Enrollment numbers released
By Erin McKigney / Staff Writer

The college recently released this year’s enrollment numbers, and the figures show positive trends in African, Latino, Asian and Native American student enrollment and total student enrollment.

Of the 1,680 freshmen who enrolled this year, 175, or 10.4 percent, were ALANA students. This is an increase from 8.7 percent last year.

These entering freshmen also increased the total percentage of ALANA students on campus.

This year ALANA students make up 9.3 percent of the total undergraduate student population compared with 8.4 percent last year. The total number of ALANA students stands at 568, of the 6,098 undergraduates at the college.

Peter Bardaglio, provost and vice president of academic affairs, said he hopes this upward trend will continue.

“We’re going to continue to keep focusing on areas that have more diverse populations so that we can hopefully continue to have increasing success in persuading those students that Ithaca College is a good place for them to go,” he said.

Total enrollment numbers have also improved. Though the college overshot its target freshman enrollment by 86 students, Bardaglio said this increase was balanced by a lower than expected number of incoming transfer students and lower than expected retention rates.

Bardaglio said the college’s retention rate is usually around 86 percent, but he said he would prefer it to be in the low 90s. A majority of the students who leave the college do so between freshman and sophomore year. Therefore, the college has been focusing on creating a stronger first-year program for students, Bardaglio said.

“If you can create a coherent first-year experience program, that pays attention to the needs of students both in terms of campus life and academic affairs, they’re likely to have a much more successful and positive experience and much more likely to come back next year,” he said.

Last year, administrators set a target enrollment of 1,776 new enrollees. The actual freshman and transfer enrollment was 1,848 students. Total undergraduate enrollment decreased from 6,107 to 6,098 students.

President Peggy R. Williams said she hoped to bring the college’s Annualized Full-time Undergraduate Degree-Credit Enrollment to 5,900. The AFUDCE is used to determine the college’s budget. It accounts for the fact that some students are not full time and for the fact that enrollment varies from semester to semester.

But President Williams said reaching that goal would be difficult this year because of last year’s large graduating class. She said a new target of about 5,800 was set and that goal was reached.

After a dip in last year’s enrollment numbers for incoming first- year students, this fall the college had the largest class of incoming first-years since fall 2001.

Williams said she didn’t expect so many students to enroll this fall considering the college under-enrolled the freshman class by 119 students last year.

Williams said even though the college was anxious to bring enrollment numbers up, the Office of Admission was struggling with its options. She said the college was concerned that competitor schools would provide prospective students with more financial aid and Ithaca’s enrollment would continue to fall.

In an effort to attract students, the college employed a program called GoalQuest, which allows it to stay in contact with prospective students who are interested in the school. Williams also said the financial aid office made sure that its budget was strong.

She said the School of Business made special marketing efforts to attract more students, and the number of freshman students increased by half.

The School of Business, admissions office and Departments of Marketing and Communications collaborated to put together contacts so potential and admitted students would receive a series of postcards and messages to help keep them interested in the college.

The college also created a new student information system that went live on the Internet on Sept. 19. It will help prospective students receive personal attention and speak to contacts from the college.