April 19, 2001

Dr. Bitterbaum called the Enrollment Management Council to order on Thursday, April 19, 2001 in the President’s Conference Room. Members present were Dr. Erik Bitterbaum, President; Dr. Joe Badgley, Dean of Academic Affairs; Mrs. Judy Higgs, Dean of Students; Connie Dziagwa, Director of Communications and Public Relations; Tim Beardsley, Student Services Representative; Pam Braden, JCC Representative; Criss McCauley, Student Services Representative; Alita Sellers, At-Large Representative; Debbie Richards, At-Large Representative. Others present were Cindy Kelley, Nancy Nanney, Sy Sarkarat, Augie Kafer and Lauriel Edwards.

Dr. Bitterbaum reported that President David Hardesty’s number one concern is enrollment and retention, which is down from last year. WVU plans to recruit students in and out of the state to increase enrollment. WVU at Parkersburg will also need to nurture and develop relationships with our students in order to increase enrollment and retain students.

Dr. Bitterbaum distributed a copy of the Enrollment and Retention Survey, and a copy of the Enrollment Management Council minutes from January 2001.

Dr. Bitterbaum opened the floor for any comments or suggestions to improve enrollment and retention:

The college needs to find more ways to get into the High Schools, such as informing the schools when we will have One-Stop-Shops to enable the students to enroll for college in one day.

Each division should call or send out letters to our incoming students after they have applied for classes and have decided on a major. If students are undecided, the Student Advising Center could send out letters to those incoming students.

The Nursing Department could benefit from additional faculty since students are placed on a waiting list every semester due the high volume of students trying to get into the nursing program.

The Student Services area is working to improve enrollment by: GUS program at the Jackson County Center; implementing on-line Financial Aid Application next fall; One-Stop-Shops; implementing the on-line registration system.

One way to get our message out to adult students in the smaller communities would be a community-based information session. In the sessions we would need to have a representative from each area of the college to answer questions.

We need to conduct a follow-up survey of the students who left school with 100-120 credit hours completed and introduce them to the RBA program.

Persue a Liberal Studies Degree.

There are some problems to be resolved with the On-Line Registration being blocked with the pre-requisites.

We need to talk to some local companies and introduce them to our programs that could be beneficial to their employees.

We need to have some non-traditional information sessions in the community.

We get the students in the door then we lose them due to attitudes of some of the staff/faculty. We need to realize there is a problem and then do something about it.

We are now advertising in Ohio for the first time in a long time.

We need to be truthful to the students during the advising process that it might be impossible to take a full-time class load, work a job and raise children. Explain what college is and what they can expect.

Orientation to College class should be required in High Schools.

The college needs to offer more non-traditional programs on the weekends.

The Student Assistant Center needs tutors for upper level courses not just the developmental courses.

We need to have more contact made by the advisors to the students.

Dr. Bitterbaum thanked everyone for his or her comments and suggestions. With no further business to be discussed, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Lauriel Edwards

Administrative Secretary to the

President’s Office