GUEST COMMENTARY — FAMU Enrollment Patterns a Byproduct of Student Success, New Policies
Today Florida A&M University is graduating more students with baccalaureate degrees than at any point in its 128-year history. During the 2015–2016 academic year, FAMU awarded 1,653 undergraduate degrees to deserving students. This represents a 27 percent increase since 2010, and this increase is higher than the 16 percent increase in overall degrees awarded over the same time period.
This is proof that FAMU’s efforts to improve student success are working. Gone are the days where FAMU students can take eight to ten years to graduate due to frequent delays in their academic progress that are the result of poor grades or the inability to pay for school. This means that FAMU is becoming better at graduating students. Unlike other universities with declining enrollment, FAMU does not have a problem with student recruitment. Instead, our decline is the byproduct of success in graduating students and in the University’s policy change to recruit more college-ready students.
FAMU is ensuring that more students continue to stay on course academically and earn their degrees. We are graduating students faster and putting more mechanisms in place to ensure that every student has the support and resources needed to succeed. FAMU is experiencing student success despite policy changes at the federal and state levels that impact enrollment, retention and graduation.
In 2012, the federal government ended the summer Pell Grant allocation that allowed students to improve their academic progress during the summer and changed the rules governing Parent Plus and Graduate Plus Loans that resulted in increased denials of loans that typically helped students cover the gap. These changes negatively impacted the enrollment and academic progress for our students. This is why my administration has placed such strong focus on fundraising to find the resources to help students complete their education at FAMU.
Florida has had several changes in state policies. In 2012, the state of Florida set new admissions criteria for students to be admitted to state universities. Florida also changed the eligibility criteria for students to earn Bright Futures scholarships in 2014. Both of these policies have had an impact on enrollment at FAMU.
The Florida Board of Governor’s (BOG) State Performance Metrics in 2014 are also holding FAMU accountable in ways that are unmatched in its history. The BOG awards money to state universities based on performance in areas that include retention rates, time to degree, and the amount of degrees awarded without excess credit hours. Thus, FAMU has had to change the way we do business.
In 2012, the FAMU Board of Trustees changed the University’s policy to limit Access and Opportunity Students (profile admits) in an effort to ensure the University admitted more college-ready students. At the height of FAMU’s enrollment, almost 80 percent of FAMU’s admitted students who subsequently enrolled were Access and Opportunity Students (AOS). However, many of these students were not progressing academically, churned, and most did not graduate.
The FAMU BOT’s policy is working. Thus, the University experienced a 77 percent decline in the enrollment of Access and Opportunity Students from 2008–2015. In 2015, 72 percent of FAMU’s admitted students who enrolled were regular admits and this 91 percent increase represents the most students enrolling at FAMU that meet the state’s minimum qualifications for admissions.
The University, like athletics, is now responsible for the progression and graduation of each and every student that we admit. The FAMU Board of Trustees and the Administration have implemented several policies and initiatives that reinforce this goal for our students and ensure that we are not in the bottom of the state rankings. These efforts include the creation of the Summer Bridge Program for Access and Opportunity Students, the implementation of the Undergraduate Student Success Center, and the development of the High Achievers and Strong Finish Programs.
The University also created a Summer Program for Access and Opportunity students. This program provides AOS students with proactive support from a team of professional academic advisors and faculty mentors. This program has been successful in supporting AOS students, and nearly 90% of students who enter the program fulfill the academic and other requirements needed to re-enroll in the fall.
FAMU also created the Undergraduate Student Success Center to support student retention, progression, and graduation through programming aimed at promoting student learning and assisting students in the establishment of critical thinking skills. Through the center, the University has professionalized its advisement staff to ensure that every student has the personal and proactive support needed to be successful. The success of the Center’s efforts has been realized in FAMU’s recent improvement on the BOG Academic Progress Rate metric that measures freshmen students that return for their 2nd Year with a GPA over 2.0.
The University has also implemented programs to ensure that students get the financial support they need to stay in school and graduate. Rising sophomore and junior students who are on track to complete their education and graduate in four years are awarded the High Achiever’s scholarship to ensure they have the money to stay in school and complete their degree. Also, low-income students that finish their degree in four years without merit-based scholarships, are recognized as Strong Finish Awardees. The University pays up to half of each student’s loan debt and awards them a $1,000 stipend to assist with their transition into the workforce.
These efforts are paying dividends in our ability to meet state performance metrics, and recruit the best and brightest students to attend FAMU while also allowing FAMU to fulfill its historic mission of providing access to students from underserved backgrounds and communities. FAMU was awarded over $25.6 million in performance funding.
While we have made strides, increasing enrollment will challenge FAMU to successfully recruit and enroll more students that meet the admissions criteria, and to raise the financial support necessary to ensure that these students can maintain their enrollment. The inability to pay for school continues to be the single largest barrier for students wishing to continue their enrollment at FAMU. As enrollment grows, FAMU will need to have more investments by alumni and donors to support deserving students. FAMU will also need to build state-of-the-art housing facilities to accommodate the academic and social needs of millennials.
We are in a new era, and the challenges that FAMU faces today must be responsive to the demands of today’s students using the strategies that enable success in the future. Thus, we are charting the path to move FAMU Forever Forward to become a best-in-class, land-grant, doctoral research university with a global impact.
