Despite the efforts of Northern New Mexico College staff and students, and with only a few weeks before the fall semester begins, Registrar Officer Kathleen Sena is projecting fewer students than the college had the previous academic year — much to the disappointment of Northern executives.
Northern’s enrollment numbers have been declining since the school transitioned to a four-year college in 2005. In fall 2013, Northern had a little more than 1,000 full-time equivalent students. Northern may not even reach that threshold this coming academic year.
Sena said at the May Board meeting that Northern was 166 applications ahead of schedule from the previous fall.
“We are actually running about a 250 to 300 student difference each week. We are lagging behind,” Sena said. “Do we have concerns? Yes we have concerns. Are we doing everything we possibly have available to us to recruit and get these students to come back? Absolutely.”
According to the PowerPoint presentation Sena provided during the July 28 Board of Regents meeting, Northern is receiving fewer applications in nearly every category, from transfer students to dual credit.
The most precipitous drop was in the dual-credit and readmitted groups.
During fall 2013, more than 450 dual-credit students applied to Northern. At this time last year, approximately 175 students submitted an application. That number dropped to about 120 as of July 21. Dual credit students are high school students who enroll in classes at Northern.
“We know we have a way to go, but we also know we will be at the high schools every day in order for us to pick up that number,” Sena said.
About 230 readmitted students applied in 2013. At this time last year, 125 students submitted an application. Currently, 100 have applied to Northern. Readmitted students are those who took time away from school for at least one semester but want to return to college.
One silver lining for Northern is the number of first-time applicants, which is on track to meet the fall 2013 application numbers. Last year, Northern had 370 applications and now, the college has a little more than 350.
“We are up a little bit from admissions applications for first-time freshmen,” Sena said. “The issue is they have not completed their applications. They have not submitted their final high school transcripts with graduation on it or they have not taken their compass test.”
The Compass test is a placement exam to determine a student’s appropriate level of coursework.
However, not every student who applies matriculates to the college. New Mexico Highlands University recruitment officers estimate a retention rate of 30 percent.
The number of students who have registered for classes, otherwise known as the headcount, is below last year’s level, as well. At this time last year, almost 900 students were part of Northern’s student body. That number is less than 700 this year.
The number of full-time equivalent students has also dropped. Last year at this time, that number was almost 600 students. Now that number is just more than 400.
To stem the trend, Northern employees have introduced a phone-a-thon, otherwise known as a calling campaign, to entice students to attend Northern. Every Wednesday night from 6 to 8 p.m., volunteer staff, faculty and students, led by Frank Orona, the director of admissions and recruitment, are cold-calling unregistered students to inquire about their status and their interest in the college.
According to the presentation, there are 1,586 possible students and the phone-a-thon is designed to convince as many as possible that Northern is the place to be. Volunteers are targeting first-time students with incomplete applications, students who have enrolled in previous semesters but have not registered for the coming fall and dual-credit students.
Many Board members appeared dismayed at the report, since Northern executives and staff pledged a renewed commitment toward recruitment. This was supposed to be highlighted by a marketing plan that Ricky Serna, Northern’s vice president of Institutional Advancement, presented to the Board at the May meeting.
“We have spent no budget on the campaign to date,” Serna wrote in an email. Instead, Serna decided to devote resources to another activity — updating the college’s website.
Serna declined to elaborate further when asked why the marketing campaign was not instigated and whether it would have had a positive effect regarding the enrollment statistics.
According to New Mexico’s Higher Education Department, enrollment numbers at Northern have declined in the past few years and the college presently has the fewest number of students among the comprehensive four year colleges. Those colleges include Eastern New Mexico University, New Mexico Highlands University and Western New Mexico University. In 2011, Northern had 1,254 full-time equivalent students.