Director of enrollment services Courtney Cassard explained that numbers from the spring 2016 semester are up twenty students, which is around 0.3 percent more than last spring.

The University’s freshman retention rate increased. An increase in first-time freshman that applied as an increase in admitted students for the fall.

“All of the freshmen in the fall are placed in a university studies class,” Cassard said. “The university studies instructor also functions as that student’s advisor for their first year. We’ve done a couple of things within university college, but also within some of the general education courses that we feel contributed to us keeping more students.”

The University is working more with recruitment. Representatives from the admissions office are visiting high schools across the state, as well as some out of state.
“We also made a commitment to recruit international students, so we’ve participated for the first time in some online college fairs that are specifically targeted toward international students,” Cassard said.

Cassard said that during the first online international college fair, 600 students visited Nicholls’ virtual booth. She said Nicholls contracted a company and the office of international student services now participates in online chats with prospective international students too.

“We know Nicholls is the best place on earth, right? So we’re just making sure we get the message to students in high school. We had a record number of scholarship offers that we sent out this year, so things are looking pretty positive,” Cassard said.

Vice president for student affairs Eugene Dial said, “ I think by offering more scholarships to more students this spring to come next fall, that there will be an increase in enrollment because students and their families are very conscious about cost of going to school. Nicholls has positive things going in its favor: we were the only four-year school in the state that didn’t increase tuition. There were program fees, but we didn’t increase tuition.”

Dial explained that the 8,000-enrollment goal is still a goal, but it’s more of a long-term target.

“It’s not a goal that we’re going to get to in two years, but I think that if Nicholls is going to be dependent on tuition as much as it is, in order to sustain and continue to improve things, you have to have more people paying tuition unless the state starts funding more,” Dial said.

One of the ways the University is trying to make sure admitted students actually enroll is by increasing their social media outreach. Instead of a “boring admission letter,” Cassard said students now receive a mini poster welcoming them to the colonel family and instructing them to pose with it and use the hashtag “#ColonelPride” on their social medias.

Dial said from a student services perspective, his department is taking a closer look at what students want and need in regards to programs.

“We’re making sure that every program and service that we implement is directly related to enrollment and retention,” Dial said. “Fun activities, educational and cultural activities attract people because they create excitement, but once [students] get here you have to have things like counseling services, disability services and health services, things that students need assistance with while they’re going to school.”

Though many people are nervous about the state budget and cuts, at a recent financial aid night, Cassard said students were not really scared of what is happening in Baton Rouge.

“I think our best days are ahead of us and I know a lot of people are focused on the stuff that’s happening in Baton Rouge, so the only thing that we can do is continue to let people know the great things that’s going on,” Cassard said.