Southeast Arkansas College finished the 2021 spring semester above its target enrollment after 14 months of tackling challenges from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
President Steven Bloomberg told the college's board members Wednesday the the school had 1,009 students finish spring classes, nine more than the target. As many as 1,028 registered for the traditional semester.
Bloomberg credited the resurgence to the addition of more-flexible schedules and shorter academic terms like eight-week sessions, and adding new academic programs like cybersecurity.
"One of the things that happened was having more start times," Bloomberg said. "Honestly before that time, we had redone our website, so we got rid of the website that was way out of date. We used social media, and we used geofencing so we could market to specific households through digital means. All of that came together in the fall of 2019 and our enrollment went up 13% over the previous fall."
Then came the covid-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020.
"We're in much better shape than we were this time last year," Bloomberg said. "We were looking at the potential budget cuts from the state because at that point, no one knew of the effects of covid on sales, and so we were looking at cuts from the state. We were looking at a situation where we knew enrollment was going to drop, so we forecasted reduction in state aid, reduction in student head count."
Enrollment for the fall dipped to just over 800. But that number has grown, and college leaders project $5.5 million in state funds coming to the campus, an increase of about $700,000 from last spring.
"We still need to keep growing because in 2019, we finally stopped the downhill slide of enrollment," Bloomberg said. "We were growing, but when covid hit, that really stunts our growth."
Bloomberg highlighted an upcoming festival on campus designed to "reintroduce the community to SEARK" and attract new students. SEARK SummerFest is scheduled for June 12 and will offer free food, games and basketball.
"If you've never been to college, or you've been to college and dropped out, or you dropped out because of covid, whatever the case may be, come to our campus and meet our faculty," Bloomberg said.
In lieu of a traditional graduation, the college will celebrate its graduates with a virtual ceremony beginning at 7 p.m. Friday on its website (seark.edu) and on its social media accounts.