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A clear sign of SUNY Fredonia's enrollment decline is in its large Ring Road parking lot.
Years ago when enrollment topped 5,000 students, the lot was usually close to full. Nowadays, you could play pickleball there. There are vast expanses of open space in the lot's center as parkers now can find room on the edges, closer to the main parts of campus.
The enrollment news got worse this month, as the College Council heard a fall enrollment number of 3,236, down 275 students from the last school year.
A consultant who is acting as an unofficial vice president of enrollment -- the position is still unfilled -- offered some frank comments on the issue. He also expressed some hope.
"When you look at the overall trajectory of enrollment here, it's worrisome," said Jeff Handler. "There hasn't been a lot of success ... it's probably been 20 years in the making."
Handler, a New York City resident with extensive experience in higher education administration, added, "It's historical. It's structural. That's the difficult news. The good news is, what I find here is surprising. It's one of the best kept secrets." He cited the commitment and expertise of the staff, and recent education-related construction such as the new science lab at Houghton Hall.
Handler downplayed a 2007 report by another consultant that suggested SUNY Fredonia increase enrollment by attracting out-of-state and transfer students. "It was all about 'we'll increase enrollment to increase enrollment'... but the tactics were missing."
He continued, "You have a team in your admissions office, and Jeff W (Woodard, SUNY Fredonia director of marketing and communications) on my left here, we can win now... but we have a very short runway."
The idea of putting campus stuff in a position to "win" at recruiting -- and doing it quickly -- was a big part of Handler's presentation. SUNY Fredonia must modernize its marketing techniques to do so, he asserted. The university needs "to go basically from zero to creating a nuclear bomb."
In order to boost enrollment, the school must hit high school students with targeted campaigns, making full use of cell phone and streaming technology, he said. Handler added he also wants to get high school counselors more interested in suggesting SUNY Fredonia as a spot for higher education.
In addition, he plans to look at why students who were accepted at SUNY Fredonia but did not attend, chose not to go.
"You have a tremendous capacity here," Handler reiterated. "You have folks in admissions who bleed Fredonia blue. But they haven't been put in a position to win."
Because "admissions and marketing are very, very tightly together," he is getting Woodard more involved in admissions issues, he said.
"It's not about foreseeing the future, it's about enabling it. The future starts now," Handler said. "We've made progress on a lot of these things. It's not all just happening, we started a lot of this in August and September.
College Council President Frank Pagano asked Handler if he'd see positive results during this school year. Handler replied that he was uncertain about that, but the results will definitely come during the fall 2024 semester.