Student Enrollment and Retention Rates Cast Large Shadow Over UWM

At the most recent Faculty Senate meeting Chancellor Mark Mone told UWM faculty members that the university faces “financial need,” and it is a “moral imperative” to fix declining enrollment and well bellow-average student retention rates.

UWM needs to focus on improving student life to make students currently attending UWM want to stay, and prospective students feel welcome to the university, Mone tells Media Milwaukee.

“We have a moral obligation in respect to student success,” said Mone in an interview after the meeting.

UWM is now running the second round of faculty buyouts since 2015 as a result of budgetary issues brought on by steep budget cuts and enrollment drops from within the last 10 years, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal.

Organizations around campus funded from segregated fees, which are fees built into tuition and allocated by the Student Association Student Appropriations Committee, have seen funding stagnate or drop as a result of loss of general population on campus.

“Right now we are in a very solid position, but into the future… Who knows how the situation will look,” said assistant director of UWM’s LGBT+ Resource Center Sarah DeGeorge.

According to documents used by UWM Office of Academic Affairs undergraduate enrollment at UWM between Fall of 2015 to Fall of 2019 fell from around 22,500 students to just under 20,000 students, including post-graduate students for a total enrollment of 24,000.

For the latest information available on retention from the UW-System, the retention average across the system is 81.8%, meaning 81.8% of first year students return for a second year. If you remove UWM from the group, then the average increased to 83%.

UWM itself has a retention rate 73.3%, which falls well below the national retention average of 81.3% from the most recent reports of 2016.

While at the Faculty Senate meeting, Chancellor Mone emphasized initiatives to focus on student success in hopes of leading to more student success and retention of currently enrolled students.

“A lot of the people that I talk to at the dorms say at Norris Health Center you can get checked out if you’re sick right away, but for counseling people get waitlisted all the time,” said UWM student Avrind Ebbe.

A call to the Norris Health Center takes several minutes to listen to options before trying to setup an appointment, with the next appointment being over a week away.

“You see a lot of people struggling, and at this point it seems like there just aren’t enough councilors for the students,” said Ebbe. “It probably has to do with the budget, and I know they’re doing their best. It’s hard needing someone to talk to, and knowing you can’t for one, two, or three weeks if your classes keep you from being able to take an appointment.”

To round out his comments at the meeting Chancellor Mone emphasized an initiative to build a more diverse workforce at UWM, which will be officially presented in the next chancellor’s budget.

The chancellor hopes that building a diverse work force at UWM along with the focus on student success will increase engagement, retention, raise enrollment, and in the long run help to close the achievement gap.

Later at the meeting, University relations showed off early renderings for new promotional material focusing on UWM’s accomplishments in hopes of setting UWM apart from other universities for perspective students.

The first of the new wave of promotional material can be seen at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, with more planned to go up around the city.

The focus of the new campaign surrounds UWM’s accomplishments and highlights the university’s place in higher education and as an important piece of the economic hub of Wisconsin.

The UWM faculty senate meets every month in Curtain Hall room 175 with the next meeting planned for March 12. Voting is restricted to senate members, but meetings are open to the public in accordance with Wisconsin state open meetings laws.