Dr. Thomas: I did present those nine goals to the university community. One of our main goals is to grow the enrollment, as well as improve retention and graduation rates. We want to increase the staff and expand our marketing territory. We are looking at recruiting more Hispanic students, which is one of the populations leading in growth. We want to hire a bilingual recruiter. We want to establish targeted enrollment cohorts. We’ve started a Honors College...I’ve already hired the inaugural executive director for the Honors College. So...we are going to recruit those high-achieving students...those who have high ACT (American College Testing) scores and high grade point averages. Also, we are going to do targeted enrollment by: 1) recruiting those who are at the top of their class; 2) recruiting those who are midrange; and 3) those who may be borderline, but also meet our standards. This is going to help us in terms of our overall academic profile...enhancing the overall academic profile of the university when we bring more high-achieving students into the Honors College...as well as the mentor program. We are also going to be focusing on transfer students...recruiting more students from community colleges. We have already met with the executive director of the community college system, and they want to partner with us...as well as...we want to partner with other community colleges. We are recruiting more students from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and agriculture because we are a 1890 land-grant university, and that is part of our mission...so we have funding there for recruiting students. We have a MBA (Master of Business Administration) program, for which we received approval through the Chancellor’s Office...so we just have one more step for an MBA program that will hopefully be in place by next fall...and all of that will be online. We are also starting a new BRIDGE program for students that will take place during the summer...so they can take a couple classes to help them get acclimated to the university...that will help. We will also have the College Credit Plus Program...and by setting goals for each college we can gauge the faculty. Also, we are developing new pipelines for students by strengthening relationships and partnerships with high school counselors, principals, and ministers of education... globally. When we look at partnerships with high schools...and their principals and counselors...we want to bring the counselors to the university and talk about our academic programs...what we have to offer students... and how those counselors can help us. During this pandemic, much of this will be done virtually, but we plan to do some face-to-face interaction as well. In addition to that, we are having what we call ‘The Presidential Tour’, whereby I will be going...along with members of my mission staff...as well as working with
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