Mesalands presents enrollment plan

Mesalands Community College not only wants to keep student enrollment growing, but it wants to keep even more of the students it has.

Aaron Kennedy, vice president of student affairs, gave a report on Mesalands' enrollment statistics and presented a 63-page enrollment plan during the college board of directors' meeting Tuesday.

The college's institutional headcount and full-time equivalency numbers have increased in each of the last five school years, the report showed. The number of credit hours also has increased four of the last five years.

Because of the region's declining population, the report states the college needs to keep up recruitment outside of its geographic boundaries. One way is to continue to offer unique programs -- such as wind energy, silversmithing and the college rodeo team -- and more online classes.

The report notes Mesalands' advantages of being lower-cost than a typical four-year institution and its ability to provide a "family atmosphere" and more personalized learning.

The report stressed the importance of retaining existing students. Mesalands' retention rate has fluctuated in the last five years of available data but consistently has matched or exceeded the average for New Mexico independent community colleges. Mesalands' goal is to increase retention by 1 percent per year.

Among the efforts to keep retention rates high are an early registration notification, calls to students from advisers, more contact between students and instructors, midterm advisement, a study success committee and calls to students who haven't shown up for classes.

Graduation rates at Mesalands have fluctuated between 32 percent and 51 percent between 2011 and 2015 (the most recent data available), which are above the state community college average of 18 percent. Mesalands aims to increase its graduation rate by 2 percent per year, which Kennedy said is an ambitious goal.

The report states Mesalands is collecting survey data of its graduates to see how well they are doing.

In other business during the board of the directors meeting:

• The college's dinosaur museum saw nearly a 5 percent rise in visitors from the previous fiscal year, but revenue fell 3 percent during that period.

Gretchen Gurtler, director of the museum, said during a presentation of the facility's annual report the revenue drop occurred because of a lack of inventory after gift-shop budget cuts.

Gurtler said attendance has fluctuated in recent years, ranging from 12,243 visitors in 2013-2014 to a high of 13,863 in 2015-2016. A total of 13,645 visitors came in 2017-2018, an increase of about 600 from the previous year.

The report stated outside of New Mexico, the most visitors came from Texas, California and Oklahoma in the last two years. In the last 10 years, most visitors came from the Interstate 40, U.S. 54 and Route 66 corridors, with the exception of Florida and Louisiana.

The report states museum staff and volunteers updated lighting for the museum's exhibits and repainted the bathrooms and halls.

• Mesalands soon will apply to offer a licensed-practical nurse and registered-nurse classes.

Natalie Gillard, vice president of academic affairs, told the board the university would submit its application by October for an LPN and RN program.

New university president John Groesbeck noted Mesalands offering such programs likely would boost its enrollment more.

"Every program in the state is full, with waiting lists," he said of RN classes.

• Kennedy said the university's emergency-alerts system worked as designed when used for the first time during a shooting July 24 at a nearby motel on Route 66.

One person was wounded during the shooting, and two suspects later were arrested. The shooting prompted Mesalands to issue its first lockdown of the campus.

Kennedy said the alerts system is regularly tested, but it was used in a real-world crisis for the first time last month.

"The system worked," he said.

• Groesbeck gave a glimpse on his vision for the future of the college when he reported on a recent meeting with area educators and state legislators. He said he wants Mesalands to offer more online courses, plus more classes involving other forms of renewable energy.

"Wind is important," he said, referring to the college's wind-energy program. "We also need to include other renewable energy."