

The school just added several sports programs and on-campus housing, he said, which also helped with recruitment.

And it now offers several master's degree programs, he said.

"We have students now from Alaska, Florida, Connecticut," he said. "The student from Alaska, she got in her car and drove the whole way here."

The school is also unique because it doesn't require students to take a standardized test, such as the ACT, to gain admission.

"We have tried to break down any barrier to anyone coming to higher education," he said.

Contact Christopher D.

Kirkpatrick at:

ckirkpatrick@theblade.com

or 419-724-6134.