Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
The spring semester started Wednesday at Montana State University- Northern, with enrollment about even with the spring semester of 2008, and with the university’s chancellor looking to beef that up in future years. “Our goal is to be up 3 percent next fall over last year,” Rolf Groseth said in an interview Thursday. Northern broke even last fall, showing a total head count up two from the fall of 2007. That was viewed as a victory for the institution by Groseth and Montana State University President Geoff Gamble, stopping a slide in which Northern had an enrollment decline in six of seven years. The university went from a head count of 1,531 students in the fall of 2002 to 1,215 in the fall of 2007, reporting that year the largest drop in the university system with 173 fewer students. Groseth said he expects Northern to about break even with its head count of 1,135 students last spring, with the official enrollment count set for early February. He expects the count to be zero to 10 students lower than last spring semester’s count, he said. Northern has for each of the last six years also lost students from the fall semester to the spring semester and had a drop from the previous year each year. Northern dropped from 1,491 students enrolled in the fall semester of 2002 to the 1.135 counted last year. Groseth, who was appointed interim chancellor when Chancellor Alex Capdeville announced his retirement effective the end of December 2007, said the university is working to increase its enrollment. The stagnation or drop that seems to be coming this semester still needs to be analyzed, he added. If the drop from last fall is due to fewer new students coming to the college in the spring, that means one thing, if it is because enrolled students are dropping out that is a retention problem. That has been one of the key issues Groseth has cited in stabilizing enrollment, making sure students who come to Northern finish their degrees there. Groseth said the current economic problems could lead to problems in enrollment in the short term less money could mean fewer students, although he added that Northern’s financial aid department can help students with that problem but in the long run could help enrollment. Good-paying jobs have been plentiful for high school graduates in the last few years, Groseth said. With the economy in a downswing and unemployment on the rise, that could lead to more high school graduates deciding to come to college, he said. Northern is taking action to try to increase its enrollment, Groseth added, both in bringing in new students and attracting students to come for fouryear degrees after completing a two-year program in other schools. One of those actions is hot off the press. The university has unveiled the first of a series of short videos highlighting its four-year diesel program, one of Northern’s strengths. The professionally filmed video highlights the equipment and facilities in the program, which includes a new state-of-theart Applied Technology Center that houses a topnotch fuel analysis and certification lab, as well as describing the partnerships the program has with industry. That partnership led to the creation of the video Groseth said businesses Northern partners with like Caterpillar and GE as well as local businesses like Tilleman Motor Co., Clausen and Sons construction and Patrick Construction paid for the creation of the video, which will be sent to prospective students. More segments highlighting other aspects of the program are planned, which will be included in a DVD, Groseth said. He added that the businesses paying for the creation of the video illustrates the partnership the university has with them they want the program to grow and more students to graduate. “They’re pretty happy with the product, and they want more of them,” Groseth said. The university is also working to create more partnerships with community colleges, technical colleges and tribal colleges, allowing a smooth transition of two-year graduates into Northern’s four-year programs. One of those partnerships is with a school in West Memphis, Ark. Groseth said Mid-South Community College, a two-year institution, is implementing Northern’s diesel curriculum and has a faculty member in Havre this semester to work on transplanting that curriculum. That could lead to students from the West Memphis college coming to Havre to finish their four-year degrees, and other options such as Northern faculty teaching at Mid-South Community College, Groseth said. The university also is working to increase articulation agreements, allowing students to transfer smoothly to Northern, with schools in Montana and other states in the region. Groseth said staff members will be going out next week to visit nine community colleges in Washington and Oregon some of which already have articulation agreements with Northern to talk about students coming to Havre after they finish their two-year degrees. Northern also is working to increase its partnerships with the Fort Belknap Tribal College and Stone Child College at Rocky Boy, as well as the Great Falls College of Technology. Groseth said Northern also is working to increase its enrollment in new students. “That’s always going to be our bread and butter, students who start here,” he said. He said for that, Northern will concentrate on the region in Montana considered its coverage area, a vast region from the North Dakota border to Browning and south to Great Falls and Lewistown. He added that those students, in one respect, can be easier to recruit. “You know where to find them,” Groseth said. “They’re in the high schools.”
