Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992 TAG: 9201270180
SECTION: NEW RIVER VALLEY ECONOMY PAGE: 18 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG HIGHER EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
RISING COSTS KEEPING STUDENTS AT HOME
Poet Robert Burns wooed his love with a red, red rose.Romeo wooed his with words.
But it takes more than that to woo a college student - especially one from out of state, especially in these tough economic times, says Virginia Tech admissions officer David Bousquet.
"We have to play to our strengths if we want to continue to be able to attract out-of-state students," he said.
With tuitions and fees on the rise - up nearly 300 percent for Virginians in a decade - and a state law that will require out-of-state students to pay all of the cost of their education by January 1993, that's getting harder.
In the past, about 25 percent of Tech's students were non-Virginians, but Bousquet said, "It will become more of a challenge to enroll that number, simply because the institution is getting more expensive."
Tech President James McComas calls it "the plight of the out-of-state student. But look what these students do for the commonwealth while they're here. They create taxes. They buy food. They create services. They're like a small industry."
And they add academic and cultural diversity.
"We want the students from other areas and other cultures," said Paul Harris, vice president for student affairs at Radford University. "To lose them would be a loss to the university."
To keep the word out there, Tech is going to have to rely more on alumni to recruit students, Bousquet said.
The more well-known programs should continue to attract out-of-state students, he said. But students who wanted to go to Tech for the sake of going to Tech may just find themselves closer to home.
"Candidly, if you're in Pennsylvania and you were interested in English and wanted to go to Tech, these days, my suspicion is your parents would say, `Why not stay in Pennsylvania?' "
At Radford University, officials take trips to New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in search of prospective students. Vernon Beitzel, admissions director, said those trips likely will continue.
The results, he said, should continue, too.
"We're not able to open new markets, but where we've gotten interest, we still go."
Radford continues to pump its low-tuition image, even while tuition is going up.
"Compared to other schools and, of course, the private schools, we're relatively inexpensive," he said.
Beitzel and Bousquet said they are getting applicants that in years past probably would have gone to private schools.
"All they're really doing is the math," Bousquet said of parents. "When the economy is bad and there's a chance of losing your job, $6,000 looks a lot better than $22,000" for a year of college.
This year, more students have sent their College Board scores to Radford than in years past. And applications at Tech have increased.
At Radford, Beitzel said there is an increase in transfer students from community colleges who spend only their last two years at Radford.
Last fall, the school took 763 transfer students, the largest number they'd ever taken, and many were from the community college system.
And, though there has been no lack of students at the community colleges - New River Community College enrolled 3,800 students in the fall - there are concerns that rising costs will rule out education for some people.
"We serve many students who are economically disadvantaged," said Ed Barnes, president of the college. Recently, financial aid was made available to these students, and that should help some.
Financial aid still helps many students through school and there is hope that those programs will increase to meet the need.
But additional money for programs like recruiting and marketing is scarce at a time when it is needed most - a time of declining numbers of high school graduates and increasing college costs.
"Put all those things together and that makes it a little more difficult to attract the number of students we're looking for," Radford's Beitzel said.
To conserve, Tech officials combined two brochures that were sent to prospective students into one.
At Radford, while no additional recruiting money is available, money isn't being taken away, either.
"Enrollment drives everything else around here," Harris said. "That's one of the areas we have to protect."
So far, Radford has managed to protect the number of stipends for graduate students, said Paul Bryant, dean of the graduate college.
But at Tech, a few assistantships have been cut along with the university's budget.
The number of doctoral students decreased by 100 a year ago. Although admissions officials recruited more and brought that figure up some this year, they're still worried, said John Eaton, associate dean of the graduate school.
Meanwhile, the number of applicants for master's degree programs has been on the rise, in part because of the economy.
"Some probably come from students who can't find a job with a bachelor's degree, and who decide to go on to graduate school," Eaton said. "At the same time, we have a shortage of facilities and space, and it's difficult accommodating all the students who come here. We may need to control enrollment in some way."
At Radford, the number of applicants and inquiries about the graduate school's master's programs also has continued to rise, said Bryant.
"We're gaining a greater reputation at the graduate level," he said. "And we've been trying to get the word out. We haven't done anything fancy. And we haven't done anything expensive because we can't afford it. But we're making people aware of the programs we do have."