Binghamton University Council hears updates on admissions, athletics

Binghamton University Council heard updates from Undergraduate Admissions and the Department of Athletics on a snowy day Friday, Nov. 16.

Following brief reports from President Harvey Stenger and student representative Harry Bittker, Vice Provost Donald Loewen and Director of Undergraduate Admissions Krista Medionte-Phillips talked about the University’s data-driven strategy and fall 2018 enrollment results.

“We’re continuously looking to improve processes and have streamlined them to improve the time to decision,” Medionte-Phillips said. “We’re working with colleagues in communications and marketing because communication is critical, and we’re using a multifaceted system, making sure we’re getting prospective students the information they need to make decisions.”

Some of the strategies in place include using data to identify and target specific markets and high schools, using a territory management approach with staff who are “boots on the ground” and continuing to engage high-school counselors and alumni.

“High-school counselors are a great resource for us and can impact more students,” said Medionte-Phillips.

Recently, Undergraduate Admissions hosted 60 counselors from various states, including California, Loewen said. “We had the most amazing anti-melt results with 61 counselors registered and 60 showing up. We had a great response afterward, and only two of them had been on campus before so it was a great way to showcase Binghamton.

“And alumni are covering events we can’t get to. They’re a tremendous help and we’re looking to grow that,” he added.

“We’re looking at data as soon as applications start and where we are in relation to the past few years,” Loewen said. “Fall 2019 numbers are very promising and we’re up around 30 percent point to point. International applications will come in later, but we’ve reconfigured our team and anticipate some rebound there.“

For the first time, Undergraduate Admissions has someone spending much of her time in China and will spend more than half of the year living there. “That’s good for us,” Loewen said. “She’s closer to the students there and we were able to hold our first alumni event there with her help.”

Looking ahead, Loewen said the University is aiming for the same freshman and transfer numbers as last year and will continue to push for international enrollments. “It’s good for the campus to diversify and important to have a real range of states and countries represented so we’re working hard at that,” he said.

“More broadly, the region is presenting us with some interesting dynamics as we move forward. What are the prospects and strategies we need to look for to keep our reputation and quality and the highest possible standards?” he said.

There’s a great deal of variation in the percent change of high school graduates ahead of us, with the growth in the south and some of the less populated states, Loewen said. “Where do we need to sharpen our focus and efforts? We have a big focus on out-of-state, are looking at multiple ways to communicate and actively work with specific populations to invite them to campus, and are working hard on our international strategies with a real focus on social media that’s showing success.”

“We’re pushing content out on country-specific social media platforms,” Medionte-Phillips said.

Loewen reminded the council that, numerically, the vast majority of our students still come from New York state. “We also have to make sure we don’t lose New York state student and we don’t want to lose that focus,” he said.

Director of Athletics Patrick Elliott spoke to the council about the many accolades student-athletes have earned, singling out Louis DePrez in wrestling, Nick Wegmann in baseball, Jessica Rutherford in softball, Imani Watkins in women’s basketball, Keishora Armstrong in track and field and the women’s lacrosse team.

“It’s a great day to be a Bearcat,” he said. “We have great big-time programs, great academic programs – and Bearcats love snow!”

But academic excellence was his main message. “It’s part of who we are and what our brand is,” he said. “Last year our student-athletes achieved a 3.32 GPA – that trended above our overall student population GPA – we had 208 selections to America East Spring Academic Honor Roll, 218 of our athletes earned a GPA of 3.3 or higher last spring, 28 had a 4.0 and we had 10 graduating seniors honored by the America East for having a 3.75 GPA or higher.

“The academic rigor at this institution is as high as any I’ve seen, and here in the context of a GPA, we know based on the quality of our faculty, admissions and academic rigor, that they’ve earned it and so these numbers are important,” Elliott added.

He then told a story about men’s basketball. “If you don’t win games, nothing else matters,” he said, “but for us, our mandate has been to be the best in the classroom, as citizens and on the court.” The men’s basketball team earned the National Association of Basketball Coaches Team Academic Excellence Award in 2017-18 and was one of only 45 Division I men’s programs to earn the honor, with a program-best 3.27 GPA in fall 2017.

Importantly, Elliott said that Binghamton’s men’s basketball had a 100 percent graduation success rate for undergraduate seniors and attained a perfect 1,000 APR for the second year in a row.

The APR, Elliott said, is the NCAA gold standard for how an athletics department is doing academically. “They look at retention from one semester to the next and academic eligibility from one to the next,” he said.

Moving forward, the NCCA is going to provide an incentive to programs that do well in the APR, Elliott said. “The NCAA is really investing in academic performance,” he said. “It’s about taking money for basketball performance and instead throwing it to academics and creating incentives for schools. We want to meet that 985 or above number every year. We’re trending up and in the right direction.”

Elliott called the men’s basketball team a success story that is also an admissions success story, a faculty success story, as well as coaches, academic support, Center for Learning and Teaching and all of our tutors. “A concerted effort was made by the entire team,” he said. “Our men’s team is one of highest academically performing teams in our athletics program.”

Elliott wrapped up his remarks with a save the date for the 11th annual Celebrating Women’s Athletics Luncheon, to be held Monday, Feb. 4, with Joan Benoit Samuelson scheduled to speak, and a note that next year, women’s athletics at Binghamton University will celebrate its 50th anniversary and there will be a year-long series of events.

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