(upbeat music) - Universities across the state saw a decrease in enrollment numbers following the pandemic.

Some of those numbers have started to slowly increase, but how has recruitment changed in recent years and what impact is that having on Nebraska students?

We discussed that tonight on Speaking of Nebraska.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Thanks for joining us on Speaking of Nebraska.

I'm Nebraska Public Media News Director, Jay Omar.

Many higher education institutions across the state have seen enrollment numbers drop or remain stagnant over the past few years.

Throughout the next half hour, we'll talk with education representatives about the changes they have seen following the pandemic and what they are hearing from students when deciding on their next step.

But first, Nebraska Public Media News wanted to find out where the latest available data shows students are heading right after high school.

Reporter Jolie Peal has this story.

- The pandemic changed the education landscape.

Data from the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education shows that fewer high school graduates in Nebraska went to college in 2020.

Researchers say they hope more recent data will show improvements.

(chatter) Only about 60% of high school graduates went on to college in the 2020 fall semester.

That number was a sharp decrease from the almost 70% of students the state usually sees.

According to Mike Baumgartner, the executive director for the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, he says the growing amount of jobs in the workforce, military opportunities, and a lack of feeling prepared because of the pandemic could be causing this.

- [Mike] If you are finding good workforce opportunities straight out of high school, that's good.

The state is starving for workers.

But keep in mind that we have lots of opportunities to meld that with postsecondary education to give you, to give students the opportunities that - [Jolie] Baumgartner says although the number of students going to college decreased, the breakdown of where they went stayed about the same.

Around eight out of 10 students stay in Nebraska for postsecondary.

Baumgartner says most of the students going out of state tend to choose schools in nearby states like Kansas, Iowa, and South Dakota.

- [Mike] But in general, college students stay within 50 or 80 miles of where they grew up.

- [Jolie] He says Nebraska schools bring in more students than the amount who leave.

While about 2,500 left in fall 2020, about 3,400 students came to the state for college.

- [Mike] I'm pleasantly surprised maybe that we are continuing to keep 81 to 82% of the students who are leaving high school and going into college, that they're staying in state.

Nebraska's been very, very steady on that course.

- [Jolie] Currently, the University of Nebraska system recruits about 50% of in-state students.

Community colleges get around 29% and state colleges like Wayne State and Chadron State get 8%.

The last 13% go to independent colleges like Creighton University and Nebraska Wesleyan.

According to Baumgartner, the state has a goal for 70% of the population to have education passed high school.

- [Mike] That's because that's what national organizations have projected for our workforce, that we're gonna need people, we're gonna need 70% of our population to have some education beyond a high school diploma.

And I guess I shouldn't say some education, some valuable education.

- [Jolie] Baumgartner says he hopes to see the amount of students going to college return to what it was before the pandemic.

For Nebraska Public Media News, I'm Jolie Peal.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Joining us now are three college admissions representatives who work with students in Nebraska institutions.

Bill Motzer is the vice president for Enrollment Management at Nebraska Wesleyan.

Kat Kreikemeier is the administrative director of Administrative and Career Services for Southeast Community College, and Kelli Backman is the director of recruitment for Lincoln, Omaha, and online education at Doane University.

Thanks so much for joining me today.

-I really appreciate it.

- Thank you.

- And I'll ask a question to each of you individually, but if you feel like you have something to add, feel free to jump in and then voice your opinion.

So we'll start with you, Bill.

What does the application process look like at Nebraska Wesleyan and has that shifted at all in the recent years?

- Well, I would first wanna start with wanting your audience to know that the application process shouldn't be daunting.

It shouldn't be intimidating.

All of us wanna make a higher education accessible for students.

And so the first thing would be for our students to understand that the application is a process to get to know them.

So they're putting forward what their interests are, their majors, some of their goals, the activities that they wanna pursue in college.

And that's part of the application process.

But through that, we begin to come to know them.

And as they come to visit campus, then we put a face with a name and a personality.

And through that process, we're looking for a good fit so that that student can thrive at our universities.

And at Nebraska Wesleyan, we ask one short-answer question and that is describe a mentor, a coach, or a teacher who's influenced your life.

And the purpose of that question is that it really relates to the core value of Nebraska Wesleyan, and that's personal attention.

So we wanna know if a student really does value that experience, that they can share that with us and because that is going to be the part of their Nebraska Wesleyan educational experience.

New trends, you know, in recent years, the application is free.

So that's another barrier that can be removed.

We self-report the GPA so the students don't have to submit a transcript.

So they're just self-reporting their GPA.

And another term that audience would hear is test optional admissions.

And many institutions now do not require an SAT or an ACT for admission.

The GPA in high school is the most predictive in terms of success in college.

And so that's what we rely our admission process on.

But the application itself should be able to be completed in 20, 25 minutes or so.

So I would hope the students don't look at the process with as much trepidation as they might.

- That's great, and Kat, we'll go to you.

And when a student is exploring SCC, what are you hearing from them and why they would be interested in Southeast Community College and has that kind of thought process for the students changed recently?

- I don't think that we've noticed a change in their thought process.

I think a common theme that we see, and I'm guessing that both Kelli and Bill might say the same and their staffs would say the same, is that oftentimes students come to us and they don't know what to ask.

And so really the role of anyone, a member of our teams, is to sit with that student and help make the process open and accessible, and that they've got a person to walk the journey with them because there's a lot of emotion and a lot of anxiety, excitement also that comes with the college search process.

And we see that every day.

So really, when we see students, it's kinda starting to ask them what are they interested in, what are their career goals?

And then almost do a little bit of backwards planning with students and using our expertise as educators to help kind of toy out some of those questions and the questions they should be asking to give them information that they didn't know what to ask.

I think that's where we often see a starting point.

And from there then, you'll start to get questions about housing and career opportunities, job opportunities, job opportunities right here in our area.

They'll wanna maybe know about accommodations or about their ACT scores and what that looks like.

So I think once you get that conversation started and you've built that trust and that rapport and get to know them, as Bill said, that's when you really start to get some of those questions.

But I think, by and large, we experience that people don't know what to ask and that's okay because that's our job.

Our job is to help students get the answers they need to make the most informed decision.

- That's great, thank you so much.

And Kelli, what's the general makeup of kind of in-state versus out-of-state students at Doane and what's the pitch from Doane to make sure Nebraska students are staying in Nebraska for their education?

- Oh, great question.

So right now, the makeup, we're about 35% outta state students on our campus and 65% of course are from the state of Nebraska, you know.

We really push and wanna keep our local students.

So offering different types of scholarships and so forth.

We don't have out-of-state tuition versus in-state.

It's the same across the board.

But we really, you know, we're recruiting with local, you know, I hate to call it our bread and butter, but we, you know, those small towns going in and helping small town students or students that are looking for that one-on-one attention, like any of our institutions probably were all smaller.

We provide that.

Our classes are less than 12 people in a class.

And sometimes, students in the state of Nebraska are looking for that environment because they know they're used to that and they can thrive in that and be more successful down the road.

And ultimately, we all want them to graduate.

- Yes, absolutely.

And Bill, what are you seeing in terms of incoming student numbers at Nebraska Wesleyan and have you seen any sort of trends change in kind of a post-COVID world?

- Yeah, COVID was certainly a disruption.

But last year, we had our third largest new student enrollment in history.

We welcomed a record number of transfer students.

So we're working with SCC and other Nebraska community colleges to welcome students in, as transfer students building articulation agreements, pathways from one program to complete their bachelor's degree.

And you know, the diversity of students, you know, even for small campuses, and it is an important part of, even a Nebraska students experience, they're gonna meet students from, you know, in our circumstance, 37 states and 22 countries from around the world.

So you know, that opens up, you know, new opportunities to engage in cultural exchanges and other ways that can enhance the student experience.

- Kat, speaking of community colleges, what makes community college kind of different than some of other four-year institutions and where does that fit into the current educational landscape?

- I think there's a couple different ways that we differ.

One thing I always appreciate about being a community college institution is that we're partners.

We partner with our four-year neighbors, knowing that we all have something really valuable to offer students.

And no matter where a student comes to us in that journey, we can work together to help a student meet their goals.

But when I think about some of the specific differences, you know, a key part of our mission is to serve our immediate community.

So we work really closely to recognize what the employment needs are, what the employment trends are, are there a needed skillset in our community based on the economy, based on jobs, based on how we can serve our local population, but also being attuned to what's happening around us.

I think another thing is that we're really accessible and students can come to us at many different points in their academic journey and maybe there's some flexibility with when they enter, when they exit, and might return to us.

But the ability and the need for us to really be mindful of what's happening locally helps us develop and teach students a specific skill that allows them to go to work pretty quickly.

Knowing that we've got certificate, diploma, associates degrees, and that students and graduates can be out in the workforce making a good wage, supporting their families, helping meet their goals.

You know, from six to nine to 12 to 24 months in a really accessible way.

But then also partnering with our neighbors to say, if you wanna go on for additional education or to increase your marketability, there's options.

But I really think it comes down to meeting the immediate needs of our community, helping to create a qualified, skilled workforce, and putting people out in the community to work.

- Excellent, thank you.

- And Kelli, speaking of shifts and trends and questions along those lines, Doane has a large online education presence.

Have enrollment numbers shifted in terms of that group of students in recent years?

- For sure, yes, a hundred percent.

Our biggest area of our online population is from what we call our open learning academy.

And you know, it's allowed us to grow exponent, I mean huge amounts of growth.

We've seen lots of opportunities and now we're reaching out with different partnerships as well.

So it allows us to get into, you know, working with different colleges throughout the United States.

In addition to that, we're offering a lot of our programs, our staple programs online as well.

But yeah, it has definitely changed the landscape.

- So in a couple sentences or less, I know it's tough to kinda, you know, whittle it down.

In your opinion, what is the most important thing for students to pay attention to when they're graduating high school and looking at a college?

And we can start with Bill and we can move around.

- Sure, I'll go back to that personal attention.

You know, visit a campus, meet faculty who are gonna be an important part of your life because they are going to be the mentors who are going to shape your life.

And add to that, don't eliminate an institution simply on the basis of cost.

Affordability is an important part of our mission and that's another topic but certainly an important one.

- For me, it all comes down to fit college.

No matter what your goals are, how long you're there, what you're doing, it's a transformative time in one's life.

No matter if you're 18, 24, 52, or 67, there's a lot of transformation.

So I echo what Bill said, get on a campus, visit them, ask questions, meet people, and make sure that it checks the boxes for you in terms of what you need to be successful in that environment.

- Okay, Kelli?

- Yeah, absolutely.

It boils down to fit.

You have to feel comfortable.

This is where you're gonna spend the next four years of your life, five years, whatever it takes.

And so I always tell students, sit down, go to the student center, I call it the Coke test.

Go and have a pop or soda, whatever you call it, and sit in the student union, whatever respective student union, and just see and feel the environment.

And that's an important piece of your campus visit.

You know, be away from us in admissions that are trying to sell you on on why you should go to whatever institution you're looking at.

But just go, see how comfortable, see how students interact with each other.

See if you have, if faculty interact with the students and those types and just make sure like everybody is set here that the environment is gonna be a success or make you feel like you could be successful for the next four years.

- Thank all three of you so much for coming on the show and talking and sparing your time and I really appreciate the thoughtful discussion.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Thanks, of course.

- Coming up we'll continue our discussion on college enrollment with a counselor from Waverly High School who works with students every day to decide their next step following high school graduation.

But first, let's take a look at some of the numbers for the state's biggest university system.

The University of Nebraska had over 49,400 students enrolled across their five campuses at the start of this year.

That is a slight decrease from previous years.

However, the number of first time freshmen has stayed consistent over the past three years.

In fact, the University of Nebraska Lincoln and the University of Nebraska Kearney both saw incremental growth of first time freshmen in 2023.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - I am joined now by Jason Boitnott who is a counselor at Waverly High School.

Thanks for joining us, really appreciate it.

- Thanks for the opportunity.

- We just talked to a couple college admissions people who spoke from the college perspective and now I'm hoping to have a conversation more from the high school perspective.

And for starters, first question is, what does it kinda look like when a student is starting to think about the, you know, college process and life after high school?

- We hope it always starts with them being self-aware so that they're understanding more about themselves.

And what I mean by that is their strengths, their skills, their personality, trying to get an understanding of who they are so they know what comes next.

When we talk about college, we're not talking about that being the final step in their journey.

We're talking about helping them find that fitting, fulfilling career down the road and college could be an opportunity to get there, one of the steps, but it's not the end goal in mind.

So there's other options too.

They could be doing apprenticeship programs, going to the military, trade schools, but when they choose college, trying to get there, we try to help them have tools to do that.

And so we use a lot of different instruments to help them figure out about themself.

And that self-awareness then leads to, okay, if it's college, how do I pick one?

So which one?

And the biggest thing there, and I heard it from some of the others that you talked to already was that college visit is key.

There's another counselor in our office who does a great job of getting students on campus.

So a lot of tours, buses that take them there, it's key to them understanding the differences between the colleges.

So they'll go to, same students, they'll go to four-year universities, they'll go to some of the community colleges, maybe they'll see state colleges.

Just a lot of different options that are out there and understand like, "Okay, is this too big for me?

Too small for me?

What do I like about it?"

And the main thing is, "Does it have the program I'm most interested in and do I see myself on this campus?"

So I do think the college visit is a key piece to them really starting that process in some ways, knowing themselves and then figuring out where's that fit.

But along with that also is we wanna see them with families on campus.

So we really encourage them to go with their family.

Not only go on those group tours, but do an individual visit where you're gonna talk to financial aid, you're gonna see what campus looks like live when students are on there, talk to professors.

Things like that that really help them decide is this the right fit.

All those choices are great choices, it's just which one fits them best.

- The world has obviously went through some changes recently and education has been no different.

Have you seen any shifts in both, like student thinking and where they're applying for school, whether that's community college, four-year universities, things along those lines?

- Yeah, I think there's been some changes in thinking about how long do I want to go to college necessarily and just the financial obligation.

I think there's more students who feel like they personally have to have more invested in their own education financially.

So I'm seeing them start to take more dual credit, so get college classes done earlier.

So maybe when they are on college campuses, it's not for as long.

I'm seeing them take shorter programs.

So maybe they're looking more at associate's degrees than they are bachelor's degrees.

So community colleges have definitely been the trend more that there's more of a move to applying to those community colleges.

They're not as many times being looked at as plan B.

They could be the first plan for some students.

I think that's partially 'cause of cost, length of program.

And then lastly and most importantly is There's a lot of skilled opportunities out there and you can gain those through the community colleges.

- [Jay] Absolutely, and Jason, I really do appreciate you coming on the show, talking to us about kinda what you're seeing from that high school perspective 'cause there's obviously been a lot of shifts and thinking and a lot of changes, so I really appreciate you stopping by.

- Thanks for having me.

- Of course.

- Next, we'll hear from Nebraska Public Media News reporter Jolie Peal, who spoke with the head of the Nebraska Department of Education.

They discussed some of the challenges students face when deciding on what to do after graduation and some of the changes that are being made to help.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - The Nebraska Department of Education regulates K through 12 schools all across the state.

I was able to sit down with Nebraska Department of Education Commissioner Brian Maher and asked him about what resources the state has available for high schoolers as they embark on the college process.

- [Jolie] With over 45 colleges in Nebraska and more options outside of the state, the college process can be daunting for students.

That's why Nebraska Department of Education Commissioner Brian Maher says one of the goals for the department is to help students narrow down those options.

- [Brian] I was talking to a relative who's a senior in high school this year, just within the last couple of weeks here, and I said, "Hey, what do you wanna do next year?"

And they said, "You know, I really don't know."

And the first thing I said to them was, "You know, you're normal."

- [Jolie] Maher says the idea for college is planted as early as kindergarten through things like diplomas displayed on a teacher or principal's walls.

But officially, those conversations about post-graduation plans start to happen in middle school.

The Department of Education has a variety of ways to help students get to college.

According to Maher, since 2017, all students who attend a public school in Nebraska can take the ACT, a college entrance exam, for free.

Usually, the ACT costs at least $68.

It is also now state law that all high school students complete the free application for federal student aid or FAFSA before graduating.

Maher says that requirement helps students tackle one of the most financially challenging parts of getting to college.

- And some of our students just don't fill out because of how cumbersome it is to fill out.

And it's a barrier to college entry for some students.

So one of the ways that we will help and that we have helped is to help break down that barrier of getting the FAFSA completed.

- [Jolie] Getting students to college is more than tests and forms.

The Department of Education builds relationships with universities to connect students to programs they are interested in.

Maher says those relationships also help the NDE ensure students have the right skills heading into college.

- [Brian] I think that dialogue between higher ed and K-12 is something that helps the students and the families of Nebraska by just knowing if I do X, then I can reasonably expect to have success in this next step.

- [Jolie] Maher serves on several university advisory committees to update curriculums based on what students need to be prepared for post-secondary.

Maher says that the K-12 time is more than preparing students for college.

It's the NDE's job to give students the fundamentals needed for work after college.

- [Brian] So that no matter where the world turns in terms of needs from a workforce, we have students who are adaptable and have a good knowledge base to be able to be prepared to work in the environment of tomorrow and not necessarily just in the environment of today.

- [Jolie] The Department of Education offers pathways in their career and technical education program where students can get started in their career of choice, including health sciences, education, and agriculture.

For Nebraska Public Media News, I'm Jolie Peal.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Joining me now is Charlie Bicak, a former senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Nebraska Kearney.

He continues to work with the Chancellor's Office, helping with construction for a new rural health education building.

Thanks so much for joining us.

- My pleasure.

- So for starters, can you kind of give us an overview of the project?

- Yes, the Rural Health Education Building is a remarkable outcome of a longtime partnership between the University of Nebraska Kearney and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

It was inspired very significantly by the dire need in rural Nebraska for healthcare professionals.

- [Jay] How will having this building and these programs kind of increase recruitment and retainment at the University of Nebraska Kearney?

- [Charlie] It's already gained significant interest by way of the opening of a first building in 2015 that has led to an increase in enrollment of greater than 20% across pre-health areas on the University of Nebraska Kearney campus.

Students are indeed interested in rural health practice.

- Can you talk us a little bit through about the partnership with UNMC and kinda how that came to be and how that will kind of work as this program develops?

- We have some amazing colleagues at UNMC who have immediately understood the great value in working with a predominantly undergraduate institution like UNK in expanding nursing at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

And for the first time in 2015, areas like physical therapy, physician assistant, medical lab science, and imaging areas like sonography and radiography, we are now on the cusp with the second building of expanding to three other colleges, medicine, pharmacy, and public health.

- How did you kind of get involved with this when you were, you know, in your role at the university and were you there from the very beginning?

- For me, this dates to 2011, 2012, actually nursing, UNMC, at the University of Nebraska Kearney dates to 1991.

In 2011, 2012, I met with a colleague who is now dean of the College of Allied Health Professions at UNMC, Kyle Meyer, and he said, "We ought to get together and talk about how we can for the first time, deliver programs that I had just mentioned."

and that led in the last two years to inclusion of five of the six colleges at UNMC.

- [Jay] That's incredible.

And kinda the last question I have for you here is what do you hope this new edition does for the University of Nebraska Kearney, the city of Kearney, and kind of rural Nebraska in general?

- That's a wonderful question.

It really is a concentric expansion of interprofessional clinical education that indeed is a model for the state of Nebraska and a model for the nation.

Having clinical professionals work side by side in advancing quality healthcare across rural Nebraska indeed the great plains and points beyond.

It's a transformative model, Jay.

- Charlie, I really appreciate your time.

I really appreciate you being here to talk about it.

It sounds like it's incredible project and incredible new space at my former campus.

So I'm really excited to see that come to fruition and see what that can do for the students out there in the rural communities of Nebraska.

- It's a wonderful project, Jay, thank you for having me on.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - That's all for this week on Speaking of Nebraska.

Thank you to all of our guests who are on the show tonight.

Next week, our final episode of the year, we will dive into the topic of volunteer firefighters and the challenges they're facing across the state of Nebraska.

I'm Nebraska Public Media News Director, Jay Omar.

Have a great night.

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