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Clif’s Notes for Oct. 4, 2022

October 4, 2022 by Clif Smart

Student walk near Plaster Stadium during move-in.

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.

Chart showing the decline of Pell students declining from 2014-2022.

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!

Filed Under: Clif's Notes, Smart Tagged With: enrollment

Clif’s Notes for Sept. 27, 2022

September 27, 2022 by Clif Smart

Clif Smart presents next to podium.

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!

Filed Under: Clif's Notes, Smart Tagged With: enrollment

Clif’s Notes for Aug. 30, 2022

August 30, 2022 by Clif Smart

Students sit at picnic table with fountain in background.

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!

Filed Under: Clif's Notes, Smart Tagged With: enrollment

Clif’s Notes for March 8, 2022

March 8, 2022 by Clif Smart

Rachel Anderson in front of efactory sign.

Our spring enrollment census was two weeks ago.

We had some good news:

  • Total headcount enrollment grew by 1%.
  • We are up 5.5% in graduate students.
  • Our number of students from historically underrepresented groups is up 4%.
  • Our international enrollment grew by 28%.
  • Dual credit enrollment grew by 27%.

However, we are down by more than 4% in total credit hours. While graduate credit hours are up by 4%, undergraduate credit hour enrollment declined by 5.6%.

Enrollment declines impact our mission. We cannot educate students to be global citizen scholars when they do not enroll.

Enrollment declines also impact our budget. Enrollment declines have resulted in a $7 million tuition revenue shortfall this year.

We must all focus our efforts on enrollment for next fall and beyond. Everyone should do their part to recruit new students and work with our current students to help them navigate barriers that could prevent them from coming back in the fall.

If you have ideas or strategies to recruit new students or retain existing students, please discuss them with your colleagues and administrators. You can also email them to me at president@missouristate.edu.

Congratulate Rachel Anderson

This week the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce will host its annual ATHENA award event.

At this event, Rachel Anderson, director of the efactory at Missouri State, will receive the prestigious Virginia Fry Rising Star Award. MSU will be well represented at the event with three tables of attendees.

The Virginia Fry Rising Star Award honors someone age 40 or younger who is already beginning to light the way for women leaders. The award is named posthumously after Virginia Fry, a successful attorney in Springfield and a proud MSU alumnus and former member of our Board of Governors.

Through Rachel’s service at the university — from co-founding Rosie to serving on the advisory board for the Entrepreneurship Strand of GO CAPS to guiding fledgling entrepreneurs at the efactory — Rachel is well-deserving of this honor.

I hope you will join me in congratulating Rachel.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

Filed Under: Clif's Notes, Smart Tagged With: enrollment, IDEA Commons

Clif’s Notes for Jan. 12, 2021

January 12, 2021 by Clif Smart

Ice falling on legacy wall

I hope you had a relaxing winter break. Due to the pandemic, this winter break was different than prior years. Gail and I spent a lot of time together at home recharging and celebrating the holidays.

The spring semester began yesterday, and we are off to a good start. Opening day enrollment numbers show us up in new undergraduate and graduate students, up in returning graduate students, but down in returning undergraduate students. It is important that we continue to do everything we can to support our students.

COVID-19 initiatives

This semester we will continue our COVID-19 initiatives from last semester. Asymptomatic testing will be available throughout the semester. We will continue to administer COVID-19 tests at Magers Health and Wellness Center for those who have symptoms or have been exposed to someone with the virus.

We have also implemented several new initiatives.

Our students living on campus were tested for COVID-19 immediately before the semester began.

We have scaled up and automated our wastewater testing program to systemically monitor campus wastewater for early detection of COVID-19 outbreaks in a residence hall or other facility. I want to give a special thanks to Dr. Amy Hulme, David Vaughan and others who made this possible.

We are also in communication with local, state and federal authorities to obtain and provide COVID-19 vaccine for our campus community as soon as it becomes available for us. We will keep you updated as we receive information about vaccination priorities for our campus community, etc.

You can find other information about the university’s virus response and initiatives on the COVID-19 Information Center. Our dashboard has been updated for the new semester. You can find the final fall 2020 dashboard online as well.

Plan to join town hall

We will host a Virtual Town Hall meeting at 3 p.m. Jan. 15.

I will be joined by Director of University Safety David Hall and other administrators to update the campus community on the university’s COVID-19 response and strategies. You are free to submit your questions and input on any topic at the meeting.

You can find the Zoom link and other information about the meeting on the university’s webpage.

Thanks for all you do for Missouri State!

 

Filed Under: Clif's Notes, Smart Tagged With: Coronavirus, enrollment

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