Compared to this time last year, the number of freshmen and transfer students who have applied to attend JSU this fall is down by 120, President Bill Meehan said Friday. The university depends on student tuition as a funding source more than ever before, so if the decline is reflected in enrollment numbers, the drop could hurt its bottom line.
“Additional students bring additional dollars to the community and that’s why it’s important,” said Meehan.
Meehan said many students apply to several schools they don’t intend to attend, but due to the economy students are being more selective in the application process, which costs $30 for graduate and undergraduate students at JSU.
There is some indication that other universities are experiencing the same thing, according to Alan Richard, a spokesman from the Southern Regional Educational Board, which collects educational data.
“We’re hearing that students are being more selective about the colleges that they are applying to,” said Richard. “In part because of the cost. Application fees can really add up at some institutions.”
But to help fund education, the university is counting on money generated from tuition.
Last year, students taking 12 credit hours of courses paid $4,992 for two semesters of tuition at the university. That amount represented a 9.5 increase from 2008.
This year, students will pay $432 more for the same amount of schooling. That represents an additional 8.6 percent increase over the last academic year.
A preliminary budget for the next fiscal year states that the university is counting on about $51 million from student tuition and is receiving about $40 million from the state government. Two other smaller funding sources together total about $6 million of the university’s estimated income, which is expected to total about $98 million.
Those numbers appeared a lot different a little over a decade ago. In 1997 student tuition made up just about $16 million of JSU’s budget, while government appropriations were just under $25 million. At that time other revenue sources totaled about $7 million of its $68 million in income.
Over time, revenue from both the state and from tuition has inched up with the cost of education. In 2002 the university’s state allocation mirrored its income earned from tuition. The following year the university began depending more on revenue from students than it did revenue from the state, according to the university’s fact book.
The gap between last year’s applications and this year’s applications might narrow as the summer goes on, university officials said. They will not know what the numbers mean until late August, when application and enrollment processes close.
The gap has already narrowed since April when application numbers were down 14 percent from April of 2009, according to Meehan.
Despite the drop in applications, university officials don’t foresee a change in enrollment.
“We may be down a few; we may be up a few,” said Tim King, associate vice president for enrollment management. “We may have fewer students applying, but have the same amount attending.”
The university is trying to recruit students who have met higher academic standards, a move officials think will help the university retain more students for the entire four years it takes to complete a degree. This year, the university increased its minimum requirement for unconditional enrollment. To be automatically accepted to JSU, an entering freshman must have a 20 on the ACT. Last year, students needed an ACT score of 19.
“If you have students who have more academic rigor, they are more likely to stay in school,” Meehan said.
The university is also trying to attract attention from new areas in the state and region. Through a new marketing campaign, which has included commercials aired across Alabama, in Georgia and in Tennessee, potential students who might not have heard of JSU are being exposed to the university.
“We are hearing from a wider range of students,” King said. “I’m not surprised we’re getting more students from across the state because our marketing campaign was aimed at doing that.”
Contact staff writer Laura Johnson at 256-235-3544.
