Enrollment is an increasing concern at colleges across the country. There are hardships coming from multiple places: uncertain state and federal funding, lagging registration and employee compensation. With these concerns, it can be easy to lose track of the individual value of each student.
While another 50, 100 or 200 students can severely impact a university’s bottom line, this hunger for more can leave students feeling like they’re just numbers.
Administration needs to remember one very important fact; Students are not only, as one staff member referred to us recently, “possible future alumni.”
Sometimes, university employees and students alike can get caught up in routine and forget this. It’s especially easy when enrollment numbers are increasingly essential to the performance of a university.
At the same time, administrators, faculty and staff who frequently work with students know just how important individual students are to campus. They rarely see us as just numbers, or what we will eventually become to the university as alum.
These university employees realize students create the culture of the campus. Students’ diversity, whether that is in ethnicity, ability or viewpoints, is very important. A diverse student body is integral to a healthy campus community.
Students truly flourish when they are embraced as individuals. This persistent attention is something Bradley prides itself on, emphasizing small class sizes and attentive faculty. This is an integral part of what makes Bradley distinctive compared to other institutions.
We can’t forget that.
Every single student has dreams and aspirations as well as reasons they chose Bradley above other universities. This school wouldn’t be what it is today without its students.
We’re not saying numbers don’t have their place or value, but we need to take a step back and remember the building blocks of this university: its students.
