Loyola, NOBTS Use Tech To Return to Pre-Katrina Numbers

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Loyola, NOBTS Use Tech To Return to Pre-Katrina Numbers

6/18/2008

By Linda L Briggs

A huge increase in freshman enrollment numbers for the fall semester has Loyola University in New Orleans pleased with its efforts to rebuild its student body after Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS) is also looking at strong enrollment numbers, three years after the hurricane and its aftermath of flooding devastated New Orleans.

One recurring theme in the recovery of New Orleans universities: technology tools that have helped them gradually rebuild enrollment numbers since the hurricane, which struck in August 2005.

The University of New Orleans (UNO), for example, has managed to steadily pull enrollment back up from a huge loss of students after the disaster.

Other universities are reporting similar successes. According to Keith Gramling, director of undergraduate admissions at Loyola University New Orleans, as of May 1, a traditional enrollment measuring point for many schools, 728 new students are set to enroll for this fall, up from 525 last year. "It's a huge increase," Gramling said, "that puts us right in line with where we were before the storm."

A combination of variables have come together to help schools regain their numbers, including more positive news images of New Orleans. Some of that message has come from the schools themselves, although Gramling said that he is finally seeing better portrayals of the city in the press as well. Also, this is the first class since 2005 for which universities could conduct a full 18-month recruitment cycle. Last year, storm news was still impacting his initial outreach to high school students, Gramling said.

One thing that stands out for several schools, including Loyola, UNO, and NOBTS, is the strong role technology has played in luring students back to New Orleans, traditionally a popular city for college students. Those efforts include Web sites that show positive pictures of the campuses and city, as well as sophisticated e-mail tools to get targeted messages to potential students and parents, and, at NOBTS in particular, strong online learning offerings.

Loyola, for example, sent a series of HTML e-mails to a pool of prospective students, highlighting events on campus, from community service to social justice issues to interactions with faculty, along with news about the city. Like the University of New Orleans, Loyola used a product called