CSUCI Focuses on Selling Itself

The enticements nearly spilled over the table Wednesday at the Cal State Channel Islands recruiting booth.

There were comic books, triangle-shaped highlighters and sleek Channel Islands pens -- all aimed at luring students attending the 50th annual Ventura County Science Fair. And there were glossy brochures, fact sheets on academic programs and information about university admission aimed at hooking students once they wandered over.

“Are you thinking of going straight to a four-year university?” recruitment counselor Melissa Frazier asked a group of high school juniors perusing the Cal State Channel Islands paraphernalia. “It’s really competitive to get into school right now, so you need to make sure you apply early and apply to as many campuses as you can.”

It is a message that has taken on greater urgency in these days of budget cuts and spending shortfalls.

The Camarillo-area campus, like the 23 others in the Cal State University system, has been ordered to freeze enrollment for the upcoming school year. That means the student population next fall may not exceed its current levels of about 1,650 students.

So far, the state-ordered restrictions have not forced Cal State Channel Islands to turn away academically qualified applicants.

But university officials worry that the governor’s May budget revision, which estimates revenue and spending for the fiscal year that begins July 1, may bring more cuts and require them to scale back enrollment.

Moreover, there is a possibility that an enrollment cap could remain in place for several years if the state’s budget forecast remains bleak.

That means university recruiters are having to traverse tricky territory, selling prospective students on the merits of the institution while cautioning that there may not be room for everyone to get in.

“We are trying to tell students and their families the truth; we don’t want to mislead anybody,” said Cal State Channel Islands President Richard Rush. “Our goal is to try to take as many students as we possibly can ... but we don’t know what the budget realities are going to be.”

Ginger Reyes, who heads recruitment for the 2-year-old university, said her staff modified its outreach for the fall 2004 semester, knowing that enrollment would be restricted. Recruiters limited travel outside of Ventura County, in keeping with the university’s commitment to reserve 90% of the available spaces for area students.

For the fall semester, the university expects to enroll about 218 freshmen and 370 upper division transfer students. Admission offers have been made to about 1,350 prospective students in order to reach those goals. Already, 191 freshmen and 130 transfer students have committed to attending next school year.

Reyes said she and the university’s two other recruiters were starting to focus their efforts on high school juniors, trying to get them to understand that the Nov. 30 application deadline for Cal State University campuses will be here before they know it.

“I think the message the Cal State University is sending out is, ‘There should be room for you within the Cal State University system, but not necessarily at your first school of choice,’ ” Reyes said. “What we’re stressing at Channel Islands when we go out and recruit is the importance of meeting deadlines.”

The outreach effort takes place year-round. Cal State Channel Islands recruiters visit the county’s community colleges twice a month and area high schools once a semester. They also take part in career and college fairs, including one taking place Monday and Tuesday at Seaside Park in Ventura.

That event, one of five college fairs being held this year in California, is expected to draw representatives from more than 150 universities nationwide.

In fact, the recruiters are willing to go just about anywhere they are invited, which explains why Frazier today will be at Six Flags Magic Mountain for Career and Self-Development Day, sponsored by the Valencia amusement park.

And it’s how she ended up behind the recruiting booth at the Interactive Science Career Expo at Seaside Park on Wednesday, talking up the opening earlier this school year of a new science building and the various science-related academic programs at Cal State Channel Islands.

Scores of community college students stopped by, as did several groups of students from Ventura High School, from which she graduated in 1993.

Then two fifth-graders came to the booth and Frazier took the opportunity to spread the word, handing them a brochure aimed at helping youngsters map out a course to college admission.

“Starting in sixth grade, there are little things you can do every year to get prepared to go to college,” she told them. “You guys should also take these comic books, because they talk about your opportunities in higher education.”