College Studies Ways to Lift Enrollment : Education: Small Woodbury University also is seeking contributions from alumni, who include Helen Gurley Brown.

Woodbury University in Burbank isn’t nearly as big or prestigious as UCLA or USC, and it certainly doesn’t have the cachet of smaller institutions, such as Occidental College or the Claremont colleges. But it has managed to survive for 106 years, turning out a few well-known alumni, such as Cosmopolitan magazine Editor Helen Gurley Brown.

Things have changed at Woodbury since Brown learned to type and write shorthand there in 1939. In those days, Woodbury was a “business” school in downtown Los Angeles that trained secretaries and bookkeepers, then in demand by local businesses. Today, a variety of curricula is offered.

“It’s a totally different school now,” Brown said in a telephone interview, adding that Woodbury helped launch her career by landing her a job at radio station KHJ in Los Angeles.

Different, yes, but Woodbury still faces some tough obstacles. The school’s 1987 move to Burbank helped reverse a steep decline in enrollment, but the school still needs to attract more students--not an easy task when the overall student-age population is declining.

School officials say they also need to drum up more financial support from well-heeled donors to supplement Woodbury’s modest budget and to help pay for the programs and facilities that could lure more students.

Started as a proprietary school and operated under a variety of owners since it was founded in 1884, Woodbury became a nonprofit university in the 1970s. It began offering four-year degrees in business, design, architecture and computer technology, and some of its students went on to jobs at banks, film studios and accounting and architectural firms and as interior and fashion designers.

But by 1987, Woodbury’s enrollment had fallen from a high of 1,200 to 725. School officials found that potential students were scared off by Woodbury’s location in downtown Los Angeles and a lack of parking and housing. Also, Woodbury was still fighting its old image of being just a secretarial training school.

For a nonprofit school, a decline in students can be a death knell. About 93% of Woodbury’s modest $8-million annual operating budget comes from student tuition and fees, with the remainder from donations. School officials are faced with a constant struggle to balance the budget at the same time that more money must be put into the services, promotions and financial aid that can attract new students.

Unable to stem the declining enrollment, Woodbury’s board of trustees, a 22-member panel of local business people, decided in 1987 to move the school to a wooded, 22.4-acre campus in Burbank, previously the site of a high school operated by the Lutheran Church. Using part of the proceeds from the sale of the downtown building and a $10.8-million bond issue, Woodbury purchased the campus for $6.75 million.

Woodbury also used funds from the bond issue to renovate seven red-brick buildings included in the purchase, tear down three buildings and build two structures--an architecture and design studio and a second on-campus dormitory.

Since the move, Woodbury’s enrollment has increased to about 1,000. But the school’s new president, Paul Sago, who joined Woodbury in January after a 13-year stint as president of Azusa Pacific University, said that’s not enough to give Woodbury the financial cushion it needs.

“It would be easier to balance the budget if we could increase enrollment by 100 a year for the next five years,” Sago said. Ideally, he’d like to get enrollment up to 1,800 during that time.

But growth won’t come easily for Woodbury. With the baby-boom generation past the age when students typically enter school, most educational institutions are fighting to keep enrollment at current levels. Things could get worse if the economy goes into a recession, which Sago said could have a dampening effect on his school’s enrollment.

Meanwhile, Woodbury has stiff competition in the Los Angeles area from better-known private colleges and universities. Woodbury’s students, who average a 2.9 grade point average when entering the school, are about on a par with state universities. But the state universities, which receive government funds, beat Woodbury on price. A year’s tuition and fees at Woodbury costs a student $8,500, compared to $942 at Cal State Northridge.

Woodbury always has been a different breed among institutions of higher learning. Although classes in shorthand gave way to degrees in business and architecture many years ago, Woodbury is still considered a “professional” school that prepares graduates for specific jobs, in contrast to a liberal arts college that offers students a broader education. Many of the classes are taught by business owners and working professionals, rather than full-time educators.

Comparing Woodbury to Occidental “would be comparing apples and oranges,” said Axel Steuer, Occidental’s executive assistant to the president. Cliff Hamlow, executive vice president of Azusa Pacific, said, “We really recruit a different clientele.”

But, said William Yerkes, a partner at the Kindel & Anderson law firm and a Woodbury trustee, “Everybody’s after the same students.”

One of the keys to attracting more students, said Jacqueline Doud, Woodbury’s vice president of academic affairs, will be offering curriculum that prepares students for professions that are currently in demand, she said.

For instance, after the move to Burbank, Woodbury began offering an MBA program for both regular, daytime students and for working adults who are able to attend classes only on weekends. Doud said she’s now studying the possibility of starting a communications major that would prepare graduates for jobs in the media.

Woodbury is also trying to boost enrollment by stepping up recruitment activities, Doud said. Woodbury dispatches representatives to visit high schools, sends information about its programs to a targeted mailing list and maintains agreements with local community colleges that inform students about Woodbury’s offerings.

While attracting more students is the main order of business for Woodbury, Sago said the school also must become more aggressive in soliciting donations.

Since joining Woodbury, Sago said he has spent 70% of his time “friend-raising and fund-raising.” Among the largest benefactors to the school are Lockheed Corp. and Times Mirror, which donated money to help renovate the school’s library, which is named after the Los Angeles Times. Donald S. Maxwell, a Times Mirror vice president and controller, is a Woodbury trustee.

Sago said he’s got his work cut out for him for the next several years. Eventually, he’d like to boost enrollment to 2,500, expand the architectural and business facilities, add three to four new dormitories and hire 15 more full-time instructors.

But, he said, “An institution has to grow slowly.”