By Michela Arlia and Gabriela Flores
Brooklyn College’s student enrollment for spring 2023 remains in flux as spring registration continues. A Jan. 26 report details that 581 entering transfer students are enrolled for this term, with numbers subject to change as registration closes. The entering transfer enrollment count is currently about 5.5% lower in comparison to last January.
Transfer enrollment has steadily decreased since spring 2020 when CUNY and other campuses nationwide shut down due to COVID-19. In March 2021, approximately one year after the start of remote learning, entering transfer enrollment dropped by 31.9% from the previous spring.
“A large number of our students have faced similar challenges all across the country, including interruption to their studies,” wrote Richard Pietras, the college’s media relations manager, in a statement to The Vanguard. “The college is committed to offering our students proactive, timely, and tailored support in order for these students to return and ultimately graduate.”
While data for the number of transfer students continuing their bachelor’s studies are not yet available for this spring, most transfers that enroll in BC come from CUNY community colleges, including Kingsborough, Borough of Manhattan, LaGuardia, and others. The university’s community colleges were reported in 2022 to have undergone a 13.2% plunge in student enrollment, according to THE CITY, with all but Kingsborough experiencing drops in students. At Brooklyn College, resources and new partnerships with CUNY community colleges have been instated to boost enrollment and better aid transfers in their transition to campus.
Most recently, the college signed an articulation agreement with Guttman Community College on Jan. 9, where credits for entering transfers could count towards a bachelor’s in earth and environmental studies at BC.
“These seamless paths prepare students to learn at a critical time in our history how the environment affects humans and how human activities impact our environment,” said Anne Lopes, BC’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, in a press release. “We look forward to preparing our Guttman transfer students further for important careers and contributions in the Earth and Environmental Sciences.”
Following its decline in incoming transfer student enrollment in fall 2021, BC implemented a Transfer Student Success Team with a two-year, $300,000 grant from The Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation. The team includes advisement and degree completion coaches, according to Brooklyn College’s website. Other efforts between Brooklyn College and CUNY schools aim “to streamline and improve the transfer student enrollment experience,” according to Pietras. Academic advisors and admissions counselors from BC, for instance, meet with potential transfers at Kingsborough and BMCC, where the majority of the college’s transfer student population hails from.
“Our transfer students bring so much to the campus community and we try to ‘meet them where they are’ since they have already attended college,” said Pietras, noting the college works to aid enrollment for first-time freshmen, returning students, students who took a break from their studies, and others. “The goal is to make the process as seamless and welcoming as possible for our transfer students.”
For transfers who enrolled during the pandemic’s peak, when classes were mostly online, other resources attracted them to BC.
“I got an associate’s degree in liberal arts at BMCC,” said Samuel Kelleher, a journalism and media studies major who transferred to BC. “I wanted to get my bachelor’s from Brooklyn College because I knew it was the field I wanted to be in.” Since joining the college, Kelleher received extensive support from his professors, aid with transferring his credits to BC, and joined the campus radio station.
“The one piece of advice I would give to someone transferring is don’t be afraid to ask for help. I can’t speak to the other majors and departments at BC, but in JAMS, I’ve never been around such an understanding and helpful department,” he said.
CUNY recently boosted the re-enrollment of former students through CUNY Reconnect, a program backed by a $4.4 million budget from City Council. Over 14,000 students re-enrolled this fall semester, after leaving their studies “due to personal circumstances stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Slight improvements are shown with more entering first-year students enrolling. At Brooklyn College, the total enrollment for undergraduate and graduate students is currently 12,736 students as of Jan. 26, approximately 7.19% less than the enrollment during the same time last year. With spring registration closing soon, the count of this spring’s total enrollment will likely finalize in March.
“Students are still registering for spring semester, and we are still reaching out to continuing students who have not yet registered to provide assistance wherever possible,” wrote Pietras.