New milestone reached with USU’s main campus and extension enrollment
When it comes to student enrollment, the milestones continue to be redefined at USU due to prospering regional campuses. Total enrollment at both the main campus in Logan and the distance education centers have climbed to a new record high.
Numbers and Records
This semester, Utah State has a headcount of 25,767 students, up 702 students from last fall – the highest count in the school’s 122-year history.
“The USU enrollment increase is a great testament to the quality of state institutions in the state of Utah,” said Holly Braithwaite, director of communications at the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education for the Greater Salt Lake area.
Of full-time students, 16,472 attend the main campus in Logan, which is 602 more than in the fall of 2009. A new record of 12,109 students (6,389 full-time) are enrolled at USU’s regional campuses and distance education centers, which is an eight percent increase from last year.
ll of these numbers do not directly reflect the 21 percent growth at Utah State University-College of Eastern Utah (USU-CEU), which merged with USU in July. USU-CEU saw an increase of nearly 500 students, for a total of 2,634.
The regional campuses are located in Brigham City, Southeastern Utah, Tooele, and the Uintah Basin.
“Three primary reasons behind the Utah State enrollment growth are: first, the high quality of the educational experience that is available to our students; second, the affordability of a USU education; and third, the increased access of our offerings throughout the state in multiple campus locations,” said USU Provost Raymond Coward.
These “offerings” on the regional campuses include more degrees and increased employment of professors.
Reasons for increase
Despite the obvious need to pay for school while living in the midst of national recession, the economic spiral has actually helped feed the enrollment increase, Braithwaite said.
“People, despite budget cuts, are recognizing that higher education is an important investment for their future,” she said. “In times of economic regression, people may go to school more because they don’t have as much to do.”
“To go to potential students and say you can get a degree from Utah State University, a top research university, at your home, is very powerful,” said Robert Wagner, USU associate vice provost and Executive Director of Regional Campuses Distance Education.
Randi Campbell, student body president of the Tooele campus, said the reason behind Tooele’s campus enrollment increase is a nearby chemical weapons plant and national defense contractor slated to shut down within the next few years. The job loss due to this business closing has prompted many to get their degrees.
“These workers will lose their jobs in two years, so the company is seeking to make up for the job losses by providing “100 percent of the college cost for the employees there,” Campbell said.
Campbell said the employees at the plant are beginning to look for more stable options.
Why would you want to drive to Logan when there is a campus two miles down the road?” Campbell said.
Rachael Anderson, ASUSU regional campuses representative, said the average age of students at regional campuses is in the mid-30s.
Because these students are older, many already work a full-time job and have a family, said Reuben Talbot, USU Marketing and Graphics Director for Regional Campuses and Distance Education. For that reason, he said, it is more convenient for these types of students to attend school closer to their current careers and families.
“People are going back to re-tool their careers,” Talbot said. “It’s harder financially to go to a faraway campus, with a job and family, that they might lose if they to go to the traditional campus.”
Online educations and more degree options
Distance education in Utah began more than 100 years ago, when professors would fly in rudimentary planes or ride the rail to teach in harder-to-reach areas of the state, Talbot said.
Utah has since experienced a revolution, due to specific jobs needed to be filled and the recession. More college students are receiving their degrees via Internet courses.
While face-to-face course enrollment on regional campuses dropped 22.6 percent from last fall, Talbot said, recently-reported research statistics found that 33.8 percent more USU students enrolled in online courses, with a 21 percent jump in interactive broadcast courses.
Coward said more degrees are being offered on the regional campuses because more than 50 professors of various programs were hired at the distance sites in preparation for this current semester.
“The regional campuses have greatly increased the number of baccalaureate and graduate degrees that can now be completed, in their entirety, outside of Logan,” he said.
For example, Talbot said degrees were added for this semester at every regional campus. These include an added bachelor’s in social work, and master’s degrees in science and instructional technology, education in instructional technology, and recreational resource management.
Marketing
The appeal and understanding of online classes, and the need for greater education amid the darkness of the recession, has only helped an ever-aggressive marketing campaign that has been heavily engaged in online marketing since this past summer, Talbot said.
“(USU Extension) has been more proactive and aggressive in how we market distance education,” he said. “We have such a great product to offer, with the same level and quality as a main campus.”
Talbot said marketing for regional campuses, at the time of his hiring three years ago, were limited to newspaper ads, brochures, and only local community events. However, during the summer, USU Extension allied with a national online vendor called e.learners.com.
The vendor is among the first websites to appear on a search engine when someone seeks out “distance education,” or a similar phrase. From that point, searchers can enter e.learners and quickly find USU as an influential provider of distance education, he said.
Talbot said that USU Extension has also used websites like those of KSL, KUTV and Media One, as well as radio ads, billboards, and Facebook campaigns to reach out online.
This technological advance in marketing techniques has built upon further campaigns. Anderson said those campaign events have or will include a trick-or-treat Saturday for Tooele, an “Aggie Day” at the end of spring semester; and a chili cook-off as well. Brigham City’s campus will have a booth at the famous Peach Days Parade. For all regional campuses, an annual winter service project and blood drive are an important part of the campaign.
Regional campuses make the difference
Anderson said she has a special appreciation for USU regional campuses. She said she has memories of being at the Tooele campus as a young child when her mother was a student there. Anderson was a part of the Tooele extension last year.
Now that she is part of the main campus, Anderson said she loves to be able to see and help the extensions from the Logan perspective now.
“Regional campuses are a way for students to get that education without coming to Logan, unless they have scholarships or rich parents,” she said.
Anderson said, “Sometimes we (the ASUSU Executive Committee) hit a brick wall with how to be able to help them, but we want to provide them with what they need. I was in that position before, and I knew what it took to succeed at an extension location. I want to give back to what others have given me.”
– rhett.wilkinson@aggiemail.usu.edu