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University outlines enrollment push, scholarship changes and ends 'Gold Fridays' experiment
Summary
University leaders detailed recruitment goals and marketing efforts to boost fall 2025 enrollment, announced a new Black and Gold scholarship replacing the Griffin Guarantee to reduce volatility, and said a task force recommended returning to a five-day schedule (ending Gold Fridays) beginning fall 2025.
Missouri Western State University leaders told the Board of Governors they are stepping up recruitment and retention efforts, changing scholarship structures to reduce budget volatility and discontinuing the four-day "Gold Fridays" class schedule.
Dr. Jeffrey Foot, who addressed admissions and enrollment management, said the campus aims to enroll about 100 more freshmen and roughly 240 transfers for fall 2025. His office is expanding outreach — high-school visits, large-group discovery days and targeted CRM campaigns — and will deploy a new predictor tool in the CRM to identify inquiries most likely to convert.
The administration also described a change to scholarship policy: the board packet said the university will replace the Griffin Guarantee with a new "Black and Gold" scholarship. Administrators said the new approach removes annual escalators that created budget volatility, instead providing larger but stable awards across years so the present-year budget is more predictable.
President Dr. Kennedy framed these moves as part of a broader effort to align the university to Missouri's workforce and educational-attainment goals. He highlighted program growth in workforce-aligned areas (for example, the respiratory-therapy program and a doubling of enrollment in the MSW program) and noted a ribbon-cutting for the Hy/Ho(o)l Center scheduled for Nov. 15.
Dr. Kennedy also reported that a campus task force unanimously recommended returning to a five-day class schedule beginning in Fall 2025, ending the Gold Fridays experiment. The administration said the change follows faculty, staff and student feedback showing the four-day schedule reduced some opportunities to build community and complicated advisement and scheduling.
Board members were asked to advocate for state appropriations; the next board meeting is scheduled for Feb. 27, 2025.
No votes were required in public session for the scholarship change or schedule decision; the board accepted the administration's reports and approved motions on separate audit and construction items earlier in the meeting.
