By KRISTEN KIRTLEY
Assistant Editor
Northwestern is growing in its numbers.
“We’ve had a decent jump in enrollment numbers,” Calleb Mosburg, Dean of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management at Northwestern, stated. “We’re having some positive growth here.”
Mosburg said that Northwestern has made some strong initiatives in concurrent enrollment. He pointed out that Northwestern has built several positive partnerships with high school juniors and seniors that have taken concurrent classes over the last few years, and that part of the overall growth in enrollment numbers is due to concurrent enrollment.
Northwestern is up 17.8% in head count in concurrent enrollment. The credit hours have also jumped 16% in concurrent enrollment as well.
“That’s a decent jump for us,” Mosburg said. “That’s a big impact.”
Other factors that Mosburg credited to the increase in enrollment are the addition of the men’s track team, the E-sports program and the university personnel to recruit and retain students.
Mosburg also gave a big praise to the recruitment staff for their tireless efforts and work to recruit new students to our great university.
“Tyler Thompson, Hadley Skaggs, George Rutherford, Jaden Coon and Michelle Wilson have done a great job this year and I look forward to their continued success,” Mosburg said. “Coaches and faculty representatives also make a huge impact on the enrollment numbers, and this truly is a university working together to increase enrollment.”
Mosburg mentioned the vocal music program has played a part in increasing enrollment numbers, and that Dr. Longhurst, Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at Northwestern, has done a lot to improve the numbers in the choir program.
Mosburg said that Northwestern’s overall head count for this semester is up nearly 100 students, which is almost a 4% increase. He mentioned credit hours are up nearly 4% as well.
Mosburg said that the freshman class is up a little over 1% this semester, the readmission rate is decent for this year and that he is hopeful that there will be some additional transfers due to the opportunities that Northwestern has to offer.
“I think the main pieces of growth have been our retention efforts that we’ve really worked through,” Mosburg said.
Northwestern has an enrollment forum that is made up of faculty members and the chairs or their designees from each department or division on campus.
Mosburg explained the forum meets regularly throughout the year to discuss enrollment plans and initiatives that are going to help keep students here. The forum also discusses ways to recruit students.
“Our faculty and staff have been collaborating and working really hard to address retention and recruitment initiatives,” Mosburg stated.
Mosburg said that discussing these topics on a departmental level helps the departments converse and compare with each other to determine what’s working and causing growth.
“Those things make a huge impact,” Mosburg said, “Our retention numbers look good, and we have been able to hit our goals in that area.”
Mosburg explained that when Northwestern gauges retention, they take a look at the fall to spring retention rate of the first time, full time, freshman class.
He explained that evaluating that data, and also looking at the fall to fall retention rate of that group, helps indicate what the rates are going to look like over the next few years.
Northwestern also has an Enrollment Management Task Force. He said the group has a retention goal, and that members look through and discuss different strategies when they meet.Mosburg mentioned the group held a meeting last week where they updated their plans going into this year.
“We’re looking at about an 85% retention rate from fall to spring and a 65% fall to fall retention rate,” Mosburg said.The freshman class’s numbers have been exceeded this past year. He said that that’s a positive thing, and that Northwestern plans to keep the momentum going on the retention side.
Another goal of Northwestern he mentioned was increasing recruitment numbers.
“Things are leaning more in the positive direction for us,” Mosburg said. “Our recruitment staff is working extremely hard to get that freshman number back in the right direction.”
See ENROLLMENT, Page 4
