Grants boost enrollment
Chris Coplan - April 24th, 2008The 2008-2009 winners of the President’s Undergraduate Student Recruitment and Retention Grants have been announced, and the 10 winners represent a true cross-section of NAU’s cultural and educational makeup.
The grants are awarded to colleges or programs on campus seeking to boost retention or recruitment of students in their area of the university. The average grant is usually $2,500, although in some cases can be higher or lower. The funds for the awards are allocated from the university’s state budget to the office of enrollment management and student affairs.
The following is a look at six of the winners’ grants and their individual aims.
Partnerships to Build Success:
College of Engineering and Natural Sciences
In recent years, universities across the nation have attempted to boost the number of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates they produce, as in the case of universities offering four-year scholarships to students in STEM fields. But for some in the field, free money is not enough.
“Although enrollment numbers have increased, we’re still seeing a shortage of STEM students in the state and the nation,” said Marissa Mourer, recruiting specialist and the grant awardee for the college of engineering and natural sciences. “If we didn’t get creative, we couldn’t find a way to bump enrollment.”
And creativity is what the partnership program focuses on. Mourer said the program will host four one-day community events sponsored by the college of engineering and natural sciences in cooperation with industry partners. The aim is to demonstrate to prospective and non-traditional students their various options of future careers as well as to show opportunities in higher education.
“We have college and university-wide career fairs,” Mourer said. “Companies will recruit seniors into jobs, so if they want the best educated and most qualified, why not have them help us bring in students?”
Mourer said giving students chances to meet working professionals can help boost the number of STEM students by doing away with the myth of difficulty surrounding STEM careers.
“Students have a hard time creating a realistic vision of a STEM career,” Mourer said. “They can’t imagine it’s not as large of a hurdle and they really can become an engineer or scientist.”
The partnership already held a pilot event on April 5. Mourer said the event showed them the potential for the whole of NAU to work with industry partners.
“The evaluation numbers were low, but the diversity of responses was remarkable,” Mourer said. “We had people of varying ages, ethnicity, employment and even high school students. In terms of building diversity, this can become a broad experience and show how creativity and community building can make for an effective enrollment message.”
Athletic Training Education Program Recruitment and Informational Symposium:
College of Health and Human Services
For some students, jumping into a full-time, four-year university can be a daunting task. That is why many students will start at community colleges, where they can stay in their home area, earn an associate’s degree and transfer to a university for the remainder of their academic career. With this in mind, NAU is the only state university to offer certification for a career as an athletic trainer.
Even with that program offered, Steve Cernohous, an assistant professor in physical therapy and athletic training, has said the five-year-old program has seen fewer and fewer transfer students finish their certification at NAU.
“It’s because there is no formal matriculation program with the junior colleges,” Cernohous said. “Students can be misadvised and become frustrated and maybe even change programs.”
Cernohous said in the span of the program’s existence, it went from 40 percent of the program’s applicants were from junior colleges to that number hovering at 5 to 10 percent. The grant Cernohous was awarded will go towards holding a luncheon to bring in students who have indicated interest in the athletic training as well as community college advisers who can further generate interest. Part of the symposium will be to make the path to certification a much shorter one.
“We want to be able to streamline the process and make it more efficient,” Cernohous said. “You have students taking courses they don’t even need. We are hoping by targeting them we can increase enrollment.”
Despite having the advantage of being the only program in the state, Cernohous said the program, compared to others he has taught at, has a larger pool of career locations for students.
“Coming from California, we only placed students in the town we were in,” Cernohous said. “At NAU we have over 20 clinical sites in the state to place students.”
California Association for Music Education 2009 State Conference:
NAU School Of Music
If you ask David Vining, a trombone and euphonium instructor with NAU’s school of music, how great the university’s music program is, he will have one substantial fact for you.
“A total of 100 percent of our music education graduates get placed into jobs,” Vining said. “NAU is the destination for music education.”
As a top school within the university, the music program has been awarded money to attend and create a presence within California, specifically the Southern region of the state.
“Northern Arizona has a strong degree program, and there are not a lot of degree programs in SoCal and the typical student is looking for that option,” Vining said.
Despite being a region that is financially cheaper to access, Vining said students who come here from California can receive tuition discounts as a part of Western Undergraduate Exchange, which encourages students to enroll at other universities throughout the West beyond their home state.
The school of music’s grant is a standard bearer for the overall aim of the grant program. Despite being one trip to the 2009 conference to pass out materials and as Vining said “shake hands,” it also includes a faculty trip to perform at high schools. This allows them to not only recruit students but impact other school officials.
“As musicians, we go out and perform and that is a powerful form of communication,” Vining said. “But there are also non-music people who hear us, school administrators. This also ties in with alumni who can hear us perform. We can act as ambassadors-at-large for NAU.”
But Vining said he and school of music faculty and administration are aware that one conference will not be enough and NAU must continually make themselves known in the area.
“This may pay dividends years later,” Vining said about the conference attendance’s impact. “If we’re targeting freshmen, then this is just a first step and we’ll continually have to have a presence there.”
Digital Social Networking:
School of Art
Pamela Stephens, an associate professor of art education, is leading the way to take NAU’s school of art and its passion for all things creative and combining it with emerging technology to bring more students into the world of art.
“This project will guide potential in-state and out-of-state recruits to an interactive social network where they can ask questions and respond to threaded discussions, blog about hopes and goals, post artwork, watch videos and listen to podcasts about the NAU art education program,” Stephens said.
But the program is not simply for students already accustomed to using technology they have had their disposal for years, but as well as educators who may not be as comfortable in dealing with new technology.
“We will strengthen visibility of the program with teachers in the field by presenting the social network at professional in-state and national conferences,” Stephens said.
Despite being able to pull in new students, Stephens said the project will also work to instill a sense of pride within current art education students.
“Current students will feel personal ownership of the art education program by interacting with potential recruits about university life and, therefore, will be more likely to complete the program,” Stephens said.
But the project is another grant that can set an example for NAU.
“The project addresses current trends in the way students learn,” Stephens said. “Digital technology is a fundamental component of contemporary life. By utilizing the day-to-day methods of electronic communication that are prevalent with digital natives (those born in the digital technology/information age), the university as a whole can benefit from this model of viral recruitment.”
Video Gaming:
NAU Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
At NAU, not all technology use is meant for serious academic work.
David Smith, a senior computer science major and a member of NAU’s ACM, said the grant won by the student group will go toward funding more LAN (Local Area Network) parties, where groups of students can play video games on multiple TV screens while sharing a common place, often in the Union.
“We’ll have more money to buy TVs and prizes, like plush animals from games or even a Wii, DS and other games and consoles,” Smith said.
Smith said the LAN parties are essential to reaching out to students who often feel left out.
“There is not a lot for this niche of people,” Smith said. “Similar surveys we’ve done show these people are rarely involved on campus, that they’ll sit and play games by themselves.”
The hope with creating more social networks for gamers is to show that NAU is not all hard work.
“Playing opens up the atmosphere and lets people get involved,” Smith said. “But it also shows the lighter side of NAU, which will get more respect for the university.”
Empowering At-Risk Freshmen:
College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Being a freshmen at a new university in an unfamiliar city can be overwhelming. But three officials involved with NAU’s ethnic studies department, Multicultrual Student Center and Center for International Education are hoping to make the transition a little easier.
Sara Aleman, the director of the ethnic studies department, said the grant is meant to help those students who have not taken the Student Resources Inventory (SRI), which makes freshmen aware of the resources, including study aid and health care options, available on campus.
“We’re going to help students be their own best advocates,” Aleman said. “We will help students find the help they need regardless of the issue or what’s on their mind.”
Often times the lack of help can impact a student’s academic career. Aleman said that last year, 300 students did not take the SRI. That target group is 12 percent less likely to continue onto their second semester.
The three officials involved will handle 50 students each. Aleman said she would love to have more students involved but time constraints lessen the mumber of participants.
But what will help lessen the impact of the work involved is the push toward group work.
“We will have groups of four to five deal with the problem of where do they go if they have a health issue,” Aleman said. “It will be like a treasure hunt, and students will create a booklet of resources that they themselves have identified.”
Aleman said the grant will be used to push for diverse student participation.
“We will have students who don’t have money to pay for the SRI as well as those who don’t see the point of assessing what’s available to them,” Aleman said. “As well, the group will be very ethnically and economically diverse.”
Aleman said the point of the project is to help students develop connections with one another.
“Research shows that seeing themselves connected will make students happier and feel more secure,” Aleman said. “Students will feel like they are more in control of their education.”