CRITICAL QUESTIONS

(For the Enrollment Plan)

January 15, 1998

The Enrollment Plan focuses on three broad segments of the enrollment: undergraduate students (degree seeking), graduate students (degree seeking) and students seeking professional development (non-degree). The critical questions for the Enrollment Plan will apply to all three segments.

 A. What basic assumptions should guide the Enrollment Plan?

Emerging Vision Statement: The Comprehensive Plan for the 21st Century

• What is a bold, fresh vision for the Christian University of the 21st Century? Think boldly; lift our sights. The Plan must be directed outward to serve the world.
• How can we enhance the success of our graduates in the world?
• How can we enhance the contribution of great ideas for the world?
• How can we enhance the power of genuine community in the world?
• How will SPU’s location—in a modern city (urban setting)—impact enrollment?
• How will technology be a strategic factor to achieve The Vision for the future?
• What does it mean for SPU to have a global consciousness?
• How will the enrollment plan help SPU address the crisis of meaning in our culture?
• What enrollment plan will reflect SPU’s commitment to financial viability and affordability for the future?

The SPU Mission Statement

The Board-adopted (1991) undergraduate enrollment policy: SPU will move from an open enrollment policy to a moderately selective admissions policy incrementally over the decade (1991-2001). SPU will increase enrollments of ethnic minorities and international students, the percentage goals to be informed by SPU’s ability to provide adequate educational and support services.

1. The impact of our environment (e.g., population growth and diversity, work force needs, WA State, regional and national policies on public higher education growth, price and financial aid, private higher education policy and practice, etc.) must inform and support the enrollment plan.
• The pool of potential college-bound students continues to increase through 2016 in WA State and the Western region primarily.
• Primary increase in WA high school graduates is expected in ethnic minorities and students from low-income families.
• The evangelical church community has supported enrollment growth of primarily Caucasian and lower- and middle-income undergraduate students at SPU.
• The pool of potential undergraduate students with the "ability to pay" is shrinking nationwide and at many private colleges and universities. A high percentage (88%) of American families has incomes below $50,000.
2. SPU’s educational philosophy, priorities and agreed-upon University outcomes must be clearly articulated to inform the enrollment plan.
3. Enrollment Growth:
• A limit should be placed on enrollment at a specified point in the future and should be defined for undergraduate degree-seeking, graduate degree-seeking, professional (non-degree) enrollments and the limits should be specific to delivery systems utilized for each of these enrollment segments.
• Growth in revenue from some source is a requirement for financial viability. Variables for increasing revenues for the University budget are:

Price
Enrollment size
New sources of revenues
Endowment (long-term solution)

By holding price increases to inflation for the next three years and with no new sources of revenue currently identified, enrollment growth is required in the short-term for financial health.

• Enrollment growth should not occur at the expense of student or instructional quality, by lowering admissions standards or by overcrowding facilities.
4. There should be a "critical mass" of Christian students at SPU.
5. The enrollment plan should demonstrate improved student persistence to graduation for undergraduate students.

B. How should SPU demonstrate our commitment to quality (value) and affordability for students? What will most significantly increase SPU’s perceived value to students and families we seek to serve in the future?

• What is of MOST value to the families and students we seek to serve? How can we keep actual and perceived value in alignment?
• Will SPU survive and thrive in the future if perceived as anything less than "top-tier" in our niche—Christian higher education?
• Can we keep our public commitment to price increases at the rate of inflation for three more years? Extend the commitment into the future?
• Are there more cost-effective delivery systems for instruction and services? (e.g., "time to degree" requirements, distance learning, degree completion, etc.)
• Are our administrative and other nonacademic costs too high?

C. Should SPU set a goal for enrollment growth or enrollment limit for the next decade? How should SPU use our resources to achieve a "moderately selective" admissions policy by 2001?

• Can we achieve a "moderately selective" enrollment in a growth model?
• Can we adequately support enrollment growth? (faculty, staff, services)
• Can SPU survive, in the short-term, without growth? (Can other sources of revenue for investment in the educational program be identified for the short term and the long-term?)
• Should we target particular academic programs for growth?
• What is SPU’s current enrollment capacity? What options exist for expanding capacity for the future?
• What does it mean to be a residential campus? How should this affect the enrollment plan?
• What is capacity for meeting space, faculty load, staff load, classrooms, performance facilities, labs, majors, service courses, residence halls/non-traditional housing, the Common Curriculum?
• What current resources and policies are assumed?
• Are we in Autumn ’97at enrollment capacity for housing and Freshman CORE?

D. What mix of enrollment reflects SPU’s educational priorities? Are we prepared to provide adequate support for their educational experience?

• Do we want enrollment to reflect the demographic mix of Seattle, the Northwest, the nation?
• First-time Freshmen/Transfer Students
• Undergraduates/Graduate Students/Professional Development (non-degree students)
• Women/Men
• Resident/Commuter
• In State/Out-of-State
• Full-time/Part-time
• Christian/non-Christian
• Free Methodists
• Ethnic Minorities
• Internationals
• Under prepared Students
• National Merit Scholars
• Children of Alumni
• Educational Programs: Academic and Campus Life

E. What is SPU’s desired student profile, which will lead to graduates who can change the world (who can serve and lead)?

• Where should we place our emphasis in developing the profile—inputs (admissions standards) or outputs (the educational experience ® outcomes)?
• Are Christian commitment (faith development), leadership potential and service involvement legitimate measures of admissibility for students or are they outcome measures for our graduates? Or both?

Information appearing on this page is not final and should be considered planning in process, unless otherwise stated. The Comprehensive Plan is an emerging set of documents which are provided here for the Seattle Pacific Community.