By Allyson Hinkle, Editor in Chief
This fall semester over 3,500 students come to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor to pursue higher education. Around 825 of them are incoming freshman, a significant increase from the reported 744 freshman of last year. Of these freshmen around 67.88% of them decided to return to the university, a 3.54% increase of retention from the previous year.
The UMHB Admissions and Recruiting Office works year round to reach out to prospective students and interest them in the university.
“We start out with purchasing leads from different sources like College Board … and if [they] meet our academic profile, then we'll say okay, I want [their] name. So that then enables us to then market and go after those students. We [also] do … lots of different things … [to reach] out to students … [such as] traveling all over the state of Texas.” Director of Admissions and Recruiting Dr. Brent Burks said.
One of the main changes in recruitment techniques is the emergence of the digital age. With the opportunity to reach out to potential students, UMHB is no longer limited to in person signups only open to those who showed interest, the freshman population has steadily increased.
This population stalled once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, dropping the overall student population which the university has still not recovered from.
“[In the] fall of 19, our freshman class was 868. And this freshman class, we were at 825. Our total enrollment before COVID was at 3,846, so we haven’t quite rebounded to that level.” Dr. Gary Lamm, Vice President of Enrollment Management revealed.
Despite the overall population being down, the population on campus has begun to notice a shift toward a more diverse environment. This year the overall minority population on campus is at 48%, a fact that is exciting to many faculty members as the culture of the campus continues to grow and flourish.
Both Dr. Lamm and Dr. Burks expressed the significance of faculty also contributing to recruitment and retention of students.
“We're not a huge institution with these large endowments, so every tuition dollar and student matters.It's important for [faculty] to know because we're a student focus school, and it's everybody's job to help recruit and retain students.” Dr. Lamm explained when asked why faculty members are important to the student body.
“Most tuition driven institutions have a really strong point of emphasis, [so] everyone is an enrollment officer on this campus; if you're employed, [you are] an enrollment and retention officer.” Dr. Burks added when asked about the effect of faculty members in recruiting.
Overall the freshman population is estimated to grow and eventually match the numbers of pre-COVID enrollment. The recruitment office is aspiring to expand freshman enrollment by around 50 students.
