Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Recruiting Tough

Henderson State University is doing its best to recruit students in a competitive market.

Vikita Bell Hardwick, director of university relations, said getting students to come to HSU is challenging with all the four-year colleges and universities there are in the state, as well as community colleges.

All of these entities compete to get students to attend their institutions after high school.

Hardwick began her career as admission official with the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, spending four years there before going to HSU.

Admission officials, she said, across the nation face the same problem of attracting students to their schools.

At Henderson, Hardwick continued, the admissions department is more aggressive than ever, updating its database, working to target specific types of students with information about HSU.

Students today are more image oriented, or visually stimulated. She said the information they want now requires much less text than in the past, but should have a good visual impact.

Higher education is a buyers market with students being smart shoppers where their education dollars are concerned these days. No longer are high school graduates attending a particular college because their parent or some other relative did.

Instead, they make the decision on where to go to post-secondary school based on financial reasons. "They are sophisticated consumers," Hardwick said. "They shop around and try to get the best deal."

Ironically, academic programs are not the reason most students attend a college today. The value they get for the money they spend, though, is.

This, Hardwick said, has led HSU to make major changes in how it approaches recruiting students.

In the past, she said, Henderson used to target specific areas in the state, mostly the region surrounding Clark County.

Now, though, HSU is venturing out to the entire state, while also targeting some areas outside the boundaries of Arkansas. Henderson, she said, does some recruiting in Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, but doesn't have the fiscal resources to travel much.

By the year 2010 the racial makeup of the United States will be much different than it is now, she said, and post-secondary schools will have to look at different types of students again.

Hardwick said research into student recruiting is constantly being done at HSU, with data being gathered on different demographic areas.

But, not just any student is sought by Henderson, she said. In 1995, the average ACT test score for students was 20.5. Now, though, the average score is about 22. To be eligible for admission at HSU, a student must either score a minimum of 17 on their ACT, or graduate in the top half of their high school class.

Students, she said, know HSU is a quality academic school with a lot to offer them.

At this time, HSU is the only university in the state with a four-year aviation program, and one of only 16 in the nation with such a course offering.

It also has a master's program for those who wish to continue their education at HSU after obtaining a bachelor's degree.