By Taylor Nigrelli
Opinion Editor
When considering the enrollment issues facing St. Bonaventure, two numbers stand out.
19.6.
St. Bonaventure’s enrollment has dropped 19.6 percent since the 2004-05 school year.
58.
The tuition discount rate is 58 percent for the 2014-15 freshmen class.
With such a reasonable actual tuition cost, St. Bonaventure’s enrollment shouldn’t be dropping at such an extreme rate.
A St. Bonaventure education is relatively inexpensive. That shouldn’t be a surprise, it should be a cornerstone of the school’s marketing campaign.
Recently, “US News and World Report” listed St. Bonaventure as the third-best value school in the Northern United States.
Appropriately, that appears on the school’s website under the tab “value of an SBU education.” There’s also a link to a St. Bonaventure-produced piece detailing the information on the front page of the website.
Ideally, that information would remain there permanently.
This report isn’t just a passing compliment some well-known organization paid the school. It’s a fact that, if spread wide enough among high school students and their parents, could change the perception of the school.
The Buffalo News
recently ran a piece detailing the opposite worlds of dorming at local private and public college.
Canisius, like St. Bonaventure, can’t begin to fill up all of its dormitory space. Meanwhile, public schools like Buffalo State are overflowing with students.
This is a microcosm of what’s happening all over the country – incoming college students are looking for cheaper options.
While you’d never know by looking strictly at tuition rates, St. Bonaventure could be a cheaper option than many State University of New York (SUNY) schools.
According to the SUNY website, it typically costs about $19,600 to attend a New York State college. With this year’s 58 percent discount rate, it costs $18,577 for the average St. Bonaventure freshman to attend college.
Information such as this should be central to all recruiting efforts. It will be a lot easier for little Jimmy the high school senior to fall in love with the Enchanted Mountains if he knows he doesn’t have to pay through the nose to look at them every day.
Obviously, once a student has received all his college acceptances and financial aid information, it’s easy for that student to deduce the best value. But by then it might be too late.
If a prospective student thinks of St. Bonaventure as an unaffordable, financial beast, they will likely not take it as seriously as an option.
The solution is to make the words “St. Bonaventure” and “value” synonymous to prospective students.
Have admissions counselors and tour guides mention it to everyone they talk to. Anywhere the tuition and fees are printed, put the actual average cost right next to it.
Dr. Kathryn Baugher, interim associate vice president of enrollment, said the school is looking to make more of a push to inform people of St. Bonaventure’s value.
She wants value to appear on St. Bonaventure sponsored billboards and in local media reports. She wants to use the figure to make sure that in 10 years, we’re not discussing St. Bonaventure’s enrollment dropping another 19.6 percent.
Not a bad idea. Maybe there shouldn’t be an “interim” in her job title.
