Athletics Raises a College From the Ground Up - Chronicle.com

But in less than three years, the grassy expanse, like the college itself, has undergone a transformation. The newly developed acreage — boasting an ice arena, football and baseball stadiums, a track, and a dozen tennis courts — is the cornerstone of a plan to raise enrollment through intense athletics recruiting.

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Adrian College

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Adrian College

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Since 2005, enrollment has surged 57 percent, to 1,470 students, the highest number in at least two decades. More than half of those students play varsity sports. The college has also become more selective: Three years ago, Adrian accepted 93 percent of the 1,200 students who applied. This year it accepted 72 percent of its 4,200 applicants. Faculty members, pleased with the trend, say the caliber of students in their classrooms has improved.

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The use of athletics to drive enrollment, he says, could well be "the fountain of youth for small liberal-arts colleges."

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But problems abounded, and the Board of Trustees was ready to try something drastic. Enrollment had sunk to 935, well below the capacity of 1,400 students, and showed no signs of rising. Three residence halls were shuttered, the ones that remained open were falling apart, and retention rates were suffering.

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Persuading cash-strapped students to consider Adrian depended on offering something they couldn't get elsewhere, Mr. Docking says. That "something" turned out to be extracurricular activities — in particular, sports.

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The idea, Mr. Creehan recalls, was: "Spend money to make money."

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In three years, in addition to building the new facilities, Adrian has added five varsity teams and six club teams. It has hired 11 new full-time head coaches. The plan requires the 16 head coaches of varsity sports to bring in a total of nearly 200 athletes each year. (Please see chart on Page A19.)

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"We say to these coaches, 'You have one job: Recruit,'" Mr. Docking says. "We've had to let go of coaches who haven't made their numbers." (The staff members who supervise the student newspaper, student government, cheerleading and dance teams, and marching band are also required to collectively recruit an additional 40 or so students annually.)

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Athletes are now one of the largest groups on the campus. Last month the 300 or so athletes who returned for preseason workouts far outnumbered the entire freshman class from just three years ago. And nearly half of this year's incoming class of 581 — the largest in Adrian's 149-year history — is composed of varsity athletes.

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Ron Fogarty, coach of the men's hockey team, was given free rein to travel wherever he felt necessary. He recruited all but three of his 25 players last year from the junior hockey leagues that are popular in the upper Midwest, New England, and Canada. Half of the squad is Canadian; outside the ice rink, the Canadian flag flies next to those of the United States and Michigan.

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Still, Mr. Delfausse, the men's lacrosse coach, says he and other coaches would like to see the athlete population decrease slightly. "The majority of us would like to … have more of the student base be music or theater or the academic side of things," he says. "I think the school wants it that way as well in the long run.

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