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Missouri Western outlines strategic enrollment plan, seeks more state funding and restructures student-support services
Summary
President Elizabeth Kennedy presented a strategic enrollment plan focused on the university's 10-county service area and a push into the Kansas City market, reported recent successes and challenges in recruitment, and described changes to DEI-related student services and searches for new student-affairs leaders.
President Elizabeth Kennedy told the Board of Governors on Feb. 25 that Missouri Western State University is finalizing a strategic enrollment management plan aimed at stabilizing and growing headcount and diversifying revenue, and that she and university representatives have been advocating in Jefferson City for additional core state appropriations.
Kennedy said 76% of the university's students last year came from the university's 10-county service area and that, within that area, a five-county core supplies most students. She said freshmen remain concentrated in Buchanan County, which she described as experiencing demographic challenges that have depressed college-going rates; she told governors that nearly half of freshmen in fall 2024 came from Buchanan County. To address enrollment, the university has extended a contract with consultant Udall to embed in university processes to work on both short- and long-term recruitment, marketing and onboarding changes. Kennedy credited Vice President Daniel Holt and Chief Assistant for Strategic Initiatives Grama Wagner for leading much of the work and said the university will expand recruitment beyond its ten-county footprint into the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Admissions and recruitment leadership reported that applications are lagging in some places: Vice President for Admissions Jeffrey Foote said Buchanan County applications were down about 25 from this time last year and Kansas City, Missouri applications were down by about 100. Foote described a targeted approach that prioritizes personal outreach to students from select high-engagement schools in the Kansas City area, using targeted email, social media, personalized texts and phone calls, and focused school visits and college fairs to move inquiries to applications.
Kennedy also outlined the university's legislative priority: additional state funding for core appropriations. She told governors the cost of campus operations rose by nearly $6 million between FY2022 and FY2025 while the governor's recommended higher-education increase equates to less than $400,000 (a 1.5% recommendation minus a 3% withhold in staff description). Kennedy said she and local partners have presented the request to state elected officials and planned further travel to Jefferson City with a governor's delegation.
On student-support structure and DEI, Kennedy said recent federal and state executive orders affecting DEI at public institutions prompted internal changes: the Center for Diversity and Inclusion has been closed, and student-support programs previously under it will move to the Center for Student Involvement within Student Affairs. Searches are underway for a director of student activities and engagement to lead the Center for Student Involvement and for a dean of students; Vice President Galter will continue as vice president for student affairs until his planned departure this summer. Kennedy said the university remains an open-access regional public university and pledged continued support for students, staff and faculty.
Provost Jay Johnson, in his first board appearance, described priorities in academic affairs: improving student retention and reducing process barriers he identified as limiting institutional nimbleness, and noted faculty engagement in recruitment events. Johnson and Foote emphasized faculty and staff participation in upcoming recruitment events as part of the enrollment push.
Board members asked about marketing lead times and return on investment; Foote acknowledged a lag for broad marketing effects and described the university's strategy to "short circuit" longer-burn approaches by identifying students who have taken specific actions (site visits or FAFSA submissions) and focusing individualized outreach on them.
Kennedy concluded by noting ongoing diversification of revenue through advancement and workforce-development efforts, and that more details would be provided to the board as initiatives progress.
