Enrollment, tuition increases and additions to MUPD for 2018

As the 2017-18 school year comes to a close, the Marshall University administration is already preparing for the next year. President Jerry Gilbert said he is confident with what has been accomplished this year, including an increase in applications and a 2 percent increase in the graduation rate.

Gilbert said his main goal moving forward is enrollment.

“My first and foremost goal is enrollment, to try to increase the enrollment of Marshall graduate and undergraduate population,” Gilbert said. “We’ve been working very hard to try to get a handle on that.”

Gilbert said some of the ways he has tried to increase enrollment is by visiting high schools across West Virginia and the Tri-State Area and by also adding new programs, such as biomedical engineering.

Some students have found it difficult to attend not just Marshall but other universities as well because of increasing tuition costs. Student body President-Elect Hunter Barclay said he agrees that increasing enrollment is one of his main goals, because he believes it will keep tuition costs down.

“An essential aspect of preventing tuition increases is to recruit more students to attend Marshall,” Barclay said. “I believe we should increase our recruitment campaigns among metro-rate counties and out-of-state students.”

Gilbert said while increasing tuition is not his first choice, he hopes to slow down in terms of tuition increases. In the March Student Government election, students voted to pass a proposed $50 increase to the student activity fee. Gilbert also said the tuition increase would go to programs that will benefit students directly.

“One of the things that we’ll be doing with the tuition increase that goes into effect next year is we’re going to be adding 10 new police officers, and we’ll be expanding our coverage area of our police force,” Gilbert said. “We’re going to be going up Hal Greer Boulevard to the medical center. We’re also increasing our financial aid for both need-based and merit-based scholarships.”

Kyra Biscarner can be contacted at [email protected].