NSU exceeds recruiting goals, now faces housing troubles

NORFOLK

Administrators at Norfolk State University are learning to be careful what they ask for.

A key goal for the school has been to add students, and the latest figures show that enrollment is up more than 10 percent - nearly 400 more students than the school expected.

"That is exactly what we wanted," said Terricita Sass, interim executive director of enrollment management.

Now, though, the college has to find a place for them to live.

"There's no way I'm going to meet the goals that we have without more on-campus housing," Sass said.

Norfolk State soon will begin to explore what type of dorms should be built, where to put them and how to pay for them. Officials want a resolution as soon as possible.

Increasing the student body to 9,000 by 2013 was included in a five-point plan started last year. Officials thought they were being ambitious by aiming for 6,600 students for this fall because the head count was 6,325 last year and 6,155 in 2007. Nearing 7,000 now, the university is a year ahead of the schedule with the numbers up in all categories, including in-state, out-of-state, transfer and graduate students.

The school started several initiatives to boost enrollment, and the recession actually might have helped. Recruiters targeted former students who ha d left a few credits shy of graduating, and many of them returned. They realized they needed degrees to compete for jobs in the current economy, Sass said.

A tuition lock for out-of-state freshmen, which freezes prices for four years, also paid off. Enrollment for non-Virginia students, who have higher tuition rates, had been dropping, and officials expected the trend to continue. But the school has attracted more first-timers as well as retained other out-of-state students. As of Sept. 3, 1,441 were on the rolls, compared with 1,176 last year.

Plans include recruiting more transfer students from community colleges, sending financial award letters to accepted students more quickly and using scholarship money more freely. Sass said she often has a number of people who fall less than $1,000 short of what they need to enroll, and she was able to bridge more of those gaps.

Kandis Weatherall said she thought her hope of attending Norfolk State was dashed after her mother lost her job earlier this year. In the summer, the honor roll student wrote President Carolyn Meyers requesting a deposit refund and explaining her disappointment. Sass called the family in Los Angeles and helped them piece together a financial package.

Weatherall said she wasn't surprised that the school helped; officials had sent her a birthday card in March after she was accepted, which she considered a nice touch.

"I felt welcomed at Norfolk State," she said.

With more prospects looking at the university, more are asking about housing.

About 530 names sit on a waiting list for housing, including around 160 students who paid dorm deposits and are now staying at a Norfolk Holiday Inn. Students are moved onto campus as beds are freed up, but a good portion of the Holiday Inn will likely remain reserved until the end of the semester, officials said.

Norfolk State's newest dorms were built in 2005, and the university lost 49 beds this fall, with repair work at one residence hall and the renovation of another into the new honors college housing.

The campus has little open land for expansion. One possibility for development is the site of the Norfolk Community Hospital, once it is razed. The university owns the building and uses it for storage.

Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com