MCC Daily Tribune

Report Discusses Enrollment Decline Across SUNY System

Christine Casalinuovo-Adams, associate vice president for Enrollment Management, was interviewed for a WROC-TV report on enrollment decline at many SUNY campuses. The report included interviews with Chancellor Malatras and SUNY Geneseo's vice president for Enrollment Management. 

Key takeaways from the report:

Chancellor: “Our underrepresented communities is where we’re seeing the biggest dropoff. Our applications are down upwards of 40% in some underrepresented communities, the communities who need public higher education the most because that is what’s going to lift them out of poverty or get them into a career and give them social and economic mobility -- they’re the ones that need the job, but they’re the ones not applying, largely because our campuses are outside of those communities.”

“How do we make it easier for them? How do we go into their communities and say, ‘We’ll give you the flexible scheduling that you need. How do we work around your schedule? How do we work around your life? How do we provide you opportunities?’ I think that’s what’s going to be the main challenge, and if we can solve that challenge, I think you’ll see enrollment go up across the SUNY system.”

Casalinuovo-Adams: “What we can do is look at our data, look at our trends, but also take a look at who the students are coming in the door and what their needs are that always the data doesn’t always show that. And so really meeting the needs of our students where they’re at is part of our focus."

“Certainly our students face challenges that maybe other students aren’t facing at the other institutions… housing insecurity, food insecurity, financial insecurity, and we have had prior to COVID, a strong focus on ensuring that our students had easy access and connection to those resources, and we are continuing to focus on those services during the pandemic and we’ll continue to focus it on after the pandemic.”

SUNY Geneseo: “The pandemic has really shaken higher education to its core. In a way it’s created a sense of urgency for us, all of us collectively, to really look at how can we better support students and to rethink our collective priorities.” 

The report said SUNY Geneseo has developed partnerships and new pathways with students, including collaborations with  MCC.

Click the link to read the full report: https://www.rochesterfirst.com/news/suny-campuses-working-on-attracting-students-as-enrollment-continues-to-dip/

Hency Yuen-Eng
Government and Community Relations
10/15/2021