At yesterday’s State of the University Address, Zora Mulligan and I announced a new scholarship program called the MoState Access Award.

Beginning next fall, new Missouri undergraduate students who are eligible for the Pell Grant won’t pay any tuition or fees at Missouri State University.

This is a “gap filler” program — meaning the MoState Access Award will cover all tuition and fees that aren’t covered by other scholarships and grants.

You can find more information about the MoState Access Award on the scholarships webpage.

Addressing the decline

Our Pell Grant eligible undergraduate population has steadily declined in recent years.

The Enrollment Steering Team analyzed relevant data and found that MSU’s decline in Pell eligible enrollment has outpaced other institutions in our area.

The Enrollment Management Team recommended the MoState Access Award as a current best practice designed to address this decline.

The MoState Access Award will make an education at Missouri State University accessible for all students regardless of their financial need. This is important to our core mission of educating students to be global citizen scholars. It is also a critical strategy to increase enrollment.

As we work to recruit prospective students, I hope you will join me in spreading the word about this important new access initiative.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

I will deliver the State of the University address at 12:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3 in the PSU Theater.

Throughout the pandemic, we replaced our traditional State of the University address with a series of virtual town hall meetings.

This year, we will return to our regular format with an in-person address. I will cover highlights from last year, enrollment data from fall census, and goals and action items for the coming year.

After I have delivered the address, I will moderate a discussion with Zora Mulligan and John Jasinski about our work on enrollment and academic realignment.

Following that discussion, Zora, John and I will answer questions from the audience.

I hope you will plan to join us for this year’s State of the University address.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Every Monday morning throughout the spring and summer, I received and reviewed a fall 2022 enrollment projection report from AVP for Enrollment Management and Services Rob Hornberger. These reports were based on enrollment indicators — applications, acceptances, enrollment in SOAR, housing deposits, etc.

Last Monday the rubber hit the road. Instead of a report based on indicators, Rob sent an opening day enrollment report based on the actual number of students that were enrolled on the first day of classes.

Thanks to the hard work of our staff and faculty, the opening day enrollment report was better than our indicators predicted.

So, what did the report say?  We were successful in several areas, and we have work to do in others.

Growth in key areas

We are up in graduate enrollment and expect to set another record in graduate enrollment. I want to give a shout out to Julie Masterson and her team in the Graduate College as well as all the folks in the colleges who work on graduate programs for their hard work to grow in a challenging environment.

We are way up in international enrollment. Brad Bodenhausen and his team have responded exceptionally to the obstacles universities throughout the United States face in recruiting international students. It is good to have our international students back on campus.

We are up in transfer students. This is not due to the work of any one office or unit on campus — it is a team success.

The efforts led by Rob Moore and his team to redesign our transfer scholarships undoubtedly played a role in this growth.

The Darr College of Agriculture, the College of Business and the College of Education grew. Staff and faculty worked hard to generate these increases.

We should all be proud of the enrollment growth in these colleges and in various departments and programs throughout the university.

Headcount and credit hour decline

While we focus on the positive results, we can’t ignore that we are down 2.9% in headcount enrollment and 4.7% in credit hours on opening day.

We anticipated an enrollment decline, and Missouri State rose to the challenge.

Our admissions and enrollment teams — joined by faculty and staff throughout the university — worked hard to pare down that decline throughout the summer.

Those efforts paid off.

Your role matters

We still have a lot of work to do.

No matter our role in the university, each of us have a stake in recruiting, retaining and graduating students.

We must all reexamine the way we impact students. Even if the activities we plan, strategies we use, and actions we take have worked well for many years, we must explore opportunities to reinvent and refresh them — to make our university even more attractive to prospective and current students.

Highlighting what sets us apart

In the coming months two steering teams will take the lead in recommending changes.

Zora Mulligan will lead an enrollment steering team focused on reimagining and reenergizing our admissions, retention and enrollment efforts. This work is both urgent and important.

Accordingly, I have reassigned enrollment management and services, admissions, the registrar, financial aid, academic support and student success, and access and outreach to report directly to Zora.

John Jasinski will lead an academic disruptors steering team focused on academic structures, processes and programs as well as the academic budget. The team will address the overall academic enterprise, including academic administrative operations.

We have much to be proud of at Missouri State. Our academic programs are strong. Our campus life is outstanding. We are a cornerstone in the Springfield community, and our profile throughout the state, the nation and the world continues to rise.

We have enrollment and budget challenges and will address these challenges head on as we have always done — strategically, creatively and driven by our desire to be the best university for our students.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!