More recruiting at USUE

This archived article was written by: Austin Giles

Recruitment numbers are down for the 2014-15 year, but things are looking up. Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management, Greg Dart, looks hopefully into the future. “When it’s all said and done, it was less than 100 students. But we were down and that was not expected.”
Campus visits have been a large part of recruiting. Those visits are making a comeback in a new way. Instead of adding more Eagle Experiences where students come down and spend the night, USUE plans to add more day visits through utilization of Eastern’s Eagle bus.
This could work in the high school student’s favor by bringing more students to day-long events that require less commitment than overnight visits. Activities entailed in these visits are opportunities to speak with faculty and staff about how life in college really is and how they can better prepare themselves.
Though the new tactics sound nice, nothing compares to hard data. Fortunately the hard data shows more promise than was expected. Dart reports that as of the first semester there are already 1,000 students that have taken the chance to come to the campus and experience campus life. This is a component of the two-piece plan: get them here, then keep them here. This all goes hand in hand with the 4-in-4 plan that has been set in motion by Chancellor Joe Peterson.
Plans to increase and improve campus visits have been set in motion to attempt on-the-road registration.
The plan is that recruiters and advisors will travel to the high schools and offer registration and scholarships. Only will they not take place in conference centers as they have in previous years, but USUE will also make the effort to bring the opportunities to them in their own high schools.
The last component of the spectrum is the revamped Eagle Experiences that are already planned and set in motion. An upcoming Eagle Experience known as Colors of Eastern, is a multicultural experience that is unlike any other. Eastern plans to ring in this new opportunity by providing a wide cultural base of students from across the state as well as offering leadership experiences, in the same event. This is supposed to offer a new perspective into differences in leadership in other cultures around the state.
Dart expects a turnout of at least 200, which would make this the largest Eagle Experience turnout on record. What sets this Eagle Experience apart from the others is that it isn’t only Ambassadors that are included in the event, all other leadership groups are involved to offer prospective students a more realistic experience as to what campus live is really all about.