By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
When Bowling Green State University alumni return to campus later this month for homecoming, their alma mater will have good news to share: Their ranks will continue to grow and at a healthy pace.
BGSU announced that its 15-day headcount showed first-year student enrollment was up by 7 percent with nearly 3,500 students. Total headcount at BGSU on the 15th day of classes semester was 18,966 students, 174 more than last fall.
Those new students also have the highest grade point average, 3.67, in BGSU’s history. The number of those considered “top scholars” attending BGSU is up 20 percent from last academic year with 400 students enrolling in the Honors College.
The figures also show that the university retained 80 percent of those students who started at BGSU in fall 2022. That’s a benchmark the university has long been pursuing.
That’s all “very good news,” said BGSU President Rodney Rogers.
“We feel fortunate to be in the position we’re in,” he said Monday in a telephone interview. “People – faculty and staff – have been working incredibly hard making sure we have the right programs for connecting with prospective students about the value of a Bowling Green degrees.”
The university has been investing in programs where the demand for graduates is increasing, so “students can see great career opportunities,” he said. Those include the new School of Nursing, aviation, and the new School of Engineering.
The BGSU experience goes beyond that, Rogers said. “At the core is knowing if they come to a university like Bowling Green, they’ll have a comprehensive experience.”
Students have access to opportunities in research, study abroad, and connecting with faculty. BGSU is large enough to offer these programs, but also small enough that undergraduates can take advantage of them.
And now the university offers the Life Design Program. “We have this program that’s all about empowering the students to navigate their transition to college. And then we want them to transition to their career and their life.”
This is the first year where all entering students will be taking part in the program.
[RELATED: BGSU goes all in on Life Design]
This is an advantage to all students.
“It’s important we have a broad array of academic programs in our portfolio that are appropriate for the 21stcentury,” Rogers said.
But “regardless where their interest is, life design gives them a tool kit to begin to imagine the kind of life and career they want to have with their chosen major,” Rogers said.
Students in less career-focused fields, sociology, history, English, for example, “have so many options it becomes confusing at times,” he said. “If we can help a student think about navigating that, it’s a real plus.”
For students who arrive on campus undecided, “we want to help them focus their journey as quickly as possible – not too soon of course because that’s part of the journey. We want to give them to toolkit to do that.”
While much attention is given to the higher profile programs, other programs including in the School of Media and Communication and the School of Art have also seen increased enrollment.
In other institutions that use life design, it has helped to boost retention, Rogers said.
University officials are still parsing the retention data, so it’s too early to draw conclusions.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts also play an important part in the university’s efforts to attract, retain, and graduate students.
“As a public university it is absolutely critical that any student from any background, from any experience, have an opportunity. If they come to Bowling Green, we will help them find community here,” Rogers said. “If you come here, we will work as hard as we can to insure, they can find a place they belong, where they can thrive and be successful.”
The world is diverse., he said. People come from all walks of life, all races and ethnicities, and social classes. “That’s the world our students will go into,” he said. “If we don’t have that kind of world here on our campus, we’re not doing our job that students are prepared for that world.”
This good news comes as BGSU, and all higher education face a demographic cliff with a decrease in the number of high school graduates.
They already experienced a dip, but the more precipitous drop is still ahead.
BGSU will meet it with its mix of programs and committed to the traditional comprehensive college experience, he said.
Graduate school enrollment had a slight decrease, down 56 students.
Graduate education, Rogers said, is essential to being a comprehensive research institution.
BGSU has launched new programs online and hybrid graduates programs, including the doctorate in physical therapy. These have been highly successful, Rogers said.
