by David Chapman
Staff Writer
With few state dollar contributions and a sagging economy that can pinch the coffers of potential students, the odds for growth and success might seem stacked against a small, private institution like Jacksonville University.
Instead, the school is overcoming ever-present fiscal hurdles and adding programs and facilities that will not only pay future dividends, but also attract near-future students – and their tuition money – to campus.
“Running a successful institution is a business like anything else,” said JU President Kerry Romesburg. “We’re going to use the assets we have and continue to grow.”
When Romesburg’s presidency began in 2004, undergraduate enrollment was 1,801 students. The 2007-08 school year had 2,140 students – almost 350 more students than when he first landed the job.
While JU’s student numbers might pale in comparison to public institutions around Florida, Romesburg said the campus’ arrow is pointing up and the current campus atmosphere still offers the ability to form close relationships between faculty and students.
“I go around campus all the time and I constantly see students I know,” he said. “The school has a personal touch atmosphere that allows greater student-teacher interaction and has a more personal touch.”
With a student-to-faculty ratio of 14-1 and a plan to hire one faculty for every 20 students admitted, Romesburg has a goal to increase student population to almost 4,000 within eight years.
To reach that goal, though, Romesburg wanted to create additional programs – both academic and athletic – on campus to increase the school’s appeal to high school students at the decision-making point in the education.
Groundbreaking of JU’s Marine Science Center Institute, a 30,000-square-foot educational facility on the banks of the St. Johns River, is scheduled for later this year and should bring much interest in the program from outside students.
“This is the view students will have while in class,” said Marine Science Center Director Dr. Quinton White, pointing to the water while standing under the foliage-provided shade in an outdoor classroom.
But, it’s more than the views that will attract potential students – the facility and corresponding Marine Science courses will offer hands-on curriculum to help better understand the problems of the river, coordination with the non-profit St. Johns Riverkeeper, a precollegiate Marine and Environmental Education program and even a floating solar-powered research vessel used for field trips.
“It’s going to be a great facility and take the program to the next level,” said White, alluding to the creation of a marine science master’s program.
Much like its growing academic programs, JU athletics is also expanding in an effort to attract students.
Last Thursday, the athletic department announced it was introducing men’s and women’s lacrosse – a growing sport often dominated by Midwest and Northeastern schools – to the campus beginning in 2009-10.
“This was a very easy decision for us,” said JU Athletic Administrator Alan Verlander. “I’ve been asked about the sport as an ‘enrollment driver’ for the university, and I can tell you it will be.”
Sports scholarships will be available beginning in the programs in 2010 and will grow exponentially each year, with a cap of five per year.
It will be the first such men’s program in Florida and the second women’s team, with the University of Florida also gearing up for play.
“When parents and students heard that lacrosse might be coming to JU, we started to get many calls,” said Romesburg. “We’ve had at least 20, but without the program, those are the first 20 that might not have even considered coming to JU.”
Verlander said that having the first Div. 1 lacrosse teams in the state of Florida has already helped with putting the school on the radars of students, and he credits one of the area’s natural assets as a selling point.
“The weather,” he said. “It’s Florida. When you’re able to live and breathe here, it makes a big difference when making a decision. Sports is one of the easiest ways to market your school.”
Over the past few years, students have been factoring in JU when making that collegiate choice, said Derek Hall, JU’s associate vice president of marketing and communication.
Hall said scheduled campus tours are up over 10 percent this year compared to last year, with many students from outside the area also visiting.
He also noted that there are tours scheduled daily, but that “Flip-Flops Friday” tours are some of the more popular ones, especially to out of state students.
“We give them flip-flops to walk around in, to take advantage of the weather,” he said. “So far this year, we’ve had hundreds of student tours.”
With a school growth plan in place that has succeeded thus far and the establishment of new and groundbreaking programs, Romesburg is confident the work he and others have put into the university will result in the school’s arrow continuing to point up.
“It just takes the right plan and the time and money to get things where we want them to be,” he said. “But it’s looking up.”
The following chart shows the increase in fall enrollments by traditional undergraduate students at Jacksonville University since the 2002-03 school year. Undergraduates compose the largest percentage of JU students, but adult, online and postgraduate students also add to the overall number.
