Applications up
Salinas Californian1/16/07
As of Dec. 21, the admissions office had received 6,247 freshman applications, a 21 percent increase over the previous year's figure. Of this year's applicants, 3,900 have been admitted to the Seaside campus. The surge is in step with a statewide trend.
The application volume shattered figures from the past six years, nearly doubling the total from the year 2000. With months to go before this year's application round ends and classes reach enrollment limits, administrators expect to top the all-time high of 6,369 received for the fall 2005 term.
"It really is very good news," university President Dianne Harrison said Thursday.
Harrison credited the school's student-affairs and admissions staff for more aggressive recruitment efforts, such as keeping frequent contact with prospective applicants and shortening the time between when an application is received and when a student is accepted.
"We're in a competitive era with colleges and universities," she said. "With more contact, students really start to feel a sense of connection, and in some instances, loyalty."
That extra effort helped win over 17-year-old Cecilia Moreno when she took a field trip to the campus last fall and met with a host of recruiters.
Moreno, a senior at Everett Alvarez High School in Salinas, will attend CSUMB as a freshman this fall. She said she was attracted both by the university's liberal studies major and its proximity to Salinas.
Hometown connection
"I like the area," said Moreno, who aspires to become an elementary school teacher. "And it's closer to ... my community."
Stepped-up recruitment efforts in the tri-county area - Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito - is another of Harrison's enrollment goals.
But before the campus can start bracing for a flood of freshmen next fall, Harrison said, she's waiting to see if the application and acceptance numbers translate into actual enrollments.
"The real proof will be in the yield rate," she said.
The application boost also marks what has been a fairly smooth start for Harrison, who this past summer took the helm as the university's second president.
She is overseeing an ongoing physical transformation at the Seaside campus, with old buildings from its Army base days being razed and new buildings - including a flagship library - replacing them.
Since her arrival, roads have been renamed, and new signage has gone up, helping visitors navigate the often confusing mix of streets leading to the heart of campus. That helps fulfill another of Harrison's goals: Decreasing the physical and emotional distance between the campus and adjacent cities of Marina and Seaside.
Clear boundaries
"We're just plugging along, trying to make the campus a welcome environment that feels and looks like a campus," she said.
In the coming months, planners will work toward creating more distinct physical boundaries between the university and surrounding communities, Harrison said.
"We're an odd shape, and it's difficult to see where the campus ends and where it begins," she said, adding that work will be done to improve the campus' Salinas-side entryway from Imjin Road.
But at least one fan of the campus' former glory as the West Coast's largest U.S. military base remains: Moreno said the drive past old installations and barracks gives her a unique glimpse into local history.
"It's an opportunity to pass by and see how they lived," she said.