A Message from President Aceves

Dear Colleagues,

As a community, we have worked diligently and collaboratively to craft Regis University's strategic and supporting unit plans. We will soon have final versions of these plans that we will share with you and begin implementing on February 1.

The Enrollment Plan was the initial plan we implemented. The Board endorsed it at their September 2023 meeting. This time-sensitive plan was developed first in an effort to inform our institutional and unit plans and guide current and future enrollment strategies. Much has happened since it was implemented. I asked Dr. Kumar to please share his insight and perspective. Here is what he shared.

“In September, we shared our Strategic Enrollment Plan with the campus community, and as I review our progress four months later, I am excited to report that our efforts are paying off. For FY 2024, total enrollment (traditional, post-traditional, graduate, and doctoral) is on target to date and trending towards finishing the fiscal year at the upper goal of 2,684 new students. This level of enrollment supports the higher range of enrollment revenue budget and net-tuition revenue goals.

Our success results from a highly dedicated team committed to implementing the board-endorsed enrollment plan. A few highlights include: (1) visits to over 300 Colorado High Schools; (2) an intentional outreach effort to the Colorado Community College System; and (3) visits to our Catholic and Jesuit High Schools across the country. These and other efforts have helped increase our applications by 42% over this point in time for the previous year.

While pharmacy schools are seeing decreasing enrollments, working with Dean Samit Shah, we addressed a major concern from out-of-state students by bundling housing for their first year into the cost of the program. In consultation with Deans Linda Osterlund and Cathy Witt, we have expanded our nursing capacity to support the growing demand from our healthcare employers and partners.

Another way we are making progress is by working with our university and international partners who embrace Regis' vision and direction. Our international outreach is evolving. We expanded our global awareness and partnerships in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Vietnam, Nepal, Morocco, and over a dozen partners in India. Next month, we are adding Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. For the first eight-week term this spring, we welcomed thirty-seven graduate and eight undergraduate international students to campus. We are grateful for the support of Associate Deans, Matt Daly and Doug Hart, for adapting their courses and program by allowing more international students for the second eight-week term this spring. We plan to enroll an additional 15-17 students and see continued growth this fall.

Beyond the numbers, it is vital to our team that we know the students we have admitted and that are planning to attend Regis University. We are excited by our incoming class' intellectual curiosity and academic profile. While still early in the process, the average GPA of our admitted students is currently at 3.71. Of our committed students, 92% plan to live on campus, and their average GPA is 3.81. We are experiencing a 300% increase in in-state students with an average GPA of 3.89. Our incoming nursing students have a near-perfect GPA of 3.98.

We recognized the importance of engaging with students and their families as they prepare to join us this fall. Events like Open Houses, Scholar Dinner Series, Basecamp, Tap into Regis, Regis at Night, Money Matters, and Super Weekend all provide our students with the ability to meet with university leadership, faculty, and staff and reaffirm why they are making the right decision to attend Regis.

Wonderful developments are also happening with our non-traditional students. Anderson College of Business and Computing's fall enrollment was up 99%, and enrollment for spring is up 127%. I couldn't be more excited about where we are headed and where we will journey together.”

Thank you to Dr. Kumar and the Strategic Enrollment Management team. Our collaborative efforts are yielding positive results. With hearts full of anticipation, we look forward to continuing this transformative journey, embracing the intellectual curiosity, diversity, and academic excellence that define Regis’ path.

Kindly,

Salvador D. Aceves, Ed.D

President