By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
For a sixth consecutive year Northwest Missouri State University saw an enrollment growth.
Even more exciting than six years of consecutive growth, for the first time Northwest hit an enrollment number of more than 9,000 enrolled students, with an enrollment mark of 9,664 students.
New President Lance Tatum calls hitting that number exciting and historic.
"To pass the 9,000 enrollment mark is really something that we have talked about, at least upon my arrival here in June, I don't think anybody wanted to talk about it openly but certainly we knew that there were going to be some gains particularly in our dual credit and online areas that might push us close to that number," Tatum tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post.
Northwest also saw gains in the number of graduate and international students.
Tatum says now the university is turning its eyes to next year and figuring out ways to increase the number of students physically on campus.
Tatum, who took over the position in June, says he was excited to come on board knowing the university already had five years of growth.
"And certainly, as we looked at the opportunities coming for the fall, we saw that opportunity again to be able to grow one more time at least in our overall head count," Tatum says.
Tatum says it's exciting to see the growth especially when you look at enrollment numbers across the country
"We talk about universities really struggling with enrollment growth, it's a little bit of an anomaly to see a university like Northwest grow as consistently as they have been," Tatum explains.
With six consecutive years of growth in enrollment at Northwest, now officials' eyes turn to continuing to sustain that growth.
Tatum says in order to maintain that successful growth, the university needs to work hard to stay in the affordability band.
"In other words, we're going to have to work very hard to keep the cost of operating the university at a level that allows us to try to offer a tuition price point that attracts students to the university," Tatum says. "But we also that students are very interested in scholarships that allow them to narrow the gap of costs when they go to a university."
Tatum says he and his staff worked hard over the summer to modify the scholarship model to give more broad opportunities to attract students and stay in the market for both in and out of state students.