VP of Enrollment Management talks about reasons for positive numbers, optimism going forward after pandemic struggles
Freshmen and transfer student enrollment at Campbell University is on the rise for two consecutive years, the Office of Admissions announced this week, reversing a trend of declining numbers brought on by the pandemic, a dwindling student population nationally and other factors affecting colleges and universities across the country.
Campbell reported 592 first year/freshman students for the fall 2024 semester, a 6 percent increase over the previous year and a nearly 20 percent increase from 2022 (495 students). The number of transfer students increased by 32 percent in the past year (128 to 169).
Dr. David Mee, vice president for enrollment management, attributes the positive gains to a number of factors, from increased focus and resources on marketing and communications to Campbell University joining Common App to streamline the application process for students. He also credits his staff and their presence on high school campuses across the state — something that was put on hold during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022.
The following is a transcript of an interview with Mee, who talked about the improving numbers and why he believes the trend will continue in the coming months and years.
Q: Campbell is not the only school to have been hit hard in 2020, but the numbers for the last two freshman and first-time student classes have been positive. What led to the declining numbers, and why are we finally seeing the numbers go back up?
Mee: You can go back to even before the pandemic and see a lot that was happening nationally that would eventually have an impact on higher education over the last few years. The 2008 mortgage crisis had a trickle effect on families and their ability to make decisions with their finances or their confidence in the economy. Things like that have a direct or indirect impact on institutions like Campbell and the ability to recruit students and families who may or may not feel confident about the next four years.
But I’ll say in my entire experience [in higher education], nothing comes close to the impact that was felt during the pandemic. There will be a lot of articles and studies for years to come looking at this period and how nobody was untouched. No corner of America was untouched. In my four decades or so of doing this, the pandemic has been the biggest challenge. A fairly healthy percentage of college-bound students suddenly put off their decisions to enroll anywhere.
So the big question was, ‘Would they return?’ Their last few years of high school, they were dealing with remote learning. They were dealing with constantly changing schedules. It was basically a triage reality. We couldn’t come to them on their campuses, and they couldn’t really come to ours. If you have two solid recruitment cycles where you have limited access to engaging students and no access to the declining pool of students, it’s going to have an effect.
And we’re still feeling that effect. Our freshman and sophomore classes are bigger, but we’re still impacted by much smaller junior and senior classes now. But we’re very optimistic — we’re seeing a 100-student rebound in just the last 24 months, which is considerable. If you would have told me in 2022 that we’d be in this position, I would have loved to hear it. And that doesn’t include the transfer student population, which is also a remarkable bounce back.
I don’t want to discount all the Lord’s blessings in this, because you can work as hard as you want and sometimes there are factors that are out of your control. But there are also some strategic decisions that have contributed to these numbers. Our Chief Marketing Officer Vince Benbenek arrived in the midst of all of this and through some branding exercises, helped us refresh what we’re saying about ourselves and brightened up how we look graphically. We basically reintroduced ourselves to some of our primary markets, the counties surrounding us. Those marketing efforts, in terms of visual media in the area, have been noted, and I think it’s made a huge difference.
And, clearly, joining the Common App was very helpful. It has far exceeded my expectations. We brought in more than 8,000 freshman applications this year. Common App students are typically applying to more schools, so your yield and conversion rates are different, but there is absolutely no question that it has made us visible to thousands of students who wouldn’t see us otherwise.
Q: Much has been made nationally about the problems with the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the impact that has had on enrollment nationally. How has it impacted Campbell, and is there reason to be optimistic that those problems are being fixed?
Mee: FAFSA has been around for decades, and previously it was a paper application that students filled out and mailed in. It got processed and was sent to various campuses. A student goes to the Department of Education, they indicate the schools they are considering — usually four or five — and they fill out their family information, and the government determines their eligibility [for financial aid]. For many years, FAFSA opened in October, and that was the process.
For many years, the government attempted to simplify FAFSA, which in theory is a good thing. Reduce the number of questions, make it easier for families, etc. This process required a technology update and a relaunch. Well that hasn’t worked well. It was crashing. There were delays. [Financial aid] packages for new students at Campbell probably went out six to seven weeks later than in the past — as with many other institutions. I credit our team and Student Financial Services for being ready, and it took yeoman’s work to keep it going here.
But the percentage of students who filled out FAFSA went down substantially. The percentage of our accepted students, even though it was much a bigger class, who filed with FAFSA and sent it to Campbell was quite a bit lower. Thankfully, we had a bigger pool to work with. And we’re not as hampered by FAFSA challenges as some schools because much of our financial aid is based on academics, and we’re still able to get that out immediately.
We have cautious optimism this year that, fingers crossed, FAFSA will be available around Dec. 1 of this year. Presuming it works, we hope to return to early February to put out financial aid packages. Keeping the FAFSA filing rate as high as possible directly correlates with the percentage of students who are ultimately going to enroll at Campbell.
Q: We’re a month into the 2024-25 academic year. We know admissions is a 365-day process. Where is your office at in terms of looking ahead to the next freshman class?
Mee: We have communication plans and lead generation campaigns for high school students as early as their sophomore year. We’re in the process of identifying through our lead generation partners and engaging them. There’s a whole strategy of identifying students whom we believe, statistically, might have an interest in a place like Campbell.
The application season kicked off on Aug. 1, and we’re about six weeks into that now. But October will be our busiest month — roughly half of our freshman applications will come in that month alone.
The College Foundation of North Carolina has an awareness campaign around the third week of October. They’re there in various forms of media, different media markets, pushing the notion of life after high school moving on to some form of higher education. And Campbell, as well as most four year schools, participates in that. So that one week in October is actually the single largest week where high schools are having campaigns for students to apply to college. They’re organizing events on high school campuses.
It’s a never-ending process. I started this career long before the internet, so it was different then. Today, we understand the importance of immediacy in our responses. The electronic reliance on just about everything in this process really changes how quickly we need to be responsive. No strategy is laminated. If we need to tweak something, or if we see numbers going in the wrong direction, we have to respond. It’s what students expect from us.