SUNY Oswego - Alumni Association - November E-Newsletter

November 2010 • Vol 6 No 8

Enrollment Up, Quality Remains High

Applications to attend SUNY Oswego set a 21st-century high again this year, but the college held to quality standards and largely kept the numbers of undergraduate admissions in line with those of recent years.

Scene from freshmen orientation 2010

At the same time, students in underrepresented racial and ethnic groups increased significantly, and entering freshmen and transfers from Downstate counties continued to rise.

Dr. Joseph Grant, vice president for student affairs and enrollment, said the college welcomed about 1,400 freshmen and 785 transfers. The total headcount—including full- and part-time students, graduate students, the Metro Center and the Phoenix Center—is about 8,300, up from 8,119 in 2009.

“We had a tick up,” Grant said. “We probably have 100 to 150 more students on campus this year than we had last year.”

The college could have been tempted to grow its census even more, he said, but chose not to. Freshman applications totaled an estimated 10,650, a small increase from last year’s 10,463, and 40.1 percent more than the 7,565 just five years ago.

“We have tried to keep ourselves in a place where our enrollment is steady,” Grant said. “Part of this has to do with what our budget is from the state of New York.”

But he also pointed to a projected dramatic decrease in the numbers of high school graduates available in the state, according to a 2008 study by the state Education Department: While New York’s high school graduates peaked at more than 195,000 in 2008, by the year 2019 that number will have dropped by 32,000, to about 163,000.

The college held steady with the 47 percent acceptance rate of the last two academic years. Only six years ago, the rate was 57 percent.

The “composite” entering freshman had a 90 average and about an 1110 SAT score, and more than half entered with a merit scholarship of some kind, Grant said. The average transfer student came in with a 3.0 grade point average. All those are identical to last year, Grant said.

What is the vision moving forward? “The strategy across the institution is to explore new majors like engineering, to recruit outstanding faculty who are student-centered or learning-centered,” he said. “To continue to improve our facilities and to put into place a whole range of opportunities in (areas like) study abroad and internships."

— Jeff Rea ’71

PHOTO CAPTION:
The college welcomed about 1,400 freshmen this fall.

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Oswego Alumni Association, Inc. • King Alumni Hall - SUNY Oswego • Oswego, NY 13126
315-312-2258 • 315-312-5570 (fax) • E-mail: alumni@oswego.edu • Web site: oswego.edu/alumni

Who doesn’t want to save the world? Michael Kite ’02 does that for a living through World Wildlife Fund.

As marketing specialist for one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, Kite and his team of three work to raise more than $5 million each year. The majority of that money comes from licensing partnerships and promotions with the likes of Barnes & Noble, Gap, Hewlett-Packard, Dial and Coinstar.

Retail partnerships help WWF spread its message to the general public and raise funds for its conservation work around the globe. For example, Bank of America contributes $100 for every special Visa account opened and Nabisco is supporting WWF’s “Year of the Tiger” initiative with special packaging and a $100,000 donation. The new CVS Green Bag Tag program rewards reusable bag-toting customers, and generates five cents for WWF for each tag sold.

All support WWF’s mission of protecting the future of nature, down to the finest details, Kite said.

“We like to see that the product is made from recycled material and is recyclable itself, and somehow ties into our mission,” Kite said. The Green Bag Tag, for instance, is made from a corn-based material and features a 100 percent recycled silicone lanyard.

As a broadcasting major at Oswego, Kite got involved with WRVO-FM and WNYO-FM.

“I think it gave me a lot more confidence in talking to people,” he said. It was an important part of his early career in broadcast sales and remains an important piece in the message he “sells” today.

“The best part of my job is seeing a product in the store with the WWF logo after months of working with a company to launch it,” said Kite, who joined the organization in 2006. “It’s rewarding to give people a fun, unique way to protect our planet.”

— Shane M. Liebler