How USU Eastern recruits its next freshman class

Cody Phelps

news editor

The recruiting office at Utah State University Eastern has received some criticism recently. Now the recruiting officials are ready to set the record straight.

In the previous edition of The Eagle, parents reached out to voice concerns with the school’s flawed recruitment process. However, director of students Kristian Olsen says while things can always get better, there are reasons to celebrate.

He says there a number of ways for prospective students to gain information about USU Eastern. “We do the junior high school tour. That involves all of the colleges in the state, we tour around for six weeks or so and we hit all of the high schools in the state. At those events, students can choose to visit with your school and learn some information.” He says he’s more than willing to reach out, “I’ll talk to students and parents on the phone and answer their questions for them or I’ll point them towards an event closer to them. I’m happy to help.”

Prospective students can also get information from a few other sources. “We’ll get them connected with an advisor and they can get with someone who can answer questions about specific programs and things like that.”

In regards to the working relationship with Carbon High School, which was one of the biggest complaints the recruiting office received, Olsen says it couldn’t be better. “We get a higher percentage of students out of Carbon High than any other USU campus and their local schools. We get a higher percentage of students that end up here. We’re really doing great it in that regard.”

Carbon High isn’t the only school in the area that our recruiters are working with. According to Olsen “We work with the students and counselors at Pinnacle, Lighthouse, Emery, and Green River. We have a pretty good relationship with each of them.” That statement seems to be true, according to the latest enrollment update, we could be looking up. “Our spring enrollment numbers are looking strong. While we don’t yet have official numbers we anticipate we will end up with around 150 more students this spring vs spring 2018.”

If the process is truly working and getting better, what are the steps to getting students from their graduation caps to their Eagles t-shirts? According to Olsen, it’s not as easy as it may seem. “That’s not really a simple answer, it should be, but there is a lot involved with that.” He says the process starts fairly early “During their junior year is when we really start marketing the school to them, we’ll start inviting them to campus events and if they show interest, we’ll start sending them information about Utah State and Eastern.”

According to Olsen, that barely scratches the surface. “That’s just a portion of the outreach that we do with students. A huge step in the recruiting process is just getting the prospective students onto the campus.

“We really want them to come to our recruiting events and just get them here.” The reason for that lies behind an idea. “Students who visit our campus are more likely to enroll than others who have never seen it or been here. Once they get to our campus, they end up falling in love with it. They meet students and the staff and they really enjoy that connection.”

Olsen has a message for any student who is considering attending our school. “I have worked with colleges and universities all over the country and I have a good feel for what colleges are like. I’ll tell you what, this is far and away the best campus I’ve ever worked on. People care about the students. I mean they really care.”

Nothing is ever perfect. There is always improvements to be made. It seems like the USU Eastern Recruiters understand this and are working hard to keep bringing in fresh faces for years to come.