|
Post by firstdev on Aug 26, 2014 15:29:10 GMT -5
Two very intriguing articles published in recent days regarding enrollment trends at SBU. First the Buffalo News in a front page A section article published on 8/27/14, noted the decline in enrollments of the regional private colleges and universities, while noting increases in the regional SUNY public schools (not all SUNY campuses however increased their enrollments). Data does not include 2014/2015 frosh and transfer figures however. The article states that for SBU overall enrollment was down 7% in the period between 2007 and 2013. The decline between 2012 and 2013 was 3.6%. By contrast CC declined 7.8% over the five year period and 7.5% for the 2012/2013 period. NU five year drop was only 4.7%, and the one year decline was only 0.2%. Hilbert's five year trend shows growth at 6.3%, and the one year trend was a decline of 1.6 %, certainly not a bad showing, even for skeptics like myself. That is the bad news, now for some good news. The Olean Times Herald's article (I know it sometimes prints our SBU press releases verbatim, but it tries very hard, and its heart is in the right place) on 8/22/14 on page A1 reported that the SBU welcomed more than 500 new students for the academic year. If true, and I assume it is, this would indicate a frosh class of approx. 10% more than for the 2013/2014 year, adjusted for transfer arrivals Good news indeed, and a great trend here. The more resources you can direct to student recruiting services and the more co-operation from SBU's great loyal alum base the better we will be in the long term. This is a very special and comfortable place to learn and grow, a fantastic community, located on one of the most beautiful campuses in America, in the Catholic/Franciscan tradition - what's not to like? Oh, did I mention D1 athletics - congratulations to the Women's Soccer Team - the very first victory on the new athletic fields! SBU 1 Kent State 0
|
|
|
Post by class70 on Aug 26, 2014 15:50:26 GMT -5
Having just today jumped through some administrative hoops imposed by Merrill Lynch to donate some stock to SBU, I'm glad to hear this year's freshman class looks good. I want to underline what firstdev said about "one of the most beautiful campuses" in America. I'm quite familiar with Colgate, which came in #1 in this year's Princeton Review as the most beautiful, but I have never found it as appealing as Bona's.
|
|
|
Post by towniegrad on Aug 26, 2014 18:34:11 GMT -5
Amazing to me that with its beautiful campus ,amenities ,loyal alumni . those diligently recruited students are jumping ship as soon as possible to live in Allegany..the school is losing a fortune.
|
|
|
Post by sony on Aug 26, 2014 21:58:15 GMT -5
Interesting item in the Buff News article - Buff State is housing its overflow students in the underutilized dorms at Canisius!!
Sorry firstdev, the Lady Bonnies Booters 1st win over Kent State came in Bradford, PA as the field was not ready. The game coming up against the Purple Eagles will be the first one on the new "pitch"!
|
|
|
Post by Saulius Dumbliauskas on Aug 27, 2014 10:14:25 GMT -5
www.oleantimesherald.com/article_1e9c1f5c-29fb-11e4-820a-001a4bcf887a.htmlSt. Bonaventure welcomes new freshman class Tom Donahue/Olean Times Herald Posted: Friday, August 22, 2014 8:52 am By Tom Donahue Olean Times Herald ST. BONAVENTURE — A small army of new students moved into residence halls at St. Bonaventure University on Thursday, and a small army of volunteers was there to lend a hand. It was move-in day for this year’s freshman class at St. Bonaventure, and wide-eyed new students and their parents got plenty of help with the heavy lifting. Helping to haul the suitcases, footlockers, bedding, computers and mini-fridges from curbside to residence hall rooms were volunteers from returning classes. “We had peer leaders, orientation leaders, ROTC cadets and rugby players helping out,” said Rebecca Wager, assistant director for residential living at the university. St. Bonaventure welcomes more than 500 new students this academic year. Many of the freshmen are moving into Robinson and Falconio halls, freshman residence halls that were renovated over the summer as part of a $7.5 million project. The work included upgrades to student rooms, lounges, halls, restrooms, laundry facilities and other common spaces. The project also included upgrades to Devereux Hall, a residence hall for sophomores, juniors and seniors, which included installation of a fireplace in a first-floor lounge area and enhancements to other common spaces. Freshmen will participate in several days of Welcome Days activities prior to the start of fall semester classes Monday. “Welcome Days is very similar to orientation, only more in-depth,” Ms. Wager said. “Students will meet with faculty and there will be different sessions about a number of issues, such as alcohol education, sexual violence, time management, life in residence halls, as well as information on the various resources available on campus.” Upperclassmen will return over the weekend, most of them on Saturday, Ms. Wager said.
|
|
|
Post by 5and23 on Aug 28, 2014 11:05:24 GMT -5
Love the "more than 500" line in the article. Stringing together a few classes of that size should go a long way toward keeping Bonaventure healthy.
Anyone get a look at these dorm renovations? It's good that work was done, but still hard to image Rob/Fall really being improved much. Any firsthand reports?
|
|
|
Post by bva on Aug 28, 2014 11:35:51 GMT -5
It is not clear whether "new" equals freshmen + transfer (my interpretation) or just freshmen.
|
|
|
Post by sbu79 on Aug 28, 2014 12:53:08 GMT -5
It is not clear whether "new" equals freshmen + transfer (my interpretation) or just freshmen. I wouldn't interpret it any other way than how you did, but focusing on the number "new" rather than the size of the Freshman class makes a better impression. I'm inclince to believe the number of Freshmem remained in line with earlier reported numbers.
|
|
|
Post by schmidtface on Aug 28, 2014 13:02:24 GMT -5
Amazing to me that with its beautiful campus ,amenities ,loyal alumni . those diligently recruited students are jumping ship as soon as possible to live in Allegany..the school is losing a fortune. Well a few reasons. First off students living in Allegany can enjoy the campus, amenities, alumni, etc. My personal reasons for living off campus were to escape from the RAs (They're bad) and becuase it is seriously like 50% cheaper than living on campus.
|
|
|
Post by gdub2009 on Aug 28, 2014 13:28:29 GMT -5
Plus living on campus you had to have 4 or 6 people in the apartments. In my case there were 3 of us so it was a lot easier finding housing off campus.
|
|
|
Post by thesenator on Aug 28, 2014 14:18:18 GMT -5
Plus living on campus you had to have 4 or 6 people in the apartments. In my case there were 3 of us so it was a lot easier finding housing off campus. it seems to me there are a couple of issues here that need some answers: 1) how many empty beds are there on campus now and 2) what can we do to get the seniors to stay on campus?...re #1, if there aren't many empty beds on campus then i guess it works out that some seniors are living off campus...my bet (and i don't have any hard figures to back this up) is that we have more empty beds on campus than we want to, which leads to #2 which i have one suggestion for: match what the landlords in town are getting for rent...i wasn't a math major, but it seems to me that a senior livng on campus (even if it's less than what the normal cost for board is) makes the school more money than an empty bed would...and to use your situation, gdub, as one way to accomodate the seniors would be to let 3 live in a 4 person townhouse...i also realize there are some things about living off campus that bonas can't match (the freedom from the ra's and in-town amenities would be two)...so be it...but if there are some seniors that could be persuaded into staying on campus with suggestions like those just mentioned, why not give it a shot?...
|
|
|
Post by jjjacks17 on Aug 28, 2014 14:52:52 GMT -5
I don't think that getting seniors to stay on campus is that much of a pressing issue. The townhouses and gardens are full every year which means that juniors/seniors who don't have high enough lottery numbers are forced to go off campus or resort to living in Dev or Francis for another year. I think the number of townhouse apartments is only slightly lower than the demand for them. No matter what school it is there will always be numbers of students with desires to live off campus.
|
|
|
Post by chippie76 on Aug 29, 2014 18:18:17 GMT -5
Before everyone gets too excited about the good news of 500 new students the bona electronic alumni office newsletter I received this week states
Freshmen arrive! The Bonaventure journey has begun for more than 400 freshmen who arrived on campus this week. See what's in store for them during their first year on campus.
Big differance
|
|
|
Post by bbb on Aug 30, 2014 3:50:54 GMT -5
500 IS more than 400. I learned that in DeLaRoche
|
|
|
Post by bva on Aug 30, 2014 19:49:11 GMT -5
While it is true that 500 > 400, the fact that 400 is used in the statement implies that the number is nowhere close to 500! Otherwise, the statement would most likely have been worded as "nearly 500."
|
|