First-year enrollment breaks record, campus leaders look to the future

As first-time, full-time first-year enrollment made university history with a class of 1,427 students, campus leaders look towards the future of a growing USD community.

This record first-year enrollment is a 6.4 percent increase over the 2017 incoming freshman class. Specifically, this year’s freshman enrollment saw an increase in South Dakota students of 7.2 percent, an 8.4 percent increase of first-year Iowa students and a 25 percent increase of first-year Nebraska students.

The record prior to this year was 1,250 first-year students in 2010, said Scott Pohlson, the vice president of enrollment, marketing and University relations. 

Pohlson said he believes USD has the largest first-year class among the other Board of Regents (BOR) schools.

“I’d like to think we had the largest freshman or first time enrollment of anyone in the BOR, but I don’t know that for sure… it certainly appears as though we had the best year for first-time enrollment of any BOR institution, from what I can see in the numbers,” he said.

Successful recruitment

Pohlson said the increase could be attributed to the “We are South Dakota” campaign, in-state tuition for Nebraska and Iowa students, campus improvements and successful academic, athletic and fine arts programs.

“We saw success in our in-state rate for Iowans, and that was a major focus of ours three years ago… since our distance isn’t very far, it’s worked tremendously well. This is the third year of more than 4 percent growth in our first-time Iowa students,” Pohlson said. “The one we just implemented last year was the in-state rate for Nebraska, and that started in December, and that grew and it grew significantly.

USD’s record first-year enrollment is also attributed to marketing strategies and goals over the past decade, Pohlson said.

“I also think there’s just something about USD that is sort of having a resurgence, I mean we’ve put almost $400 million into this institution over the past ten years,” he said. “The students that are coming now what the USD used to look like before them, they only see this new product… all of those people are seeing a different type of USD that was a strategy ten years ago, and that’s now come to fruition.”

The successful first-year recruitment is thanks to the student ambassadors, faculty, administration and the maintenance and grounds crew, Pohlson said.

“The first thing that it does is it allows us to feel that we’re doing the right things. It’s really nice to know in life that when you’re working hard, that you’re seeing the results of that,” he said.

Looking to the future

Pohlson also said because of the success in Iowa and Nebraska, the university hopes to expand its reach to other regions of the country in the future.

“We’re only in the beginning phases of this… We need to look more instead of just contiguous states, more the regional component of locations we need to expand to, and we are going to do that,” Pohlson said. “So that’s probably the biggest thing that will change is how will USD’s footprint expand… We want to expand that as we go forward.”

Josh Sorbe, president of USD’s Student Government Association said the university will need to focus on retention in the future.

“We have to shift the focus from not only recruiting and bringing in first-years but to maintaining them as sophomores, juniors and seniors,” Sorbe said. “As well as continuing to not let this become a peak for freshmen enrollment, and continuing to grow going into the future.”

Sorbe also said the increase suggests that USD is a successful institution.

“I think it shows that we want to be a part of something that’s successful. We’ve had a lot of successes lately, with athletics, with facility renovations, with programs having substantial award recognitions and students going on to be in Hamilton in Chicago, for example,” he said. “People want to be a part of something that’s successful, and I think that that’s what our freshman enrollment is starting to reflect.”

A larger student body

Sorbe said the increased first-year enrollment will allow for more student resources.

“We don’t have the final numbers from the university budget committee yet, but with this record enrollment, that means that there’ll be more General Activity Fee dollars available for allocation, although we’re not necessarily sure if that will come to SGA,” Sorbe said.

The increased funding will allow the university to make improvements to accommodate with the enrollment increase, Pohlson said.

“It should mean over time significantly more funding, in terms of our ability to maintain the facilities that we have and expand programs for academic units,” Pohlson said. “It should also mean a sense of pride and a kind of a new USD, which is a bigger institution, which I think actually helps in terms of our reputation regionally.”

Pohlson also said the increased number of first-year students brings more excitement to campus.

“It also fills classrooms, I think there’s an energy that comes with that, from a sports standpoint, from fine arts events, campus activities grow,” he said. “For the community, it means more students here buying and shopping and making us more of a vibrant community as well, so that’s an advantage both ways.”

Konrad Schmidt-Grimminger, a first-year biology and German major, said although he has not noticed that the freshman class is larger, he understands that the increase is important to the university.

“Potentially, (there will be) brighter minds coming, more people you have to educate,” Schmidt-Grimminger said. “And then (there are) more people to graduate, who could potentially help out USD in the future, like with alumni and stuff.”

Accommodations

The increase in first-year students has created a need for housing accommodations, Pohlson said.

“Housing is a problem. If this keeps going, which is obviously that’s obviously the plans President Gestring has for this area, we’re going to need more housing,” Pohlson said.

Pohlson also said campus will need to gain more understanding of diversity and inclusion.

“So we also saw a growth in diversity in this year’s class, but that also means new focuses on services on campus, and understanding how our culture will change in the future,” he said. “I think the growth is going to come more from a different population base than USD has served in the past.”

In a university press release, university president Sheila Gestring said she excited to see the increase first-year enrollment.  

“Now, more than ever is a great time to be a Coyote,” she said. “As we move forward, we have (a) tremendous reason for optimism.”