by Lana Douglas, Triangle staff writer
Bryan’s enrollment continues to increase in spite of the recession.
Overall enrollment for this year is at 1,148, according to Tom Davis, director of public information. Last year’s overall enrollment was 1,079. The Aspire Program is up this year with 305 students as opposed to last year’s 248 . However, on campus, the current traditional enrollment is 726, down a little from last year’s 749 students.
Mike Sapienza, vice president for enrollment management, said that there has been an increase in the non-traditional students because of the economy. Adult numbers are going to go up anytime the economy gets bad, he said.
“When people are out of work they say, ‘Well, I’ll go get an education and it should help me…to find a job,” Sapienza said.
Rick Taphorn, director of financial aid, said that there have been very few students who have dropped out because of financial difficulties.
“Anytime a student is saying that they are having financial difficulty, we try to call and see if we can help.”
Taphorn said that he knew enrollment was going to go down because Bryan had such a large graduating class last year.
“Enrollment is higher than what we expected. We were expecting 690….it is actually much more positive than we thought it would be with the economy,” said Taphorn.
“We have been very pleasantly surprised at how much it has increased. Most schools…can’t say that.”
Sapienza is planning for enrollment to go up next year as well, even with the economic challenges.
Sapienza said that students who are visiting Bryan appreciate that the college sticks to its mission and focus on Christian worldview.
“I think that the big thing is that when they come to visit campus they can sense that what we say about the school…is true. It’s a warm welcoming environment.”
Bryan’s vision for the year 2020 is to have 1,200 traditional students and 600 non-traditional (Aspire and graduate program) students, said Davis.