I hope you survived last weekend’s April showers, showers and more showers. I know our facilities teams worked hard to ensure campus buildings weren’t overtaken by all the rain we received.

As we discuss budgets, our present and our future, enrollment management plays a key role. As I noted in an earlier column, I’ve charged our leadership with developing action plans that will help us with fall enrollment, and we’re hiring a vice president for enrollment management.

Given this emphasis on enrollment, I thought it might be helpful to discuss a major event hosted by the office of admissions that takes place twice a year, in the fall and spring. It’s called Showcase.

What’s Showcase all about?

On March 29, we hosted Spring Showcase. This is a day when prospective students and their families come to campus to see and experience Missouri State University.

We hosted 338 prospective students – the largest number since 2019! Around 75% of the registrants were high school juniors, but the group also included sophomores and freshmen and around 40 seniors who are still contemplating their plans after high school.

While admissions hosts and plans the event, many people from across campus turn out to make this a success.

The students start check-in at Plaster Student Union (PSU) around 9 a.m., then most attend one of two welcome sessions hosted by yours truly. While at the PSU, they can also stop by presentations by financial aid, admissions, residence life, transfer admissions, fraternity and sorority life, education abroad or a student panel session. We even offer several admissions info sessions in Spanish.

They can head over to Foster Recreation Center where the Student Life Expo and “meet the faculty” are set up. There, students can meet faculty from all our colleges, representing 170 majors and programs, Honors College and Libraries. The expo includes booths from the Alumni Association to the University Ambassadors and everything in between.

We also have new branded golf carts to transport visitors who need assistance. There are shuttles to the McQueary College of Health and Human Services buildings and Brick City art and design facilities or they can walk through College of Business’ Glass Hall. They can tour residence halls and eat in our dining halls. They can also take a walking or shuttle tour of campus.

As you can see, it takes hundreds of people preparing and presenting to ensure our prospective students and their parents have the best experience possible during their day on campus.  And we hope this leads to them enrolling at Missouri State.

Attracting students to Missouri State really does take a collaborative village and it’s something we work on year-round. Showcase is an example of a very important event. I want to thank the army of individuals who made Showcase an event to remember.

This year’s Fall Showcase is scheduled for Oct. 25. Registration will open in early September.

Thanks for checking in. It’s a great day to be a Bear!

Biff