So far applications for the fall, 2014 academic year are up 10 percent compared to this time same a year ago, said university interim President Larry Robinson. The increase indicates success so far in FAMU’s more feet-on-the-street, earlier in the recruiting season, new message strategy, Robinson said in a brief interview as the university approached the last days of fall and prepared to close for its winter break.
“We’ve had a much more deliberate effort to focus our recruitment much earlier,” said Robinson, whose enrollment growth has faced several serious challenges in recent years. “We’re trying to make the bulk of it in the fall time frame when parents and students are trying to make up their minds.”
This time two years ago FAMU was reeling from public condemnation after the university acknowledged a student drum major had died at the hands of several fellow FAMU band members during an illegal hazing incident. Soon after the incident, several hazing complaints came to light and the university was placed on “probation” by SACS regarding student safety and, separately, other questions about the management of the university.
During the same time, the university faced significant cuts in state aid, forcing dramatic university budget cuts and program consolidations. It imposed increases in admissions criteria, eliminating admissions possibilities for some students who might historically look to FAMU. Meanwhile, the university has lost hundreds of admitted students whose parents were unable to secure federal education loans for their children through the once-popular Parent PLUS Loan (PPL) program.
FAMU seems to be emerging from this series of challenges stronger than ever, Robinson said, asserting the increase in applications for the fall, 2014 quarter came even before this month’s SACS ruling.
FAMU recruitment teams have worked in Cincinnati, Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland and Chicago, to name a few examples, Robinson said.
