Today we learned about our own University and how it operates as a business. Elon University’s mission is to provide a life changing education for it’s students. 20 years ago Elon was a safety school, they would take whoever they could possibly get. In that though Elon was a place where many students could get an education that may not have gone to college otherwise. Now Elon has grown from 3,279 students to 6305 in the past 20 years. The SAT scores have risen about 79% and the square footage of buildings has grown by 172%.
Elon’s main customer are their students. Tuition and fees bring in over $140 million per year. Other streams of revenue such as grants, athletics and other investments add up to another $80 million each year. One problem that Elon faces that some other Universities do not is their endowment program. Many schools have large endowments that allow them to provide students with financial aide and pay for other things without charging students more money.
Obviously Elon’s customers, their students care mainly about their education and the experience they have in college. Elon puts emphasis on things like engaged learning, study abroad and their great professional development center. As a student here I feel as if the engaged learning is probably the most important thing. Having the ability to sit down with teachers when I’m struggling in a class has been extremely beneficial. Another great benefit of Elon is the ability to go abroad. I am going abroad next semester and feel as if it is thanks to Elon’s great programs.
As a result of Elon’s efforts to expand the campus they have gotten a much higher quality of student, more students and therefore more money. I have already mentioned much of the growth that Elon has had in the first paragraph, but I think the way Elon is viewed by the country is one of the biggest results they have experienced. When looking at colleges I thought of Elon as a high end university at which I would get as good a job as anywhere else in the country. It is a school that provides for its students but also allows them and encourages them to be independent. When talking with friends they consider Elon to be a near Ivy League university which I think they never could have imagined in the past.
Looking at the future, Elon operates using 10 year master plans. There have been massive amounts of construction around the campus due to the plan made in 2009. From that plan we have built Station at Mill Point, a new field house, Lakeside dining and many other buildings. Still to come is a theatre at Moseley, a Rec Center in Daniely and a few other smaller buildings. The University plans to grow by about 50 or so students accepted each year although this year that number was about 200 too high.
Follow
