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Dear Southernites:
Have you read the November 27, 2015, SU Board of Supervisors' agenda and board packet? I can hardly contain my excitement. President-Chancellor Ray Belton and Vice Chancellor Brandon Dumas are recommending to the Board that the University formally adopt and fund the Federation's National Student Recruitment Initiative that was launched last year. Oh, but there is more! Drs. Belton and Dumas are proposing expanding the program. Wow!
As you know, in the wake of a huge drop in enrollment over the last 10 years, the Federation created the National Student Recruitment Initiative to help the University's Pathway to Prominence program recruit students throughout the United States utilizing our national network of alums and chapters. This national initiative was patterned after
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Former Acting Chancellor Flandus McClinton with President Castille, Vice Chancellor VerJanis Peoples, Foundation Past President Anna Jones, and Vice Chancellor Brandon Dumas sign Student Recruitment Collaborative Agreement in September 2014.
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the 2012 Lab School recruitment strategy that helped double enrollment at Southern Lab and save the school. Former Acting Chancellor Flandus McClinton was heavily involved in the development of the Lab School's student recruitment program and was very familiar with its success when he assumed the leadership of our Baton Rouge campus. In September 2014, Chancellor McClinton and Vice Chancellor Dumas, a Lab School graduate, agreed to partner with the Federation and the Foundation to expand the Lab School model and make it a national strategy for the University. I believed then, as I believe now, that this was bold leadership on their part.
With the help of a $25,000.00 grant from the Foundation, the Federation set out to raise more than $130,000.00. With your financial support and the incredible leadership of the Federation's National 3rd VP, Pamela Burleigh, the Federation hired a recruiter in Chicago for the Midwest Region of the country, a recruiter in Atlanta for the Southern Region of the country, and a third in Houston for the Texas Region of the country. Regional Directors Patricia Johnson, Tammy Clark, DuWarn Porter, and Tracey Taylor-Jarrell led the local hiring of these recruiters and provided direct supervision over this past year. As we all now know, all of our hard work paid off and resulted in a 30% increase in enrollment for our SUBR Fall 2015 freshman class, and more than a $1 million in recurring annual revenue. If you ever believed that the University does not value the ideas, opinions and help of our Alumni, the recommendation of our new University leadership, and the expected approval of this agenda item should remove all doubt. The Federation's National Student Recruitment Initiative will now become a formal part of the University's Student Recruitment Program to be funded and directed by the University. It will also expand to Los Angeles to cover the Western Region of the country. I'm so proud I graduated from Southern U! Our University, Alumni Federation and Foundation are truly working like a team; and Southern and its students are the beneficiaries of that team work.
As you can see, Jags and Knights, we already have so much to celebrate at the 42nd Annual Bayou Classic, and the game has not even been played yet! Three years ago, Marian, the kids and I started a new tradition of spending Thanksgiving in New Orleans. We plan to arrive in the Crescent City on Wednesday and stay through Sunday. We truly have so much to be thankful for this year, and I pray that your family receives as many blessings as my family has over the last year.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Preston
Preston J. Castille, Jr., JD
National President
HBCU Alumni Coalition President
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