February 7, 2003
Dear Colleagues,
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity for many of us. Events ranging from an "Evening at ULM" in New Orleans and Lafayette to lobbying at Mardi Gras in Washington, D.C. have kept us busy. I will address those events later in this letter. To many of us the most eagerly awaited moment has been the release of enrollment numbers for the spring semester.
These spring numbers present us with some very encouraging and challenging news. The official 14th day headcount is 7,914 students. This number is down from the 8,248 that we enrolled in the spring of 2002. However, last spring we counted 211 Incumbent Worker Training Program students that were registered in a one hour course. I do not believe that they should have been counted last spring, nor will they be counted or registered for a one hour course in the future just to increase our headcount. If we look a little deeper into the spring numbers we see some interesting things happening on campus. We graduated 467 students in December, 2002. In addition, 1,315 students that were registered in the fall of 2002 did not return this spring. This means that 1,782 students from last fall were not enrolled this spring. Last year our fall to spring enrollment dropped by 512 students and the year before by 701 students. However, our enrollment was down only 237 students (8,151 fall students - 7,914 spring students) from the fall. This means that we picked up over 1,545 new, transfer, and returning students this spring. Now we know why there are so many new faces on campus this spring. The recruiting efforts in which many of you have been involved are beginning to show signs of success. We still have work to do and we plan to continue, unabated, our efforts to recruit more and better students to ULM.
We are currently planning an "Evening at ULM" in Alexandria on February 12 and Shreveport on February 13. Once again Deborah and I along with Lisa, the recruiting staff, the vice presidents, deans, athletic director, coaches, alumni and others will be taking the University to the students across the state. The New Orleans and Lafayette events were extremely successful especially considering it was our first venture into the area. In addition, the spring "Browse on the Bayou" will be held on March 22, 2003. We are planning to do things a little differently this year so mark your calendars and stay tuned.
However, please notice that we lost over 1,300 students from fall to spring. Lisa Miller and her staff are in the process of calling a sample of these students to determine their reasons for not returning. In addition, we will be contacting all of these students that are academically eligible in an effort to help them meet their educational goals. The loss of these students highlights the continued need to refocus our retention efforts. We will be contacting many of you to help us as we continue to work with Noel-Levitz on a retention plan.
Last week several of us were in Washington, D.C. meeting with our congressional delegation and their staffs. While the main focus of many of the stories was the Mardi Gras parties, many of us worked to promote the University. The Monroe Chamber of Commerce coordinated the trip that promotes the city, parish and ULM. This joint lobbying effort has been successful in the past both in Washington D.C. and Baton Rouge. Anne Lockhart, Director of the Development for ULM, and current president of the Monroe Chamber, Keith Brown, Director for Governmental Affairs for ULM, Deborah and I met with not only our congressional delegation and their staff, but we also met with a variety of other funding agencies like the Federal Highway Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PHARMA). The ability to personally meet and discuss ULM with Senators Breaux and Landrieu and Congressmen Alexander, Vitter, Tauzin, and McCrery will hopefully prove invaluable in the future.
As a result of this trip, Congressman Vitter will be on our campus February 19 to discuss Health Science issues, Congressman Alexander is planning to visit us to discuss our plans in Agriculture, and PHARMA has agreed to explore a number of joint projects with ULM. We are also working with congressional and senatorial staff members on a number of other grant opportunities for disciplines ranging from Family and Consumer Science to Toxicology. All things considered, it was a very successful trip.
On a different matter, I want to again recognize the work of both the Core Curriculum Committee and the Academic Planning Committee. The Core Curriculum Committee is comprised of Dr. Chris Blackburn, Dr. Ron Berry, Dr. Mike Camille, Dr. Victoria Durkee, Dr. Jo Galle, Dr. Mary Ann Goodwyn, Dr. Chip Holloway, Dr. Brian Kelly, and Dr. Frank Pezold. We believe that this newly designed core curriculum will better prepare our students for major coursework, and help us in our recruitment and retention efforts.
The Academic Planning Committee (APC) is comprised of Dr. Stephen Richters, Dr. Jose Cordova, Dr. Michael Crider, Dr. Jeff Galle, Dr. Elizabeth Guerriero, Dr. Glenda Holland, Dr. Joe McGahan, Dr. Paxton Oliver, Dr. John Rettenmayer, and Dr. Ruth Smith. The APC is completing the preliminary work and they are currently formulating plans to hold faculty forums to discuss their findings. You will be hearing from Dr. Richters in the very near future on this issue.
The task we asked both of these committees to perform was difficult, but was a task done best by a group of faculty dedicated to the future of ULM. It is imperative that we continue to assess where we are academically if we are to survive and prosper. I believe that the work of these committees sets the right direction not only for future discussions of these issues, but for our strategic direction as well. I look forward to their final reports.
James E. Cofer, Sr.
ULM President