In a Convocation address filled with laughter and a few tears, Ashish Vaidya, interim president, set two targets for employees:
- Increase degrees-conferred from 3,099 to 6,198 by 2025
- Enroll 185 more students Fall 2018
Degree-attainment is the new standard for public higher education, Vaidya told employees Aug. 15 in Ritsche Auditorium. Public universities nationwide are shifting focus from recruitment to retention, helping more students complete college on-time, with a degree, credential or certificate.
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The degree-attainment target aligns with a State of Minnesota effort to have 70 percent of its citizens, ages 25-44, hold a post-high school degree, credential or certificate by 2025.
In 2015, that figure was 57.5 percent — still among the best in the nation.
Vaidya cited the software-driven Student Success Collaborative and the new, flat-rate tuition plan as tools for improving retention.
Improving how the University communicates with prospective students is one tactic for improving enrollment, he said.
“This is a call to action,” Vaidya said. “Reversing our enrollment decline is our first and foremost challenge.”
The fall semester headcount fell more than 2,100 students from 2011-2016. Another decline is forecast for Fall 2017.
Link: President’s Vaidya’s Top Ten
“We must be our community’s first choice. Our academic programs, and faculty and staff who deliver them, and support our students, and value proposition — must be second to none,” he said. “I’m asking all of you, personally, to own this call to action.”
Vaidya, in his second year as interim president, made plain his sense of urgency.
“Enrollment is everyone’s responsibility on this campus. Each faculty and staff member can, and must, play a role in the recruitment, retention and success of our students.”
Vaidya complimented employees for their graceful handling of the June 2016 death of President Earl H. Potter III.
He recalled being “taken aback by the emotions” he felt during the March 2017 disappearance and subsequent death of Jesse Dady, a junior biochemistry major from Princeton. Dady, 21, died after falling from a Mississippi River bridge in downtown St. Cloud.
Vaidya updated his humorous Top Ten List, this year involving a guest reader for item number 1.
