Recruiters’ College Try : Cal State Schools Seek New Students in Era of Increased Enrollment Goals

If you’re a high school senior, Cal State Fullerton recruiters want to talk to you. That is, if outreach workers from other campuses in the California State University system don’t sign you up first.

Many of the 21 Cal State schools across the state are redoubling efforts to woo students to their campuses, and Cal State Fullerton is no exception to the outreach fervor. Its recruiters, with glossy brochures in hand, are fanning out to 297 high schools across California this year--three times the number they visited in 1993-94.

“There’s been a perception that CSU campuses, and Cal State Fullerton in particular, didn’t really need to find students--they would find their way here,” said Marc Meredith, assistant university outreach coordinator. “It may have been true before, but not now. It’s a buyer’s market. Students will pick a school based on how they’re treated.”

University recruiters seek bright students from throughout the state. They’re also looking to satisfy a mandate from state officials to increase the number of students enrolled at each campus.

With that in mind, recruiters are traveling to untapped high schools to tell teen-agers about their campuses. Cal State Fullerton outreach workers added a list of schools in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and a sprinkling in the San Joaquin Valley to their itinerary this year, said Charles Moore, coordinator of University Outreach and Relations with Schools and Colleges.

When they find students who qualify for admission, they admit them on the spot.

On Wednesday, Coachella Valley High School senior Blanca Ramirez, 17, sat in her school’s career center and nervously fidgeted as Moore reviewed her application.

Moore smiled, handed her a souvenir patch of Tuffy--the university’s elephant mascot--and said: “You’re in.”

“Yes!” Ramirez said. “That’s my first choice!”

Moore said he wants to land prospects from diverse ethnic, academic and geographic backgrounds for his campus. But it’s not just quality that counts--it’s quantity.

Cal State universities must draft enough students into their entering classes and retain current students to meet increased enrollment goals requested by the Legislature--or pay a penalty by getting less money from the state.

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It’s a turnaround for the universities. In the early 1990s, Cal State campuses limited enrollment due to lean budgets, and a gap widened between the number of students who qualified to attend and the number who were allowed into the system.

This school year, the university system received its first budget increase since 1990-91.

Cal State officials have not decided how many students each individual campus must add by 1995-96, but the entire system is supposed to add 2,500 “full-time equivalent” students--any student or combination of students carrying 15 course units. That works out to be about 3,300 actual students, Cal State officials said.

Moore said Cal State Fullerton, which had about 22,000 students last year, intends to increase its enrollment by 3% to 5% in 1995.

Increasing the numbers seems easy, since a mounting wave of teen-agers is expected to reach traditional college age in the next decade. But don’t be fooled, outreach officials said. As tuitions rise, the race for students will be tough.

It cost nearly $1,600 to attend a Cal State university this school year and fees are expected to rise again by about $150 next year. Rising college fees and debt have discouraged some from enrolling and encouraged others to graduate faster, officials have said.

Cal State campuses face competition for students not only from other public and private universities in the state, but from out-of-area institutions eager to raid the state’s young minds. Universities seeking ethnically diverse academic all-stars often find the state a treasure trove.

Colorado State University officials, for example, plan to open a recruitment office in California, the university’s largest out-of-state student source. A recent admissions reception in San Diego held in conjunction with the university football team’s appearance in the Holiday Bowl netted 20 qualified applicants, officials said. About 600 California students joined Colorado State’s freshman class this school year.

“There are people here (in California) whose whole purpose is to recruit out-of-state students,” Meredith said. “They do very well here.”

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Across the country, campus recruiters are waging a technological battle with multimedia flash. Some universities give computer-based campus tours to prospective new students in far-off cities by putting narrated pictures and information on CD-ROM. Colleges sort through millions of statistics generated by the Scholastic Assessment Test and other exams, and target attention and glitzy mailers on specific students who meet their requirements.

Radio or television advertisements are no longer unusual, and some colleges send out colorful view-books or even baseball cards featuring photos of super-students. The competition can be costly, and many Cal State campuses opt for lower-cost alternatives.

“We can’t print out the same publications as private institutions,” Meredith said, “but we can call, write letters and invite students to come to campus. It doesn’t cost a huge amount of money.”

The idea: one-on-one attention and legwork. Outreach workers now take to the road on the recruiting circuit, bounce from college fair to college fair, and follow up with students by conducting admissions sessions at high schools and community colleges.

Cal State Long Beach’s president, Robert Maxson, traveled to several high schools this winter to beckon honors students.

Cal State Northridge, which lost about 2,500 students after the Northridge earthquake, will showcase student films and invite prospective students to stay overnight on campus Feb. 15 during an “aggressive” recruitment campaign.

Cal State Fullerton’s Moore accompanied a Vietnamese recruiter to Stockton, Modesto and Fresno to find talented Southeast Asian students and other Central Valley prospects in the fall. And on Wednesday, Meredith and Moore drove more than 200 miles to Coachella Valley High School in Coachella, where they met with 50 students. They admitted 35 of them.

Most of the students were children of agricultural workers and ordinarily would have no way of traveling to Fullerton on their own, a high school counselor said. Some students said they might not have completed applications if they had not met personally with Moore and Meredith.

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Moore was unsure how many of them will finally attend Cal State Fullerton. But he and his partner found ways to engage each prospective freshman: touting geography, the Titans baseball team, and strong business, communications and drama departments.

On his visits, Moore tells ski buffs about the school’s proximity to the mountains; he talks to runners about the university’s cross-country team. And he tries to give students encouragement so they feel wanted.

“If your folks don’t believe you got in (to the university), tell them to call me at this number to make sure this is for real,” Moore said to a Coachella Valley student, handing over his telephone number. He also supplied the phone number of a bilingual counselor for students whose parents only speak Spanish.

After the recruiters’ visit, the parents of each student admitted will receive a certificate of recognition from Cal State Fullerton. Acceptance letters and invitations to “Welcome to Cal State Fullerton Day” in April will soon follow.

Students considering Cal State campuses can expect to get telephone calls. Cal State Fullerton student volunteers will spend hours calling prospective students to answer questions. At Cal State Hayward and other campuses, professors versed in “telemarketing” will follow up with students interested in specific majors.

Cal State Fullerton officials are also planting seeds for future students. About 30 of their undergraduates have visited 24 secondary schools in Orange and southern Los Angeles counties to talk to younger students about campus life and how to pick the right college preparatory classes.

As recruiters visit high schools looking for prospects, older learners and transfer students--Cal State’s mainstay--are not forgotten. Cal State Dominguez Hills outreach counselors go to job training centers, advertise at community meetings and attract adult students at community colleges.

“We have to be creative,” said Ruth Banda-Ralph, associate director for university outreach at Cal State Dominguez Hills. “We have to find new markets and pound the pavement to tell people about higher education.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Expanding Enrollment The California State University system has increased its total full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment by about 2,500 to accommodate more students who are eligible for admission. An additional 2,500 FTE students will be added for 1995-96. Targeted enrollment at selected Southern California campuses:

Campus 1993-94 1994-95 Increase Bakersfield 4,030 4,130 100 Dominguez Hills 7,575 7,575 -- Fullerton 15,609 15,757 148 Long Beach 19,208 19,208 -- Los Angeles 13,583 13,712 129 Northridge 18,680 18,680 -- Pomona 14,029 14,029 -- San Bernardino 8,811 8,896 85 San Diego 21,118 21,118 -- San Luis Obispo 14,589 14,589 -- San Marcos 1,700 2,050 350

Note: FTE enrollment is the total number of units taken by all students, divided by 15--the number of units considered a full-course load. Source: California State University; Researched by ALICIA DI RADO/Los Angeles Times