BY: ANDREW HALE, MANAGING EDITOR
During her senior year of high school, Morgan McManus, unsure of where she would spend the next four years of her academic career, maneuvered through a maze of college representatives at her school’s yearly college fair. McManus scoured the gymnasium in search of a school with a close-knit community. After wandering around rows of tables, she stumbled upon a school in southwestern New York – St. Bonaventure University.
“When I spoke to [Bonaventure], it was like, maybe this is where I’m supposed to go,” said McManus.
McManus and her parents later attended a Bonaventure open house for prospective students where they observed the inviting community firsthand. The now freshman adolescence education major enrolled at Bonaventure.
McManus, a Buffalo native, enrolled as one of 452 first-year Bonaventure students from the state of New York in the 2023-2024 school year. Out of the 1,868 undergraduate and 756 graduate students now at St. Bonaventure, 71% arrive from New York while 29% are out-of-state students, according to the university’s website.
Bonaventure’s enrollment remains constant. The majority of Bonaventure students come from the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, which comprises Washington, D.C., Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, according to the 2023-2024 St. Bonaventure Fact Book.
The admissions office focuses its recruiting efforts on areas around the country that see a consistent pipeline of students enrolling at Bonaventure, according to Dean Whitcomb, director of undergraduate admissions.
According to the fact book, more than 400 first-year students have arrived at Bonaventure from the Mid-Atlantic region in each year since 2019. The Midwest, New England and South regions have fewer than 20 first-year students in each year since 2019. Fewer than 12 first-year students have arrived each year from the Southwest and West regions since 2019.
“Historically speaking, 80% of our students come from within two hours of St. Bonaventure, so we really prioritize events in those markets,” said Whitcomb. “There are naturally a lot more events that we cover with our own staff within that two-hour range than there would be at the six to eight hour range.”
However, if students arrived from a growing market in a region outside the Mid-Atlantic, it wouldn’t surprise Whitcomb to see more recruitment in those respective areas, he said.
If high school students begin to come from an area with no prior connection to Bonaventure, then the admissions office will prioritize staffing in that region to establish a pipeline, according to Whitcomb.
Virginia has experienced this pipeline effect. The state has seen an increase in recruitment and has brought the most students to Bonaventure from the South region with an average of five students per year since 2019.
“We actually had a [Bonaventure] representative at our school,” said Jackson Abel, a junior philosophy, law and politics major from Richmond, Virginia. “We talked for a while, and I really liked how the school sounded. It started with the recruiter.”
While Bonaventure does not recruit in places with small student pipelines, the university instead relies on alumni recommendations to recruit students, according to Whitcomb.
“I think alumni serve a crucial role [in recruitment], especially in out-of-state markets, where there may not be a pipeline of students in a given area,” said Whitcomb. “Their word of mouth is more powerful than any.”
Many out-of-state students said alumni word of mouth brought them to Bonaventure.
“I learned about Bonaventure through my accounting teacher junior year,” said Joshua Lopez, a freshman business major from Derwood, Maryland. “[She] knew I was going through the recruitment process and told me to take a look at her alma mater, Bona’s.”
Other out-of-state students at Bonaventure – freshman biology major Brecken Riley, senior strategic communication major Caitlyn Williams and graduate student finance major Joshua Bannon – discovered the school from family members who previously attended.
“I have known about St. Bonaventure University since I was a kid because my grandfather had attended SBU, graduated in 1964, and made sure that I knew about the Bonnies at a young age,” said Bannon, an Austin, Texas, native.
While some students arrive at Bonaventure with academics in mind, others arrive for athletics. However, getting recruited as an out-of-state student athlete requires more effort by the student than by the team, according to Bannon.
According to Bannon, his recruitment process started by first reaching out to the Bonaventure swimming coaches during his senior year of high school. Following this, the coaching staff scheduled meetings and a recruitment trip to the university. After the on-campus visit, Bannon committed to Bonaventure.
In 2020-2021, during the coronavirus pandemic, Bonaventure modified its recruitment process, said Whitcomb. Besides relying on word of mouth from alumni during this time, the admissions office at Bonaventure utilized Zoom and strengthened the virtual tour feature on its website. This gave students, regardless of where they are from, an opportunity to see the university during lockdown, he said.
While the coronavirus gave prospective students challenges in deciding if Bonaventure fit the bill, the rural school setting came with some advantages, according to Williams.
Williams, who planned on going to Townson University, home to more than 15,000 students, changed course after Townson shut down due to the coronavirus.
“A few days into the semester, [Townson] sent everyone home and I realized that I wanted to take the small school approach instead, just in case something like that would happen again,” said Williams, a Baltimore, Maryland, native. “When I started the search for other schools my dad recommended St. Bonaventure because he graduated from Bonaventure in 1983.”
During the pandemic, the utilization of Zoom played a key role in the recruitment of out-of-state athletes, specifically for Maggie Holst, a junior accounting major from Nashville, Tennessee.
“My recruiting process was different as compared to a typical recruiting process as it occurred in the midst of COVID when everything was online,” said Holst, a four-year swimmer at Bonaventure. “Instead of visiting the school and meeting the team, it was Zoom calls with the team. This made it difficult to know if I was making the right decision as I had to base this decision on information from calls and websites.”
Additionally, Bonaventure has participated in information sessions within the Mid-Atlantic region for prospective student-athletes.
Bonaventure hosted a large regional conference through the New York State Association for College Admission Counseling in 2023, according to Whitcomb.
The NYSACAC, an affiliate of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, aids counselors and recruiters with the student transition from high school to higher education in New York.
“[Bonaventure] hosted directly here on campus where it didn’t feature too much from out of state,” said Whitcomb. “[Schools] were invited to come to campus and experience St. Bonaventure for themselves.”
Bonaventure looks to continue to convey its mission and values to each prospective student, according to Whitcomb.
“We always need to be focused on who we’re going to continue to be and who we’re going to become in the future,” said Whitcomb. “[The] impact that we want to leave not just here at St. Bonaventure, not just in New York state, but nationally, internationally, the impact that we leave on this planet, you have to concentrate on continuing to find ways to improve, to be better, to grow.”
halea22@bonaventure.edu
