Faculty and administrators offered a range of ideas aimed at improving recruitment and retention, including creating two new coordinator positions,Thursday at the Fall Forum sponsored by the Council on Academic Affairs and the Enrollment Management Committee.

Improving Web sites throughout the university and finding ways to better distribute scholarship dollars were just two of the suggestions made after attendees viewed enrollment data, heard conference reports and participated in breakout sessions.

The importance of maintaining detailed and easily navigable Web sites from the university’s home page on down to departmental and individual faculty sites was emphasized in Stacia Carrell’s presentation.

“Now, we know only 1 percent of students don’t have Web access,” she said. “They are most definitely getting most of their information via the Web.”

Carrell, a graphic designer who works for University Publications, said today’s prospective students are more “tech savvy” and they look at not only the university’s home page but also individual department and faculty Web sites.

Because Web presence is becoming increasingly important in recruitment, Faculty Senate Chair, Bud Fischer, a biological sciences professor, suggested the university needs to hire a full-time “Web master” to coordinate Web sites throughout the university.

“It took what, five months to get (Provost) Blair Lord’s name on our Web site?” Fischer said, halting Eastern’s inability to provide consistent Web site maintenance.

Attendees also decided that better advertising of available scholarship dollars can boost recruitment. Psychology Professor John Best, one of the forum’s presenters, said individual university departments need to do a better job of informing prospective students of potential scholarship dollars that could manipulate the tuition “sticker price” for students who are considering Eastern.

“I don’t think it had to be much,” Best said, noting that even smaller scholarships could persuade students to choose Eastern.

Frank Hohengarten, dean of Enrollment Management, suggested that a scholarship coordinator position needs to be created on campus to oversee what scholarship dollars are available and how they are being distributed.

While better Web presence and more readily available scholarship dollars are two ways to attract more students, forum attendees agreed the need for more traditional recruitment strategies still exist.

Alan Baharlou, chair of the geology/geography department, said the university needs to seek out students and faculty who are interested in recruitment and send them out “on the road” to visit with advisers and administrators at high schools and community colleges. He suggested analyzing the recruitment successes Eastern’s athletics and honors departments have had.

Athletics can make a difference in general recruitment. Kathlene Shank, chair of the special education department, noted how Virginia Tech’s requests for admissions have doubled since their former quarterback Michael Vick, who was drafted by the NFL this spring, became nationally known.

The other main issue addressed at Thursday’s forum, retention, wasn’t as widely discussed because Eastern has been doing a good job of retaining students.

Mary Herrington-Perry, assistant vice president for academic affairs, said enrollment statistics of the past 11 years show that Eastern’s freshmen to sophomore retention rate has “hovered around 80 percent,” which is higher than the 69 percent average for four-year institutions.

After the individual reports were given and before attendees had an opportunity to provide feedback, the crowd separated into breakout sessions to cover the topics of admissions, retention and campus learning environment. While admissions was widely discussed by the audience, the retention and learning environment topics were mainly discussed by the panelists who participated in the breakout sessions.

The retention group focused on two points. The first was maintaining programs that are working well, such as the University Foundations Course and continuing to have professors who are accessible and willing to cultivate relationships with their students.

The second point involved improving faculty accessibility, analyzing successful advising programs and finding early intervention programs to identify and help students who may not be persisting toward graduation.

The learning environment group focused on identifying signs that a student may not be persisting toward graduation, because students can drop out of school without telling a single faculty member. The group said advisers need to be able to hear signs that students may be losing interest and help students stay in school