Officials at Georgia Perimeter College have unveiled a new campaign aimed at boosting student enrollment, retention and graduation.

GPC Interim President Rob Watts introduced the “A Better Way Forward” initiative during a series of meetings March 24-29 for faculty and staff. Those attending viewed a new promotional video and learned about plans to upgrade college operating systems, simplify admission processes and strengthen support of students through more focused academic advising.

Among the specific changes are:

• Ÿ      A website home page focused solely on recruitment and enrollment;
• Ÿ      An early-alert system for students who are struggling academically and are in need of interventions;
• Ÿ      A new admissions process which, among other features, pairs perspective students with a college employee who will guild the student through the registration process.

Georgia Perimeter also is launching a marketing campaign to let interested students know about the value of GPC and how it can be “A Better Way Forward” for them.

GPC has much to offer college students, Watts said, such as the lowest higher-education tuition in the state, small classes and award-winning faculty.

However, changes to the Pell Grant and HOPE scholarship eligibility requirements, state adjustments to academic admissions standards and other influences have contributed to a 22 percent enrollment dip over the past two years. That dip is reflective of a national trend of shrinking college attendance rates.  

“We must now shift our focus to the future and moving the college forward,” Watts said. “From this point on, our priority is enrollment, admitting more students and retaining more students.”

One goal of GPC’s “A Better Way Forward” campaign and the functional improvements is to increase enrollment this fall by 1,000 students, he said.

Watts says GPC is changing the way it does business in response to a variety of factors. The college is addressing feedback from student focus groups held last year. GPC also is working to support the statewide Complete College Georgia initiative, which targets the state’s workforce demands with a goal of graduating 250,000 students statewide in just over 10 years.

Also, beginning next year, the state’s new funding formula will challenge all higher education institutions to recruit, retain and graduate more students.

“For the first time, state funding will not be determined by how many students come through the front door—on inputs—as it is now,” Watts said.

“Instead, colleges and universities will receive state funds based on academic outputs—the number of students who progress to 15 hours, to 30 hours, to 45 hours, to graduation, and the number of students who transfer to a four-year school at any point.”

Watts’ presentation also made reference to a recent state audit of Georgia Perimeter, which shows the college operating in the black and on a sound financial track. It concluded with him encouraging all faculty and staff members to view themselves as personal recruiters for the college.

“When you talk about Georgia Perimeter College,” Watts said, “there are a lot of very impressive things you can say.”

For example, he said, Georgia Perimeter enrolls more freshmen every year than any other college or university in the state and has maintained the fifth largest number of HOPE scholars of any institution within the University System of Georgia during the past 20 years.

George Williams, associate director of advising on GPC Newton Campus, says he embraces the campaign full heartedly.

“I like the message—it’s clear and precise and gives you something you can actually focus on.”

http://youtu.be/CvyWJm8TxcA

Click here to watch the GPC “A Better Way Forward” video:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GAPerimeterCollege