Four enrollment growth proposals accepted for funding fall semester

This archived article was written by: Ashley Stilson

In an effort to recruit 2,600 students to USU Eastern in Fall 2014, USU Eastern administration procured a grant to fund a number of faculty and staff suggested programs. The review committee for round one of the Enrollment Growth Grant Proposal chose four out of 11 suggested proposals to recommend for funding.
Vice President Peter Iyere elaborated on the specifics of each chosen proposal. “Each [proposal] has a specific plan that targets specific regions, programs and activities that will educate potential students about the various programs that USU Eastern has to offer,” he explained. “Some of the proposed plans will enable USU Eastern to access certain regions that were hitherto impossible to access and bring potential students to our campuses.” Below is each of the four selected proposals:
The USU Eastern Cultural Heritage Student Ambassadors proposal was submitted by Nate Jones. This is designed to enhance the recruitment of Native Americans in the Four Corner Area of Navajo, Ute and Hopi reservations. It will involve the establishment of a group of Cultural Heritage Ambassadors (current USU Eastern students) who will accompany recruiters to high schools to perform traditional dance and music for high school students and personnel.
The recruiters will work with high school councilors to set appointments for a special one-hour presentation that would include a 30-minute discussion of programs at USU Eastern, followed by a 30-minute performance of music and dance by the Ambassadors. This will hopefully enable our recruiters to gain access to several high schools in Southwestern Colorado with large population of Native Americans that have customarily not allowed our recruiters to visit their schools in the past.
The Healthcare Certification Programs for Surgical and Pharmacy Technicians proposal was submitted by Virgil Caldwell. The aim is to create two healthcare certificate programs (surgical Technician Certificate and Pharmacy Technician Certificate) to meet market demands. This is based on analysis of statistical data from U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows that future job growth will remain robust and on a positive trajectory for several certification programs in healthcare. The program will make use of the training capacities/resources currently available at USU Eastern-Blanding campus.
The Enhancing the Growth of Elementary Education Program proposal was submitted by Anne K. Mackiewicz. This proposal plans to take advantage of the Teacher Education and Leadership (TEAL) at USU Eastern to implement a series of plans that will dramatically increase enrollment and enhance retention rate within the program. The program will create a series called “There Goes My Hero” which will be the basis for a variety of campaigns that will be run throughout the South East region for the USU Eastern TEAL program.
Current high school students will be encouraged to submit 2-minute videos via YouTube to USU Eastern Facebook page, tagged with “USU Eastern” “TEAL” and why the teacher they are nominating to receive $100 reward as their hero, what cool things s/he does. #ThereGoesMyHero, #TEAL, and #USUEASTERN will also form the basis of our Twitter campaign. The videos will be ranked by the number of views they get, the number of likes and number of tweets. Seven regional teachers will then be selected for the reward and will be designated “Heroes.”
The Improving Enrollment Numbers in Technical Trades was submitted by Stan Martineau. The proposer will hold an “Eastern” Technical Trades competition that would include several programs such as Automotive, Welding, Diesel, Cosmetology, etc. School instructors in our area will be invited to bring their students to the competition. Winners will receive scholarship and individual student recognition. It will include other activities such as a welcome by the Chancellor/Vice Chancellor, free meal at our cafeteria or a BBQ for everyone, a presentation by faculty about their programs, a closing/presentation ceremony with pictures taken and a token present for all team-participants.
The proposals were chosen on grounds of project feasibility, potential for the projects to recruit students to USU Eastern, project suitability, reasonable plan and cost, direct active involvement of the proposer in the activity.
The Enrollment Growth Grant Proposal was set at a total of $100,000 to fund the projects. Though the amount of funds for individual propositions is undetermined, the total for the first round of projects are earmarked at $43,424. The rest of the funds will be set aside for the second round. Faculty and staff are encouraged to meet with the Vice Chancellor and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their proposals before resubmitting them in round two.