ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190058
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE
It's March, and with a tail wind supplied by a demographic spurt, colleges and universities are reporting significant boosts in freshman applications.
Radford University says its applications grew by a whopping 20 percent at the end of February, compared with one year before. That's quite a jump - especially for a school where enrollment dropped so precipitously last fall, to 8,687. That decline led to a $1 million budget shortfall that administrators uncovered just weeks after school started.
Virginia Tech puts its freshman interest up 9 percent.
James Madison University, arguably one of the hottest schools around, reports an 8.3 percent boost in freshman applications.
So what's Radford doing?
"Working hard," said David Hill, a student affairs administrator who has been interim admissions director since late summer.
Since last year, Radford has been laying the groundwork to boost its flagging enrollment, Hill said. The school has targeted high school students who might be interested in strong programs such as nursing, he said, and it has emphasized academics. Radford has refined its relationship with guidance counselors, and admissions experts have been on the road.
Radford also has paid new attention to high school students in Southwest Virginia.
"Students from Southwest who come here do well. They succeed. Demographically, [the population] is not as concentrated, but they do very well," Hill said.
The real numbers show that at the end of February, Radford's applications were up 722 to 4,385. By comparison, Tech, at more than twice the size, has received 15,888 applications, up 1,261 over last year. JMU is looking at 13,612 applications, a boost of 1,039 over last year.
It costs $15 to apply to Radford. Students have until May 1 to accept admission offers and submit a $200 fee. As Hill said: "Confirmations are different from applications, of course."
So time will tell if this boost in applications turns into a jump in actual students.
But the interim admissions director seems upbeat.
"If you play to your strengths, and if you market yourself legitimately, students seek you out," he said.
Among recruitment vehicles have been four "Radford Nights," held in four urban hotel ballrooms, giving prospective students from Northern Virginia, Richmond and Tidewater a chance to visit with the crop of top students, faculty and deans.
Among those Radford representatives spending time with would-be students: President Douglas Covington.
"I think he is a great ambassador, reaching out individually to students and parents," Hill said.
That's good news for Radford, a school that spent the better part of two years before Covington's arrival embroiled in administrative upheaval. At the same time, the number of graduating high school seniors reached a plateau.
"It's coming out of that," Hill said. "I think once you become focused on your mission and you have a leader who is a marvelous communicator with the public ... you go back to your knitting."
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