By Matthew Fowler, Managing Editor
Newman University started the fall semester with 405 new undergraduate students, a number that is just shy of the all-time high enrollment of 435 students in the fall of 2010 and nearly 100 more than the 307 undergraduates who enrolled last year.
Michael Probus, Newman’s vice president for enrollment management, said that the enrollment bump indicates that prospective students are more excited to enroll once they find out about Newman’s advantages.
“It is a sign that the message is resonating with the students and families out in the community,” Probus said. “They really saw the value in Newman and that this is a good academic home for them and that this is a great spiritual home for them.”
Probus said that the growth was largely thanks to concentrated efforts by his department, including promoting higher application completion rates, improving the use of data and software (to do what?), and offering more opportunities for prospective students to meet with student ambassadors, admissions counselors and faculty. He said the admissions team brought more than 1,600 prospective students to campus this year compared to 900 last year. The visiting students participated in 272 hour-long, one-on-one meetings with Newman faculty members.
“That’s more interactions that students are having with professors, more times that they are seeing the classroom and more times that they are just seeing Newman students be Newman students,” Probus said. “I always share with students, ‘I want you to be truly happy with the school that you pick… I want you to be here and be thrilled to put that Newman shirt on in August.’”
This year also marks the highest combined enrollment from Wichita’s Catholic high schools, Bishop Carroll and Kapaun Mt. Carmel, with 22 and 19 respectively, Probus said.
Spreading Newman’s message to prospective students will remain a goal for next year along with improved outreach to new areas of Kansas and surrounding states, he said.
“Newman in his own town was a light for the world, and Newman University is also a light for the world, so we need to get out as far and wide as we can to share that message,” Probus said.
KJ Burns, a first-year student and member of the bowling team, said that one of the reasons he chose Newman was the compassion he saw when he toured campus.
“Everyone's just so nice,” Burns said. “That's also another thing that drew me here is the student body and the faculty. They're all just so nice. That's a big thing I was looking for when I took a tour. They were not lying when they said everyone was nice here.”
Burns also said that he is excited to get out of his comfort zone this year and that he has already come to like his professors and classes.
“I'm really enjoying it so far,” he said. “So, I think I made the right choice.”
PHOTO: Courtesy, Newman Today
