Alumni and Friends,
What a year 2020 has been! This year has been full of challenges, reshaping the way we deliver content to our on-campus students. While the last two years have been marked by our focus on growth, this year has been about intentional engagement and support of our students. All of our students, and faculty, were deeply affected by the societal challenges of the past year, regardless if the student was traditional on-campus or an established professional in one of our graduate programs.
Adapting to Covid-19
In many ways, our program was well positioned to adapt to the Covid-19 environment, having taught courses online for years. However, significant adaptation was required to support our students, especially those transitioned to the online format. Students reported that they were struggling to adapt to a new learning environment, missed the opportunities to socialize and collaborate with their fellow students, and faced considerable challenges in staying engaged through multiple quarantines. We also saw significant increases in reports of mental and emotional stress, which resulted in lower motivation, disinterest in classes, depression, and anxiety.
To aid in this, we developed multiple opportunities and paths for intentional student engagements. Jill Parker, our academic advisor, created a regular check in process to make sure students felt cared about and to help hold them accountable for seeking out counseling and academic coaching. At the start of the semester, we created multiple ways for them to stay connected to us: PFP Picnics, PFP Walks, PFP Pick-Me-Ups, and FriYAYs. FriYAYs, which consist of a 30-minute drop-in check-in via Zoom with faculty, staff, and students, have been the most successful. Other actions include scheduling group tutoring times, creating study groups and initiating a specialized PFP peer mentoring program for distance students.
Overall, we continue to learn how best to support our students during this time. We continue to learn and adapt to what students find most successful. As always, we feel privileged and honored to serve them.
Highlights
The biggest news is that we officially transitioned to a Department of Personal Financial Planning this Summer. This is a bittersweet transition, as we are so thankful for our friends and colleagues in the School of Family Studies and Human Services (which has now been renamed the Department of Applied Human Sciences). We are now the third standalone Department of Personal Financial Planning in the country, creating new avenues to create awareness among students and our industry partners.
We are excited to officially welcome Blain Pearson to campus as our new Instructor. Blain completed his Ph.D. in Personal Financial Planning at Texas Tech University, is a CFP® practitioner, a CFA level II candidate and has 3 years of practice experience. He will be focused on serving our undergraduate students. We are also glad to welcome Ann Coulson back full-time for this year. As many of you know, Ann had semi-retired to Missouri while still teaching a variety of courses in the M.S. program. She has volunteered to step up and help us this semester, serving as the director of the undergraduate program and teaching a variety of courses.
Enrollment
Despite high levels of applicants before Covid-19 struck, university enrollment continues to decline. Overall enrollment decreased ~4% for the Fall of 2020, as compared to Fall of 2019. Enrollment was solid for the College Health and Human Sciences, with annual increases in the undergraduate (1.98%) and graduate (6.31%) student population. This continues a positive 3-year trend for the college of 3.74% growth.
The news is also positive for Personal Financial Planning programs. There continues to be strong momentum in the Undergraduate program, which grew by 23 students (24.7%) since fall of last year and has now doubled in size in the last three years. We also have seen significant interest in our Minors in Financial Planning and Financial Counseling, as well as the Kansas Insurance Certificate. The M.S. program has, similarly, nearly doubled over the last three years, but was flat over the last year. The Ph.D. program continues to consolidate to a manageable and efficient size given the resources needed to support each student.
Thank you for all that you do to support our program! If you have any questions, would like an update, or how an idea you want to share please let me know.
Martin