Eastern has geared its recruitment efforts toward more higher profile students who are more likely to have a greater retention rate, the provost said Tuesday.

Blair Lord, the provost and vice president for academic affairs, said part of the university’s new recruitment strategy is to provide more student incentives such as the $1,500 Commitment to Excellence Scholarship, which is a renewable merit scholarship for incoming students.

So far, the university has offered the merit scholarship to 1,823 students, and 148 have accepted it.

Mary Harrington-Perry, the assistant vice president for academic affairs, and Amy Edwards, the assistant director of the Planning and Institutional Research Office, presented information they gathered concerning admissions, recruitment and retention during the Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday.

“Student yield is much higher with the more money we give students, not surprisingly,” Harrington-Perry said. “We were less vigilant in awarding aid to students in the 21 and above ACT area, but we have corrected that with the merit scholarship.”

About 3,600 incoming students have been admitted for the fall, and the majority of them are from Chicago, Naperville and Charleston, Edwards said.

They admitted about 25 percent of Charleston High School’s graduating seniors, she said

In Fall 2011, the university received 7,076 incoming freshman, which was about 430 fewer than Fall 2010.

Harrington-Perry said they plan to double their efforts of recruiting transfer students to make up for the shortfall in incoming freshmen.

More than 90 percent of Eastern’s total enrollment consists of students from Illinois and about 2 or 3 percent come from a different state, Edwards said.

“Two years ago, we began offering instate tuition to out-of-state students, but schools in Illinois tend to follow the high-tuition and high-aid model,” Lord said. “For example, state rates for universities in Indiana could beat our instate tuition.”

Another area they want to improve is marketing, Harrington-Perry said.

“The national average amount universities of Eastern’s size spend on recruiting is $779 per student, which would total about $2.5 million, and we just don’t have those kinds of funds to spend compared to other schools like Illinois State (University),” she said.

They gather the pool of prospective students to contact when students send their ACT scores or indicate they are interested in universities through Free Application for Federal Student Aid. She said the university has also purchased names of prospective students using ACT-score filters.

In January, 20,000 names were purchased of students with ACT scores from 21 and above.

The admissions staff recruits students from about 300 schools in Illinois, Harrington-Perry said.

Lord said open houses usually serve as the best recruitment tool, and last weekend they had the largest turnout of 680 prospective students, which is about 200 more than the open house last year that was at about the same time.

During the Faculty Senate meeting, the members also had executive elections.

Andrew Methven, a biological sciences professor, was reelected as chairman and Michael Mulvaney, a recreation administration professor, was reelected as vice chairman.

Grant Sterling, a philosophy professor, was elected as the Faculty Senate recorder replacing Jonathan Coit, a history professor.

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].