Nov. 5 Town Hall Meeting
Question 2: What opportunities does WSU need to seize? What external threats could cause problems for WSU?
Responses to what opportunities does WSU need to seize:
- Have WSU look towards the future with regard to career placement and careers in which there is a demand.
- Build upon a community focus on campus to reinforce the college experience.
- Crisis in math and science teacher openings.
- Certification for teachers without taking a leave of absence.
- More flexibility with graduate studies.
- Satellite campuses need to be more utilized.
- Hybrid class offerings.
- Needs assessment for postgraduate degrees.
- Get high school kids on campus - more than a campus visit. Have events for them. Host a high school basketball game or other high energy event.
- Partner with medical community.
- Small entrepreneurs - seize them and welcome them.
- More scholarships.
- Location.
- Hybrid education, integrate with high schools, exploding home schools.
- Online classes.
- Students that did not complete a WSU degree.
- Tie-in with high schools - build relationships with high school students.
- More private investment in the school's programs for job creation like internships.
- Maybe more credibility for non-accredited programs for all classes of students.
- Marketing to the world-wide student.
- Teaching quality.
- Grow enrollment.
- Keep high school students in Wichita.
- Acquire and develop area surrounding the main campus (Shockerville).
- Innovation through incubators nurturing intellectual capital.
- Sell ourselves well.
- Student loan debt - WSU is affordable.
- WSU is not second to other schools in the state.
- Have campus life for the commuter student.
- More connections to K-12 community, especially high schools.
- Take advantage of students in neighboring states - reciprocity.
- Degree completion online.
- Creative coursework and merging colleges.
- Grants and outreach.
- Rethink our delivery systems.
- Research (with research comes funding) and grant money.
- Professors working in the private sector to keep funding as well.
- Online programs, keeping costs down and using less resources.
- Students that did not complete their degree while at WSU - keep or get in touch with them to return and finish.
Responses to what external threats could cause problems for WSU:
- Rising costs of education. Some schools (Pittsburg State University) allow out-of-state students to pay in-state tuition.
- Predominance of community colleges in the area. Keep students at WSU after their second year.
- The economy.
- Name of university - does the fact that WSU is named after a city give it less prestige than say KU or KSU?
- Graduate students have no source of financial aid.
- How other Division 1 schools bring in so much money, we can't compete.
- Aviation industry highs and lows.
- Lack of average.
- Lack of resources.
- Not residential campus - make threat an opportunity for high standards, credibility, etc.
- Online courses.
- Rising costs.
- State funding flat.
- Grow enrollment - male to female ratio changing.
- The risk is technology that would keep WSU from getting across to that market, i.e. other institutions.
- Two-year costs of going to school may become more of a competitive factor.
- Cost of in-school education may be a factor because of technology.
- Loss of funding.
- Surrounding area development - land locked.
- Community colleges.
- Higher education staying relevant.
- Competition.
- The economy.
- Student loans decreasing.
- State funding.
- 16 colleges/universities in Wichita competing for our students.
- Rising tuition - student loans missing.
- Other online programs offered.
- Lower number of males pursuing higher education
- State funding is not something to rely on.
- Funding in general to keep up with demands.
- Pool of high school students in Kansas is flat - how do we grow enrollment?