It isn’t hard to see why Ammons was interested in working
for DSU President Harry Williams. Williams is using creative approaches to help
the school grow.
The recruitment program Williams implemented has led to five
consecutive years of enrollment increases. FAMU’s enrollment has gone down every
year since Fall 2011. FAMU officials have announced that the university expects to lose about $10M more because of the enrollment drop that is projected for 2016-2017.
A Newsworks article recently discussed Williams’ recruitment
success. An excerpt is below:
Enrollment is ballooning at Delaware State University, an HBCU in Dover.
President Harry Williams says the university's been strategic in recruiting. A main focus is building partnerships with universities abroad, particularly in China. The university's created programs where students earn a degree from Delaware State without traveling here."We currently have about 500 Chinese students who are enrolled in Delaware State degree programs in China," he said. "So that's a revenue stream for us and we're seeing a net return on that."The number of international students studying in the U.S. has increased by 40 percent in the past decade and is only expected to grow, as well as, deeper international engagement by universities, according to a recent study.Since Williams took the helm six years ago, the university's had five years of record enrollment. It's current 4,600 students is an all-time high."We have more applications than we've ever had at one time," he said. "This past year, we had close to 7,000 applications for 900 seats, so that gives us some flexibility in terms of selecting our students."He says a new state scholarship program for Delaware residents was the game changer that boosted in-state applications and cemented the university's in-state stability.The university is recruiting Latinos, adult learners and veterans.Part of the reason for Delaware State's growing enrollment is its shifting student demographics. Black students now make up 63 percent of the student body compared to 74 percent in 2008. International and Latino students have both grown...
Read the full article here.