OUR VIEW: Recruitment and retention efforts need to be a top priority for everyone on campus, not just upper level administration.

Every semester, the talk of enrollment increase or decrease buzzes around campus, but most students don’t understand how enrollment actually affects them. When faculty plans the budget for the each semester, the projected enrollment is what part of the budget is based on — which means student fees can be raised based on this number, budget cuts (and raises) are based on this number, etc.

So when enrollment falls short or increases only in small increments, students are left to pay the difference while suffering the effects of budget cuts in their school activities.

The best way to keep enrollment up is to heighten our retention efforts and increase help with high school recruitment. Retaining students should be top priority for everyone at this campus — it’s not enough to just get students to come here. We have to keep them, too.

Don’t cop out with an indifferent attitude about enrollment — it affects every person at this school where it counts: our bank accounts. Reach out to high school friends, other university’s students and don’t transfer to another school. These simple actions will help raise enrollment and help MSU focus more on education than on financial crisis.