Lessons Learned from an ECE Recruiting and Retention Program that Increased Undergraduate Enrollment Over 60% in Four Years

This paper builds upon past works that were published in the ASEE Conference proceedings in 2011 and 2012. In response to a severe decline in undergraduate enrollment from 2004 to 2008, a corrective action program was implemented in our Electrical & Computer (ECE) department at the University of Oklahoma (OU). During this time, our undergraduate enrollment dropped by 36% (387 in 2004 to 246 in 2008). The goal of our corrective action program was to return our enrollment to a target number of 350 students and produce structures and processes to help sustain our enrollment in the future. In the fall of 2012, all program goals were met as our enrollment numbers increased to 399 students and several sustainment measures were put in place. This paper focuses on the lessons that were learned during these four years where we experienced a 62% increase in enrollment with a very modest financial investment. Early in the process, student surveys were used to gain insight into what inspired students to select ECE as a major. These data were used to shape the focus of our recruiting and retention program and to create a structure that our students would be interested to participate in. We later learned that student participation in the program was a necessity for it to be effective and sustained. Initial survey responses from several students who are now leaders in our recruiting and retention programs will be shared along with their thoughts on how participating in the program benefited them. Analyses of the recruiting methodology we used and the practices we found most cost effective are also shared in this paper. Time is considered an integral factor in the cost effective metric. Early in the program, it was apparent that many activities that took an enormous amount of time were ineffective and detracted from activities that are effective. The goal of this paper is to share our experiences as a means to provide suggestions for other engineering departments that are trying to reverse declining enrollments.