Muma addresses enrollment goal at faculty senate
Rick Muma addresses the Faculty Senate at a meeting in 2017.
Rick Muma, Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Strategic Enrollment Management, addressed the faculty senate with updates on Wichita State’s strategic enrollment plan, outlining a new ultimate goal of 18,000 students by 2020.
In 2016, WSU’s strategic plan set a goal of 22,000 students by 2020 including a “one-time gain of 4,000 students from Wichita Area Technical College pending merger.”
The framework for the Innovation Campus, including raising student fees to build a YMCA, assumes an eventual enrollment tally of 22,000 students.
Muma said that enrollment goals for the colleges of business, engineering, fine arts, and liberal arts and sciences were not met for fall 2017.
“Remember, goals are not always achievable,” Muma said. “We have to have goals if we want to move anything forward.”
Part of the current plan, Muma said, is to increase enrollment among the I-35 corridor by 18 percent yearly through fall 2020. The I-35 corridor recruitment strategy, announced in 2016, allows residents of certain parts of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas to attend Wichita State and pay reduced, in-state tuition.
One faculty senator asked what the average student from along the I-35 corridor looks like.
“They’re more affluent,” Muma said. “They have more money.”
Muma said WSU would like to see an increase in enrollment of non-degree-seeking students by 14 percent annually through 2020. This semester, enrollment of non-degree-seeking students went up by 81.7 percent, or 1,428 students.
The strategic enrollment plan outlines a goal of fostering “a culture of enrollment growth among faculty, staff, and students.”
Jenna Farhat was the news editor of The Sunflower. Farhat majored in creative writing.
Fake Pres. Bardo • Oct 26, 2017 at 11:42 am
Whats the point of unachievable goals? Is it an excuse to not give professors raises because their saleries are now tied to your idea of enrollment.
The fact is, we are at the end of a baby boom for the next decade. So expect small drops in enrollment for degree seeking students.
Stop this forced expansion and focus on academics. Focus on academics to keep the students you have. Do other research universities see very large amounts of students dropping out or transfering away?
WSU was a university for students wanting an education who couldnt afford ku or ksu but wanted to stay away from partying at hays.
WSU has lost sight of what its real goal was. There should be alot of administrators feeling shame that they are out pricing many first generation Kansas students from an education their families have sacrificed so long to get. But then again, that would take some personal integrity to admit.
As always,
Fake Pres. Bardo
Money! • Oct 26, 2017 at 8:23 am
They have more money. Pretty much says it all. They can pay the rent to Murfin and the new fees that will be used to build the new Business Building. Students are going to pay about half of the $60,000,000 cost through fees in the very near future according to the KBOR Capital Construction plan. Come on I35ers!