Dear Colleagues,
We've reached the end of the 2022-2023 academic year, and I thank you for all you did to make it a success. With finals wrapping up and Commencement on Saturday, there is much to applaud.
This year, we completed a lengthy and demanding reaccreditation self-study and had a successful visit with a team from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. We attained university status. Generous donors gave more than $1 million in gifts, grants and pledges to endow our Student Emergency Fund, and we are on track to finalize the most successful fundraising campaign in our history. We commemorated the 30th anniversary of The Black List and celebrated ways the institution has been, and will continue, making changes and strides forward. Chancellor King visited campus and learned about the great things happening at Oneonta and what students are looking for. The Regional Innovation Council formally launched, and we have established partnerships with local school districts and businesses. We've made significant progress toward the opportunities identified in Regaining Momentum: An Agenda for SUNY Oneonta. We became the new host to SUNY COIL and New York State History Day. The institution was recognized for our achievements and commitments, like being invited to join the Aspen Institute's American Talent Initiative and being awarded a silver sustainability rating by the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. Our students participated, won or placed in competitions in several states and countries and were even featured on national television. These are just a fraction of the many events and projects accomplished by the talented members of the SUNY Oneonta community. I strongly encourage you to take a moment to and scroll back through all of the stories featured on our News & Events page and in Notes from Netzer throughout the past year. I hope they give you the same sense of admiration and pride that they do for me.
As always, the growing pressures on higher education mean we need to continue working to strengthen SUNY Oneonta.
The outlook for Fall 2023 enrollment remains positive. Our Admissions team reviewed almost 15,000 applications. We are up by more than 25% in deposits for first-year students and more than 50% for transfer students. We anticipate approximately 1,525 new undergraduate students will be joining us in August. Deposits for graduate students are also up nearly 50% for Summer 2023 and 40% for Fall 2023, year over year.
While there is much to make us feel confident, we have developed a new student enrollment plan to strengthen and shape undergraduate enrollment and expand graduate enrollment. You can view our 2023-2025 New Student Enrollment Plan online, which outlines the scope of the plan, data, demographic trends and considerations, competition and goals.
We are also focusing on improving our first to second-year retention rate and analyzing equity gaps among various groups within our student body. To help with this, we will be establishing the University Retention Council. This is a result of the excellent work done by members of the Retention Persistence Completion Committee, Enrollment Management Team and Student Success Leadership Group, which led us to form this new council.
As I've mentioned in several recent meetings, we will begin developing a new strategic plan in the fall. Regaining Momentum will lead us through December 2023, but a more comprehensive strategic plan is necessary. The emerging challenges within higher education and the Middle States team's response to their site visit will guide us during this process. To develop a new strategic plan, we will take an integrated planning approach conducted by the University Budget Committee and the new University Strategic Planning Committee. Together, these groups form the University Integrated Planning Council. Details on the University Integrated Planning Council and the conceptual planning model for our next strategic plan are outlined online. I invite everyone to review them and provide feedback by June 1.
There is much to look forward to for the 2023-2024 academic year. Again, thank you for your hard work. Congratulations on all you achieved and that which we accomplished collectively this year. I also thank you in advance for participating in institution-wide, divisional, departmental and individual initiatives that will continue supporting our commitment to nurturing a community where students grow intellectually, thrive socially and live purposefully.
Sincerely,
