Grambling State University is considering more evening and weekend courses to accommodate students who work full time, a highlight from a list of issues and solutions published today by university officials.
The 12-page plan posted to the university’s website details enrollment, fundraising, accreditation, campus safety, library upgrades, maintenance, and financial stabilization as administrative priorities, and offers brief descriptions of its efforts to improve problem areas under each issue.
The university’s enrollment management strategy is the most detailed section of the plan, outlining the administrative effort to bolster international recruitment, usage of social media and undergraduate student focus groups to refine best practices for engagement with high school students.
Officials emphasized efforts to increase the number of students transferring from two-year schools, investments in high school prospect databases, and the development of new academic programs, including a cyber-security concentration under its criminal justice degree imprint, established with a five-year, federal Department of Education grant.
Total student enrollment has decreased annually by at least 200 students since 2011, and has fallen from a ten-year high of 5,128 students in 2008 to 4,293 students in 2014.
Other issues, including development, and capital enhancement plans, did not outline new plans or strategies, but restated efforts for administration to build relationships with alumni and corporate partners, and elected officials.
Officials also revealed that the university is out of compliance with accreditation requirements for campus safety, and is working to hire more police officers.
Data for donations and gifts, costs for capital upgrades and personnel management were not listed in the plan. The plan follows a contentious week on the campus, during which members of the faculty senate voted no confidence in President Willie Larkin, who was the target of tough student inquiries during a follow-up town hall meeting on campus.
Larkin responded later in the week with a letter appealing for support from students, alumni and stakeholders referring to himself as “Grambling’s healer.”
