I know this is not a topic that probably comes up anywhere but with the President as well as the Board, but it's something I've been thinking about lately. Should UofL change it's student recruiting focus?
We all know the strides UofL has made in the last 20 - 25 years, transforming from largely an urban commuter school with no student life (students leaving right after their classes are done) to a very traditional urban land grant university that has a very active student life and a significant portion of students living on or near campus. Heck who would've thought even 15 years ago that we would be at the point where freshmen are required to live on campus unless they are from the Louisville area and live with family. But that has happened and the transformation has I think been satisfying to all of us, whether you are an Alumni or just a friend of the university.
My question is this, what is the next step? My feeling is that the next step needs to be a change in our student recruiting focus. The vast majority of our students still come from the Louisville area, areas out in the state and areas in Indiana and Ohio. I'd like to change that a little bit and see our recruiting efforts focus more regionally.
In a way I would say forget about the state outside of the Louisville area (Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Bullitt, Hardin, Spencer and Nelson counties), let UK have that area. We are never going to be #1 in those areas to begin with. Plus most of those students are more country oriented and I'd like to see us focus on getting a more urban sophisticated student population. I'd like to see us have a regional focus, continue to focus on the Louisville area but also put a heavy emphasis on the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area as well as the Southern Indiana area. I would like to see us start really recruiting the Indianapolis and Chicago areas as well as the Nashville, Columbus and Atlanta areas. I think these are areas we could really do well in and improve our quality of incoming students. Kids from these areas would see the ability to go to a university that is in a developing urban area and not just some small college town. It would also grant them access to some growing industries that Louisville is home to.
I'd love to see future student classes breakdown like this:
Louisville Area: 35%
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Area: 15%
Indianapolis/Southern Indiana Area: 15%
Columbus Area: 5%
Nashville Area: 5%
Atlanta Area: 5%
Rest of Kentucky/rest of U.S.: 5%
Foreign born students: 15%
I feel like the next step for UofL is to start serving more affluent and diverse areas and slowly de-emphasize the poorer areas of the state. I would like to see 50% of all incoming students in future years at UofL come from outside Kentucky. In fact I would be okay with stopping all recruiting in Eastern Kentucky (anywhere east of I-75), Western Kentucky (anywhere west of Bowling Green/Owensboro) and Southern Kentucky (anywhere south of Elizabethtown). In terms of the state of Kentucky just focus on Louisville, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky and the stretch in between.
I'm not saying that out of dislike, I'm just saying let UK, EKU, Morehead, WKU and Murray service those student populations. We need to expand and diversify our student base and this is the way to do it. Doing this IMO is the next step in the transformation of UofL. What do you think?
We all know the strides UofL has made in the last 20 - 25 years, transforming from largely an urban commuter school with no student life (students leaving right after their classes are done) to a very traditional urban land grant university that has a very active student life and a significant portion of students living on or near campus. Heck who would've thought even 15 years ago that we would be at the point where freshmen are required to live on campus unless they are from the Louisville area and live with family. But that has happened and the transformation has I think been satisfying to all of us, whether you are an Alumni or just a friend of the university.
My question is this, what is the next step? My feeling is that the next step needs to be a change in our student recruiting focus. The vast majority of our students still come from the Louisville area, areas out in the state and areas in Indiana and Ohio. I'd like to change that a little bit and see our recruiting efforts focus more regionally.
In a way I would say forget about the state outside of the Louisville area (Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Bullitt, Hardin, Spencer and Nelson counties), let UK have that area. We are never going to be #1 in those areas to begin with. Plus most of those students are more country oriented and I'd like to see us focus on getting a more urban sophisticated student population. I'd like to see us have a regional focus, continue to focus on the Louisville area but also put a heavy emphasis on the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area as well as the Southern Indiana area. I would like to see us start really recruiting the Indianapolis and Chicago areas as well as the Nashville, Columbus and Atlanta areas. I think these are areas we could really do well in and improve our quality of incoming students. Kids from these areas would see the ability to go to a university that is in a developing urban area and not just some small college town. It would also grant them access to some growing industries that Louisville is home to.
I'd love to see future student classes breakdown like this:
Louisville Area: 35%
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Area: 15%
Indianapolis/Southern Indiana Area: 15%
Columbus Area: 5%
Nashville Area: 5%
Atlanta Area: 5%
Rest of Kentucky/rest of U.S.: 5%
Foreign born students: 15%
I feel like the next step for UofL is to start serving more affluent and diverse areas and slowly de-emphasize the poorer areas of the state. I would like to see 50% of all incoming students in future years at UofL come from outside Kentucky. In fact I would be okay with stopping all recruiting in Eastern Kentucky (anywhere east of I-75), Western Kentucky (anywhere west of Bowling Green/Owensboro) and Southern Kentucky (anywhere south of Elizabethtown). In terms of the state of Kentucky just focus on Louisville, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky and the stretch in between.
I'm not saying that out of dislike, I'm just saying let UK, EKU, Morehead, WKU and Murray service those student populations. We need to expand and diversify our student base and this is the way to do it. Doing this IMO is the next step in the transformation of UofL. What do you think?
