A new strategic enrollment plan that promised to enhance student success and increase Otterbein’s financial investments was accepted by the Board of Trustees.
The new enrollment plan will increase Otterbein’s financial strength. It encompasses increasing the size of the undergraduate class and helping students make it through all four years at Otterbein.
In the recent enrollment update, vice president for Enrollment Management Jefferson Blackburn-Smith wrote Otterbein will have to make an investment of about $500,000 per year to fund recruitment, marketing, student services, support to the academic core and the development of new academic programs.
Earlier this month, a new mission statement was accepted along with the enrollment plan by the board of trustees to reflect Otterbein as an inclusive community and acknowledge the school’s history.
While nothing was wrong with the old mission statement, the university wanted to revise the statement to reflect Otterbein as a community, according to Blackburn-Smith.
“We had to ask ourselves if we were structured appropriately to fit the needs of students in the 21st century,” Blackburn-Smith said.
The school will ensure that the ratio of need-based aid to the cost of attendance will be the same as it is now.
Otterbein will be working on targeted merit scholarships to encourage the enrollment of students.
Otterbein will also be creating new majors to appeal to more areas of educational interest. This new plan will address the integrative studies program directly.
It will help new, incoming students and their parents understand the INST program and demonstrate how this program sets Otterbein apart from other colleges.
The INST program is unique to Otterbein because it includes a variety of majors in a single INST class. This allows students from different backgrounds to relate and learn from one another even if they do not have the same focus of study.
“At Otterbein, when you are a senior in an INST class, you will still have other students from other majors in your classes,” Blackburn-Smith said. “Whereas at other colleges, all Gen Ed courses are taken first and students from different majors are never seen in the same classroom by senior year.”
The revised mission statement centers on educating the whole person deeply and broadly in both the student’s major and world experience, Blackburn-Smith said. It also coincides with the new enrollment plan which is built to enhance student success.
The goal is to allow Otterbein to move forward and measure what impacts students, how quickly students receive degrees and how successful they are in their educational endeavors at Otterbein.
