WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., Feb. 20, 2017 – West Liberty University’s team effort is getting good results and it’s not just in athletics.
“We are pleased to report that we are experiencing an enrollment increase this semester and currently have 2,155 students. This is an 1.8 percent increase over the same time last spring,” said Vice President Scott Cook, who oversees enrollment management. This is the first enrollment increase since the fall of 2012.
Cook sites graduate programs and an 11 percent increase in new students as the reason for the increase. However, the main cause is the engagement of the entire campus community in recruiting and retention activities.
“Our new student enrollment was up 11 percent in the fall due to the involvement of staff, administration and faculty in the recruitment process. With academic departments creating new graduate programs, our graduate student enrollment also increased by 12 percent in the fall and 24 percent this spring,” he added.
“This is really good news that we want to share with the campus community and the entire state. We are grateful to President Greiner who is providing the leadership that keeps the focus on our students. We thank him and our entire staff engaged in this recruitment and retention effort,” Cook said.
WLU also is enjoying the largest number of Elbin Scholars and students enrolled in the Scholars Program at this time.
“I am especially pleased that our average GPA is up for freshmen and that our student body includes more scholars than ever. We can take great pride in this fact and the fact that our graduate programs are growing,” said Dr. Stephen Greiner, WLU president. “In fact, right now West Liberty University can claim the largest number of graduate students ever.”
WLU graduate programs include the Master of Arts in Education, the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies, the Master of Professional Studies, the Master of Science in Criminology and the online MBA degrees.
The next graduate program now in the final stages of approval is the Master of Science in Biology degree that will be available for students next fall.
Other master programs planned for the near future include a master’s in Dental Hygiene and a master’s in Clinical Psychology, which already have been approved by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Both are now waiting for approval by the Higher Learning Commission, the regional accreditation body for post-secondary education institutions in the central United States.
“My goal was to have five new graduate programs available for students and professionals seeking career advancement at the end of my first five years as president and we are well on our way. This goal came about after a great deal of listening. I discovered that many of our alumni, faculty and students felt that graduate programs would benefit everyone. We as a campus must be responsive to the needs of the larger community that we serve and master’s programs are one way we can provide the trained and educated employees that West Virginia needs,” Greiner said.
New undergraduate majors approved recently include the 3 + 2 year program in Human Biology that provides a speedier avenue for top-level students to complete a bachelor’s in biology in three years and a master’s in Physician Assistant Studies in two years. This ambitious program launches next fall.
At the same time, WLU will begin to offer its new BA/BS to BSN for nursing, which is tailored for those students holding a non-nursing degree who want to earn the BSN and become a registered nurse to enter the professional healthcare field.
Additionally, Hilltopper Athletics has expanded recently and now includes two new sports, adding to even more to enrollment options for prospective students.
West Liberty University will have a total of 18 varsity intercollegiate sports beginning with the 2017-18 academic year after adding men’s soccer this month and women’s acrobatics and tumbling this past November.
Students interested in learning more about WLU undergraduate or graduate programs should call the admissions department at 304-336-8076 for details or visit westliberty.edu or simply call 1.866.WESTLIB.