More than 50 events planned to introduce students to UB

They will come for Open House, an opportunity for accepted freshmen and transfer students to visit the place where they may be pursuing their undergraduate degrees. To be held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 19, it's a big day for the Office of Admissions.

In fact, "it's the most important thing we do all year," according to Regina S. Toomey, interim assistant vice president for student affairs and director of admissions.

More than 50 events have been planned to introduce accepted students to the wealth of academic programs, variety of student services and numerous state-of-the-art learning resources that are available at UB.

Coordinated by the Office of Admissions, activities will include academic presentations, exhibits, demonstrations, campus tours, financial-aid information, tours of the residence halls, student performances and the President's Reception. In addition, for the first time, students who come to Open House will receive a special souvenir T-shirt.

The importance of the university's annual Open House cannot be overstated.

"Open house has a tremendous impact on enrollment," Toomey said. And enrollment this year has been a hard-fought-and apparently successful-battle. Although the number of students who had applied to UB was down significantly at the end of the fall semester, efforts by the Office of Admissions and the entire university community have paid off, she said.

"Things look good now. Freshman applications are down less than 1 percent and deposits are up from (this time) last year," Toomey said. "We have caught up a lot."

A tremendous amount of work was involved in getting the application numbers up, she noted.

"We've done a lot of good programs and a lot of good publicity. We've just finished five receptions for parents and students all around the state, including one in Syracuse, where we've never done one before," Toomey said.

Receptions for accepted students and their parents are just one part of the work that's been done this year.

A lot of effort from throughout the university community has gone into recruitment for Fall '97, Toomey said. The goal: to get the word out, all across the state, about the variety and quality of UB's academic programs. That effort has included an aggressive radio advertising campaign in late December that targeted the New York City metropolitan area, Toomey said. UB also did more radio advertising locally last fall and again this spring, as well as buying local television ad time on Nickelodeon, MTV and Fox.

Ads also were placed in a number of community college newspapers, Toomey said, "all over the state, (at) any school that has been a good feeder-or even a moderate feeder-for (transfer) applications" to UB. UB faculty also met with faculty at community colleges to provide information about recruitment, articulation, "whatever is needed to eliminate roadblocks" that might prevent a student from transferring to UB, she said. Those efforts have made a substantial difference in the number of transfer students applying to UB.

While transfer applications earlier were down by as much as 50 per-cent, that number now shows a decline of 13-15 percent from last year, Toomey noted. She added that UB traditionally gets most of its transfer applications between April and August. "Not that I want people to be complacent, but we still have time," she said.

The 1997 recruitment campaign also has included a greater effort to provide every student accepted for fall admission with personal contact with someone at UB. Deans from all academic disciplines have sent letters congratulating students on their acceptance to the university and encouraging them to contact UB if they have any questions about the university and its programs.

Individual schools also have made special efforts to boost recruitment. The School of Engineering and Applied Sciences sent a video to each student welcoming him or her to UB, as well as a copy of "Angle," the engineering student publication. Arts and Letters has invited accepted students to come to campus for a day, giving them an opportunity to attend classes. Other units also are engaged in special recruitment efforts, Toomey said. And the offices of Residence Life and Student Life have been invaluable in the help they have provided, she added.

With Open House just a week away, Toomey said she hopes to get other members of the university community involved in extending a hand to the students and families who will participate in activities at UB April 19. "The message we're trying to get across to the university community is everyone should come to Open House and act as ambassadors," she said. "A friendly face, someone to ask, 'Do you need help' can go a long way" toward breaking down concerns prospective students may have about attending UB. For more information on how you can help at Open House, call 645-6648.