Chadron State president likes her job, seeks to increase enrollment

“Every day has been a wonderful experience,” said Dr. Janie Park, who became the college’s 10th president in August. “I have been made to feel welcome both on- and off-campus, have been impressed by Chadron State’s outstanding faculty and staff and the way the college delivers excellent academic programs over a wide area. The alumni I have met tell many stories about the wonderful experiences they had at Chadron State. Both my husband (Tom) and I really enjoy being here.”

Park came to Chadron State after serving as provost and academic vice chancellor at Montana State-Billings since 1996. She went there in 1993 as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences after serving as associate dean of the College of Science and Liberal Arts for three years at the Florida Institute of Technology, where she earned both her master’s degree and doctorate.

She succeeded Dr. Tom Krepel, who resigned after seven years as the CSC president.

During the nearly 140 days in her new job, Park has found some challenges. The primary one is reversing a decline in the college’s enrollment.

Generally speaking, CSC’s enrollment has dropped a couple of percentage points annually for most of the last decade. The headcount was 3,206 in the fall of 1995. This fall it was around 2,500, a decline of 6 percent from the previous year.

“We’ve got to make the enrollment curve bend in the right direction,” she recently told a gathering of Chadron State supporters. “We’re going to work hard to get that 6 percent back next year and try to build a few percentage points on to the total each year after that.”

The effort will include expanding the region that Chadron State traditionally focuses on to draw students.

“We’re going to be more aggressive in areas where there is more population,” said Park. “The western half of Nebraska has experienced a rather sharp decline in its population in the last decade. This is particularly true as far as young people are concerned. That means there aren’t as many high school graduates in our area that we can attract to Chadron State.”

Within the region, the Front Range of Colorado is the growth area. Hundreds of new homes have been built from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs since the turn of the century. That’s where Chadron State will place much of its new recruiting emphasis in the coming months.

To help with the expanded recruiting efforts Park has asked Dr. Richard Rhine, a former colleague from Montana State-Billings, to spend at least the next nine months at Chadron State as special assistant to the president for enrollment. He will work with the Admissions Office staff on recruiting and retention.

A native of Arkansas, Rhine was dean of the College of Professional Studies and Lifelong Learning at MSU-Billings the past nine years. He recently left that position to form his own consulting firm, but will put those plans on hold while working at CSC.

The fact that Chadron State already has two programs that allow top students from other states to attend the college by paying only in-state tuition will make the stepped up recruiting efforts easier.

The Non-Resident Scholars Program is open to high school graduates who are in the upper one-fourth of their class academically, have at least a 3.25 cumulative grade point average or have a composite ACT score of 25 or SAT score of 1700.

Through this program, transfer students from other states may also attend CSC by paying only in-state tuition if they have a cumulative collegiate GPA of at least 3.0.

The Student Opportunities Award also waives out-of-state tuition to high school graduates who are in the upper one-half of their high school class and have a minimum ACT of 22 or SAT of 1530.

“These programs make attending Chadron State very reasonable,” said Park. “When these programs are considered the tuition and fees at CSC are the lowest among 42 four-year colleges and universities in our region. When you combine that with the outstanding facilities, the tradition of excellence that Chadron State has attained and the excellent faculty that is in place, we think the college is in a great position to increase its enrollment. We just need to do a better job of telling our story and letting prospective students know what we can provide for them.”

Park said she also plans to help Chadron State become more involved in the everyday lives of those residing in the region.

“Public engagement is an essential part of the heritage of public institutions like Chadron State,” said Park. “We need to be an active participant in tackling the myriad of opportunities and challenges facing the communities in this region. Of course, one of those is reversing the population trends. It will be a major task, but it’s something that we need to work on.

“Chadron State already plays a critical role in the social, cultural and economic fabric of rural Nebraska, but I believe there is more that we can do. I will work hard to make public engagement as important to this institution as other dimensions of our mission.”