When Dr. Harry Williams became president of Delaware State University nearly two years ago, he inherited a school where in-state freshman student enrollment was on a steady decline, with lack of funds to pay for college a key reason given by students for not attending or transferring elsewhere.
This school year, Delaware State’s in-state freshman student enrollment is up 43 percent to 433 from 302, the first significant enrollment turnaround in six years, school officials say.
Total enrollment at Delaware State exceeds 4,000 students, the bulk of whom come from other states along the East Coast. At one point in the past decade, in-state student enrollment had dipped to as low as 187.
Williams credits the eyebrow-raising in-state freshman increase to a decision last year by the state to expand a scholarship program for Delaware high school graduates going to two-year public colleges to include his four-year public college in Dover.
The inclusion, campaigned for over several years in the state legislature with broad bipartisan support and backing of Delaware’s governor, guarantees every Delaware high school graduate with a 2.75 grade point average a state scholarship of up to $3,000 for the first two years of college.
Williams says the state’s decision was extra timely, as the nation’s weak economy has played a role in more students deciding to stay in state to go to college or delay pursuing a college education.
“The state’s action and the economy mixed together,” says Williams, who made securing inclusion in the state scholarship program a centerpiece of his first year as president of Delaware State “You can’t lose investing in education,” he says.
