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By Beckie Supiano. Adult students are an unrecognized minority group at traditional colleges. Not only are there fewer students who fall into that category, but the institutions have been set up to serve a different type of student. That’s the case two administrators at Mount Mercy University made here on Wednesday at a session of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers’ annual meeting. The two officials—Colette Atkins, assistant dean of adult accelerated programs, and Jason Clapp, the registrar—described how they had worked together to meet the needs of older students who have job and family responsibilities on top of academic ones. In the coming years, the adult-student population is projected to grow more quickly than the traditional-age one nationwide, Mr. Clapp said. “We need to be paying attention to that market.”
Mount Mercy started an accelerated program for working adults in 1997, and it has “just boomed in our community,” Mr. Clapp said. Today close to a quarter of the Iowa university’s enrollment is in that program. The university has teamed up with a nearby community college that offers a similarly structured program to start students on the path to a bachelor’s degree. A number of local employers offer partial tuition reimbursement. More recently the university has started graduate programs for adult students on a similar model. Nontraditional students face additional barriers to college access, and the speakers offered some ideas on how colleges can help mitigate them. Some barriers are situational, they said. For example, older students often have family obligations. They may have to travel for work or be on a shift schedule. Limits of money and time are also concerns. Read more...

By Katrina L. Heilmeier. Alumni volunteers can be extremely valuable resources throughout the recruitment process. Their first-hand knowledge of history, traditions, and spirit give alumni a unique voice in speaking to students and families about the value of a degree from your institution. Alumni volunteers can assist recruitment throughout the entire admissions cycle by participating in college fairs, interviews, high-school visits, on and off-campus programs, letter-writing campaigns, and more. Alumni-volunteer networks can also provide passionate alumni a way to give back time and talent to the university and maintain a strong bond with the institution. Read more...