Several ideas are being discussed and will be presented to the Strategic Enrollment Management Committee concerning increasing enrollment and generating funding.
Interim Provost & Vice-President for Academic and Student Affairs, Dr. Mary Hendrix, held a brainstorming session for potential proposals to be implemented as early as possible. This would include “kick-start” initiatives, to begin during the 2008 winter-mini and 2009 spring semester, also known as an “enrollment stimulus scholarship.”
The plan is to make more scholarships available for students, especially transfer and graduate students, in order to increase enrollment and also allow those students to enroll in more hours.
“We also will be unveiling several scholarship opportunities for our current students who are graduating and want to pursue graduate study, as well as other scholarships that will reward students who have done well and encourage them to take more hours,” Hendrix said. Although marketing strategies have yet to be finalized, A&M-Commerce plans to target transfer students from community colleges that would feed into the larger university.
This includes local feeder schools in the metropolitan area like Eastfield College and Paris Junior College.
Senior citizens, people 65 or older, may also see new courses targeted towards them, as a provision in the Texas Education Code allows their tuition to be waived for up to six credit hours each semester. The senior citizen could then audit any course, provided there was available space.
“We have not marketed to this group, but we plan to do so. Deans are working with department heads to identify courses that would be appealing,” Hendrix said.
Hendrix plans to include the idea of paying tuition for the spouse and dependent children of employees at A&M-Commerce. Currently, only direct employees of the university can have their tuition paid for with a school scholarship.
A&M-Commerce also wants to help out employees of other businesses.
“We have been targeting several businesses to help them understand the degree programs we have that will benefit their employees,” Dr. Hendrix said.
The final enrollment initiative discussion topic will be on guaranteed tuition, which allows someone to purchase tuition units years before they or their child will go to college. This locks in the current price for undergraduate college tuition, making college more affordable as inflation drives up the cost every year.