Editor’s Note: As K-12 schools continue to expand nationwide to accommodate a growing population, North Dakota faces a different challenge: enrollment in primary and secondary schools is in a free fall, a pattern that’s set for the next decade unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the state’s demographics.

Though there’s some good news—North Dakota, at 84 percent, has one of the country’s top high school graduation rates—the enrollment challenge is a top issue for the University of North Dakota, which currently draws about 50 percent of its student population from North Dakota high schools.

UND’s leadership is keenly aware of this challenge. UND President Charles Kupchella’s most recent Strategic Plan encompasses specific mandates to boost the school’s recruitment efforts regionally, nationally, and globally in high schools, two-year colleges and technical institutes, and among adult learners (for a related story and a graphic detailing North Dakota’s public school enrollment trends, see http://www.und.edu/dept/our/dimensions/november2004/).

A significant portion of this enrollment challenge falls to the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management Alice Hoffert, who answers to Vice President for Student and Outreach Services Robert Boyd.

In the following Faculty Q&A with Office of University Relations (OUR) writer Juan Pedraza, Hoffert, who got her PhD here while she worked full-time at UND, talks about the enrollment challenge, the value of a UND education, and what she sees as UND’s “unique selling proposition,” to use a sales and marketing term.

OUR: Alice, we heard Gov. John  Hoeven’s State of the State address—the numbers look great! North Dakota’s economy is growing, we’re bringing young people back to the state with good jobs, and the state’s higher ed system is playing a key role in economic development. But there’s a tough reality behind some of that economic good news—we’re not graduating as many high school seniors and that trend appears sure to continue. What does that mean for UND?

Hoffert: Yes, it’s true—this is North Dakota and that is a reality here. The economy is good and we have very low unemployment, but we have fewer and fewer high school graduates. Why? Because we have a declining population of high-school-aged children. In fact, North Dakota leads the nation in the projected decline of high school graduates.

OUR: What is UND planning to do about that?

Hoffert: Of course, we have to ratchet up what we are doing both within the state and in out-of-state markets. We’re especially keen to increase the number of out-of-state students at UND—they already account for roughly half of our student body (50 percent from North Dakota, 25 percent from Minnesota, 25 percent from the other 48 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., and 60 other countries). We’re also significantly ratcheting up our recruitment efforts in our distance education markets. Additionally, we’re increasing our recruitment of transfer students. All of these efforts are vital to maintaining and growing our overall enrollment.

The Strategic Plan specifically calls for stepped-up recruitment efforts among two-year institutions within a 250-mile radius. That includes signing more program-to-program articulation agreements with such schools (we don’t recruit at four-year colleges and universities because the professional standards of our national college recruiting association don’t allow us to).

These agreements help to give students at those schools a big advantage—a student knows that if they’re taking, say, an engineering course at their 2-year school, both credits and course count. Those credits will transfer to UND as part of their overall graduation requirement of 125 credits, and the program-to-program courses count against UND program requirements, such as engineering. In other words, a student from a school that has such an agreement with UND knows that they’re coming to UND already knowing what requirements they’ve already met toward graduation. It’s a great selling point.

OUR: What is the main recruiting tool that you use to draw prospective students to UND? What’s UND’s competitive advantage?

Hoffert: Our academic programs are or main competitive advantage—academic excellence, that’s what draws students. Our recruiting efforts also are helped by facilities such as the Wellness Center (which was inaugurated last semester). It also helps that we have winning athletic teams. And the prominence of faculty is very important to prospective students, as well. But, without a doubt, most important of all is our broad array of academic programs and the national reputation of those programs. All of this put together enhances the University’s reputation and helps us to recruit students. It’s what helps us to market the University effectively.

OUR: Is all of this—academic reputation, an outstanding menu of choices for students, great amenities—enough to counter the long term enrollment challenge that UND faces?

Hoffert: Our Strategic Plan specifically cites an increase in enrollment—we expect that increase to come not just from the places I’ve mentioned, but also from distance education. We’re going to see growth in enrollment predominantly in off-campus distance education. And that’s going to happen at both graduate and undergraduate programs.

We’re also seeing a number of our on-campus students—and students on-campus at other institutions—currently taking courses online or by correspondence. They’re doing that for a variety of reasons. For one, it allows students to access courses “across semesters,” that is, during breaks.  Also online and correspondence courses allow students much greater flexibility, especially if they work. It’s a national trend, and we’re seeing more students taking courses at more than one institution, and they’re taking more courses at a distance. We’re marketing our broad array of options and we’re seeing that students are taking advantage of them.

OUR: What about general education requirements? How do they fit into the University’s overall recruitment and retention strategy?

Hoffert: General education is the foundation, the basis for everything we do at UND. We are a liberal arts institution—it’s been that way since the beginning. That’s what makes UND the university that it is. Everything else builds on that, including our overall excellence and the national reputation of our academic programs. That’s the key to recruitment and retention. Students are looking for a solid education.

Every year we survey our freshmen—they tell us that the No. 1 reason they come to UND is its academic reputation. The No. 2 reason is that grads get good jobs. That No. 2 reason is fast becoming the No. 1 reason, which is why we’re seeing the growth of new majors such as entrepreneurship. They help us attract new students who know that, besides getting a great education here, they’re also on track for strong career opportunities.

OUR: We can’t duck a big issue in higher ed—rising tuition costs. How does this trend affect recruitment?

Hoffert: Clearly, students want to know what they’re getting for their money. So our recruiting pitch is now less about the great facilities and much more about the value in the marketplace of a UND education. This is important not only to students but also to their families. A lot of our materials used to talk about our features. We used to market UND as a beautiful campus with all these buildings. While this are still great features, now we’re promoting the benefits and outcomes from attending UND: the outcomes are good jobs. We’re telling prospective students “This is a great place for you because we have an outstanding academic reputation, we have a broad array of liberal arts programs, and you’re going to get an education at UND that’ll make you valuable in the job market.”

OUR: One of the key goals in the Strategic Plan is to put UND among the top 100 public research universities in the country. How does this goal help meet the recruitment challenge?

Hoffert: High school students are not recruited on the basis of our research enterprise, but, absolutely, it enhances our reputation and supports our academic programs. The marketing challenge is to link all of that and point out to potential students that UND research significantly contributes to the quality of UND teaching and learning here. Research is a key part of the overall quality of the institution.