9
University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, June 12. 1991
KU joins recruiting battle
By Eric Nelson
Special to the Kansan
Brenda Selman knows what it takes to reach out to prospective KU students.
During a road trip through a snow storm in November 1989, Selman, a former assistant director of admissions, finally made it to her destination: a hotel in a small north-central Kansas town.
After not eating all day, she was hungry, but the restaurant in the hotel was closed. Luckily, Selman found a coupon from Pizza Hut.
With hopes of having a hot meal delivered to her room, she faced a grim reality after she called the hotel clerk for information
"Honey, they're only open three nights a week," the clerk told her. "And this isn't one of them."
Selman was forced to resort to a vending machine for dinner.
In-state students wanted
"The traveling can be difficult," she said. "You just get creative at how you handle that."
Selman, an assistant registrar in charge of enrollment services, was one of 11 persons working in the office of admissions who visited the high schools in the state searching for prospective students
Bruce Lindvall, director of admissions, said KU now is using more teemarketing, mailings, better brochures and publications to help lure prospective students to Lawrence Lindvall's staff also makes the effort to visit each Kansas high school twice a year.
Selman said that some of the staff would visit up to 90 schools each year.
Why all the effort and dinners out of vending machines?
Because with a decline in the number of graduates from Kansas high schools, KU and other Kansas four-year state schools have to get a salary. So while students seniors each year just to stay even with past enrollment figures.
All Board of Regents universities have been forced to go after Kansas students instead of waiting for the applications to roll in.
So far, Kansas Department of Education figures show that four-year schools have been successful in getting a bigger share of a shrinking pool of Kansas high school graduates. But some educators worry that too many students in college may be taking 18-year-olds that are not cut out for higher education.
Imports vs. Exports
Beside in-state recruiting, Lindvall said KU also focused on regional recruitment. KU recruits heavily in St. Louis, Kansas City, Mo., Lincoln, Neb., Omaha, Neb., Tulsa, Denver and Chicago.
Lisa Schmidt, director of high school and college relations at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, said it was difficult to keep students in the state and away from out-of-state schools, such as KU.
"Our challenge is that we export more good students than we import," she said.
Jon Wefal, president of Kansas State University, said KU's diversity and large number of out-of-state students are evidence of its regional stature.
"I personally believe KU is one of the great universities in America today," he said. "We only hope to do better and try to enjoy happy to be a part of the same system."
Lindvall said that continued declines in the number of graduates would make the situation more difficult.
"The demographics would dictate the competition is greater," he said. "There is certainly more pressure."
Along with the shrinking number of graduates, schools face other obstacles on the recruiting trail. Lindvall said that despite KU's diverse educational opportunities, many prosper from the school as too large and impersonal.
KU has tried to show the students what it has to offer and the benefits involved with attending the University.
"And hopefully with that personal approach they see a different school than what was described to them," he said.
But Lindvall said the danger of some schools making promises they could not keep accompanied intensified recruiting.
"No single institution is going to be the right environment for every student," he said.
Wendy Wilborn, assistant director of admissions at K-State, said recruitters often ran across the tradi-
tional campus, where they hit "Hill" and K-State as "Agtech. Tee."
But she said the job of the recruiter was to help students make their decisions.
"The student needs to pick an institution that best fits the student," she said.
Waiting for graduates
Regardless of recruiting competition, the numbers show that the fouryear schools in the state are attracting a larger percentage from the total number of high-school graduates.
Gary Watson, research analyst for the Kansas Department of Education, said that even though a slight increase recently occurred, the number of students graduating from Kansas high schools would decline.
"Basically it is going to continue down until the fifth-graders arrive at a (high school) graduation level," he said.
The current fifth-graders are products of the Baby Boom generation, a group that married and had children later in life. Watson said.
In 1986, 32 percent of Kansas high school graduates were attending four-year schools in the state.
In 1990, that number had increased to 36 percent despite the fact that the number of graduates declined from 25.587 to 25.367.
Watson said that in light of the intensified recruiting, a debate had arisen whether ill-prepared students were forced into the educational system.
With the downward trend continuing, the state schools will have to continue to work for students.
"When you raise the percentage, you naturally pick up some people who haven't done as well in school," he said.
The need for students is partially related to money. Watson said.
"If you reduce too much in enrollment, that can be very costly," he said.
Keeping the quality
K-State's Wefald said he disagreed with the theory that high school students who were inadequately prepared were being driven into the system.
With high schools placing more emphasis on science and reading, Wefraid said he expected students to better prepare for college curriculum.
Lindvall said that in an effort to stabilize enrollment, KU had attempted to recruit more well-prepared students.
Wefalid also said 70 percent of the 1990 freshman class at K-State graduated from high school with at least a B average.
"Our recent efforts therefore involved quality rather than quantity," he said.
Composite ACT scores for KU freshman have increased slightly from 21.8 in 1983 to 22.2 in 1988. Scores for 1990 and 1991 are from a revised ACT exam whose scores are not adjusted with the old exam, said Tom Henley. The KU women's program specialist with the Kansas Department of Education.
Although the intensified efforts to find students will continue, Brenda Selman will not be among those on the road. She now stays in Lawrence with her position in the registrar's office.
"I think any time you travel with any job, there's a desire to stay home." she said.
But Selman admitted that being in the office on some sunny days made her wish she were back on the road.
Recycling office offers head start for KU students
Lawrence office expects increase in seven-intern total this summer
By Jeff Meesev
Kansan staff writer
Some KU students looking for internships to boost their marketability have found that growing environmental awareness is helping them.
The Lawrence office of recycling and waste minimalization has provided internships by employing seven employees to help the office manage its workload.
Patricia Marvin, Lawrence recycling coordinator, said that none of the interns received money but that many of them had a world experience and college credit.
For the first time, an intern is in the program who is not an environmental-studies major.
"This office absolutely requires these interns right now," Marvin said. "We've got so many things to do and we're doing doing real jobs has really helped
Julie Kravitz, Glennview, III,
senior, is using her journalism
education to make a video about reco-
ciliation used by local businesses
and schools.
“There are so many kids that don’t have an edge. They help Lawrence recycling, but I try to find out what happens to them in and try to marry them to a task.”
Since last summer, seven interns have been involved in the program. More will start this summer.
"I'll be helping Patricia write, shoot and edit the video," Kravitz said. "Basically, it will tell people the story of the program and begin a recycling program of their own."
Kravitz began her internship at the city recycling office June 1. Before working on the video, she standardized the system for collecting
recyclables at City Hall by labeling recycling containers.
"I hope it will make people more ant to recycle." she said
Another intern, Jennifer Wade, Omaha, Neb., has been working since March as a volunteer at the office. She is an environmental studies major, and the focus of her internship is household hazardous wastes such as pesticides, paint, bug sprays and cleansers.
"If you have even a little of these substances left in the bottle, they can leak into the groundwater system and kill plants and animals," she said. "It's unrealistic to say 'I won't use it at all.' So we want people to use it safely, so that we do what they can do to reduce their usage and disease of them properly."
She said the goal was to set up a site where hazardous wastes could be disposed of properly.
Wadle said that although she needed to work as a lifeguard this summer to pay expenses, she did not mind an unpaid internship.
"I think that there's an equal balance between what I'm doing for Patricia and the experience I'm receiving," she said.
Becca Green, Lawrence senior, is an environmental-studies major as well. She is working 200 hours as an intern for three credit hours. She began in January and works on the Recycling Advisory Board.
"We're kind of an awareness group, like a liaison between the City Commission and the people," Green said. "The state really isn't doing that much about recycling, so a lot of what we do is to help figure out ways to make people more aware of recycling."
SELL IT FAST IN THE DAILY KANSAN
The University Daily Kansas (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Stairwater-Flint Law, Lawrence, KA 60045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and Wednesday during the summer session. Second-class postage is paid in Lawrence, Kan. 60044 Annual subscriptions by mail are $50. Student subscriptions are paid through the student activity fee.
Postmaster: Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118 Stauffer-Fint Hall, Lawrence. K6045
Macintosh Summer School Special
Offer ends July 26th,1991
Macintosh Classic Package:
- Macintosh Classic 40 Meg. Hard Drive 2 Meg. RAM (includes keyboard)
- Imagewriter II Printer
- MacWrite II & MacDraw II
- Mousepad
$1,599.00
The Power To Be Your Best At KU.
KU Bookstores Computer Store Burge Union, Level 2 864-5697
press subject is available. Offer open only to students enrolled in six or more credit hours of course work, full-time faculty members, or full time staff. You may obtain a copy of the requirements from the KS bookstores. Payment must be made by cashlers. Students did not pay their fees on time.