NEWS
WWW.GUILFORDIAN.COM
Enrollment declines, affects financial future of Coll^
BY IAN PENNY
Staff Writer
The numbers are in.
For the Spring 2014 semester, Guilford College has emoUed
1,105 traditional students and 952 CCE students.
"(The numbers are) decent, not great," said Dean of
Admission and Financial Aid Administration Andy Strickler.
"We're a little lower, but these things tend to work in cycles."
Over the past five years, enrollment numbers for both
spring and fall semesters have seen a drop-off. In Spring 2010,
a total of 1,376 traditional students and 1,322 CCE students
attended Guilford either full-time or part-time.
These spring enrollment figures may have wide
implications on the budget situation the school faces.
"Whenever we are short in admissions, we are short in
funding," said trustee and Chair of the Strategic Planning
Committee Brent McKinney in a meeting open to students
and faculty on Feb. 20 in Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Auditorium.
Guilford has been put in a tough financial position.
'Two years ago, we were whammed by the state
legislature," said trustee and Chair of the Finance Committee
Carole Bruce at the meeting.
In 2012, the North Carolina General Assembly made
statewide cuts to financial aid programs. Guilford experienced
a $2.45 million shortfall in funding and is still grappling with
how to move forward.
'Tuition and fees don't cover everything," said trustee and
Chair of the Advancement Committee Daryle Bost '93.
In the short term, lower enrollment may mean up to
$250,000 in cuts to the College budget for the upconung fiscal
year. Long term, the board of trustees is looking to become
more dependent on endowment funding rafiier than tuition.
Guilford has not been alone in dealing with the effects of
the financial crisis and subsequent recession.
"The economy affects everybody, all institutions," said
Strickler.
The big question looking ahead is how next semester's
enrollment figures will turn out. Guilford is prepared for a
worse case scenario where only 1,179 traditional students
and 865 CCE students enroll in Fall 2014.
Though applications are coming in, there are no estimates
on the size of next year's incoming first-year dass.
"I've been in this business long enough to not speculate,"
said Strickler. "It's hard to predict."
Forecasting the future is tricky due to the variance in the
different student populations.
Strickler only oversees the traditional student body. For
traditional student enrollment, the two areas administrators
focus on are first-year recruitment and subsequent retention.
The largest factor affecting the enrollment for first-years and
returning students is tuition.
CCE students are xmder the purview of Assodate \fice
President and Dean for Continuing Education and Summer
School Rita Serotkin. Similarly, administrators focus on the
dedsions adult students are making in their college careers.
In addition to the cost of attending school, adult students
typically have more on their plates than traditional students.
Many have jobs and families, making attending dass much
more complicated.
Guilford's revitalized mai^keting efforts, induding a new
website, indicate an attempt to draw in both types of students.
"We are making a concerted effort to highli^t our values,"
said Strickler. "We are who we are."
SENATE UPDATE
this week’s developments
The web development team for
Guilford came in for a Q&A.
Students expressed a desire
for the core values and a
declaration of Guilford as an
anti-racist institution on the
front page. Jen Agor and Barb
Boyette came to solicit student
input on ways to increase
retention and recruitment.
next week’s plans
Georgie Bogdan will be coming
to lead a discussion about
accessibility at Guilford.
Senate will present a new
proposed set of bylaws.
contact us
We need to hear your voice. Have an
idea? Concern? Great recipe? It is
important to us.
* Email: senate@gui1ford.edu
or visit
gui1fordsenate.wordpress.com
Compiled by Samir Hazboun, Community Senate president
TOWN HALL
Disappointment after board meeting
Continued fron rage I
three."
Another question, about diversity
at Guilford, was answered only after
prompting from the audience.
"We've got a large percentage of
the leaders who see diversity as black
and white, but ... it's not just black and
white," said Chairperson of Advancement
Daryle Bost '93. "It's (race), thought,
socioeconomic, sexual orientation. If s all
of those things."
As to why this question was almost
skipped. Associate Professor of English
and Chair of the English Department Diya
Abdo had some insight.
"The questions were of the softball
variety, except the question on diversity,
which is why it was nearly skipped," said
Abdo.
Students and faculty alike were
disappointed by the last question of the
meeting, which asked trustees what class
they would teach at Guilford. Many felt it
was a trivial, fluffy question that did not
touch on the many real issues the College
faces.
The event intended to help students
imderstand what trustees do.
'There's often a misconception that
trustees have the ability ... to do certain
things that we don't," said trusteeship
and Governance Committee Chairperson
Linda Thorup.
Overall, attendees wished the meeting
would have been more conversational.
"It was really informative, but it didn't
feel like Guilford," said first-year Elena
Robles. "Guilford is much more into
conversations. It was more of a monologue
than it was a dialogue."
Abdo was disappointed by the event.
"If the purpose of the meeting was to
create a tfialogue between students and
the board members, then it did not achieve
that," said Abdo. "The meeting, overall,
felt like a scripted and very restrained
and constrained event. There was no
interaction at all between the Board and
the students."
Thorup agreed that there should
have been more interaction between the
trustees and the students.
"I would like to have more questions
come directly from the students," said
Thorup. "It was great for us to have the
ability to talk to students and to hear their
questions ... I hope the students could see
that we're really people and that we really
are passionate about the school."
Many hope that in the future, meetings
like this will be more candid and include
more hard-hitting discussion.
"If such meetings happen again, they
should be more interactive, honest and
certainly less stage-managed," said Abdo.
next
board of
trustees meeting
will be on Friday, May
30 and Saturday,
May 31.