Early UH-Hilo enrollment numbers ‘on par’ with expectations

Efforts to address dwindling student enrollment might be paying off for the University of Hawaii at Hilo, although early enrollment numbers are still down slightly compared last fall.

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Farrah-Marie Gomes said that last fall the student population was 3,406. On Aug. 26, UH-Hilo started its new academic year with 3,266 students.

However, Gomes said Early College and Running Start students, two categories of high school students who can take college classes for credit, and unclassified students weren’t able to register until Aug. 26.

“(We) always know the number on Monday is going to be an all-time low because there is that population that is just waiting for Monday to unlock their registration ability,” she said.

By Friday morning, though, Gomes said the student body had increased to 3,342, just 64 students below last fall’s count.

Compared to the same point in time last year — one week into the school year this fall compared to one week into the school year last fall — Gomes said “that particular comparison is showing us down only 12 students,” which is a 0.4% decrease.

Enrollment has long been a challenge for the university, with UH-Hilo’s student population declining every year since 2012 when it peaked at 4,157 students after several years of growth.

Work with EAB, a higher education consulting firm, on recruitment efforts led to an increase of applications and acceptances to the university for the current school year.

“Our contract with EAB specifically targets first-time freshmen,” Gomes said, adding that the contract focused on marketing to high school sophomores, juniors and seniors, “getting them into the pipeline.”

According to Gomes, the number of first-time freshmen was up by 41 students Friday, a 10% increase from the fall 2018 numbers.

“We are excited about the outcome of our first year of work with EAB to better recruit qualified first-time freshmen to UH-Hilo,” she said. “We are even more excited about what we learned through the first year of contract and work together and expect larger gains in the future.”

The number of transfer students also increased by 44 students, a 10.4% increase from the same point in time last fall.

“This past year in particular, UH-Hilo has put emphasis on how do we better recruit and retain transfer students,” Gomes said.

The university hired a transfer admission counselor, who is based on Oahu because four of the University of Hawaii Community Colleges are located there.

It “makes more sense for (a) transfer counselor to be closest to the largest pool of students,” Gomes said.

“So that was a deliberate strategy on our part, and focusing on our transfer student population, we also made additional internal adjustments with staffing to focus on services to transfer students.”

Gomes said it’s hard to say whether controversy over the Thirty Meter Telescope, planned to be constructed on Maunakea, is directly impacting UH-Hilo enrollment.

UH leases more than 11,000 acres of the mountain that are part of the Maunakea Science Reserve.

“We have had students reach out to us with questions and concerns to which we have responded,” Gomes said. “UH-Hilo is committed to ensuring all of our students are able to pursue their educational aspirations and it is our duty to ensure that peaceful and respectful conversation can happen on the campus, regardless of people’s positions on any topic. So that is really the core mission for our university — that students are able to think critically, be innovative in their action in what they choose to pursue and always doing that in a way that is respectful to others. We have had very interesting conversations with students and staff alike that allows us to think more broadly about our role as a higher education institution in this community.”

Early numbers at the university, however, are “on par with what we were expecting,” Gomes said. “We were hoping to be even from last year. We know we still have work to do where continuing students are concerned, and that’s where our retention efforts are important.”

But being less than a half-percent change in either direction “is really close to having a break-even year,” Gomes said. “That’s really, really, exciting after many, many years of seeing constant declines. … Six years negative (declines) and we feel we’re finally starting to turn a corner.”

Gomes said it has taken the work of many to impact this type of change, “and the hard work of all those people is really what is coming to fruition now. The credit for what we’re seeing really goes to the faculty and staff at UH-Hilo for the efforts they put in these strategy areas of recruitment and retention because we would not be where we are today without the collaborative efforts between both of those initiatives.”

Gomes, however, said the university is not completely satisfied with the early numbers.

“While we are pleased about the direction we are moving, we also realize that we still have a lot of work to do,” she said. “This change in trend trajectory affirms that the work we’ve started is working and we’re committed to continuing the hard work that so many have already started to contribute to.”

UH-Hilo’s student census will be conducted Sept. 27.

Email Stephanie Salmons at ssalmons@hawaiitribune-herald.com.