Enrollment figures at Millsaps College tell interesting story. See details

As the first semester gets underway and students start going to class at Millsaps College in Midtown Jackson, there is good news and some challenges to report.

Frank Neville officially took over as Millsaps College's 12th president in June and was under no illusion about the scope of the job he had in trying to turn around what has become a continuing cycle of dropping enrollment.

However, as the initial numbers come on enrollment just three months into the job, there may be more work to do than Neville bargained for.

The private liberal arts school has struggled in recent years with enrollment and retention. Millsaps has seen enrollment numbers drop from a high of around 1,200 students in the 1990s to 850 in 2019. In the fall of 2023, it had been reported there were around 160 freshmen that enrolled, and according to U.S. News data, Millsaps had 637 undergraduate students as of 2022.

However, in an interview this week with the Clarion Ledger, Neville was straightforward in announcing numbers that were different for past years and numbers for 2024-25 that give mixed reviews.

Instead of 160 freshmen at Millsaps last year, Neville says there were only 128 and the total enrollment for the Methodist-based school was 601 students for the 2023-24 school year.

The good news is that first-year enrollment is up to 216. However, total enrollment is down to 594, and Neville admits there is work to do.

In the wake of the much-publicized financial crisis faced by Birmingham-Southern College, which shut its doors at the end of May, enrollment at small liberal arts schools has come under more scrutiny.

"Honestly, there has been a lot of positive energy around the campus the last couple weeks as the students have been moving in. It's been a lot of fun, actually," Neville said. "The challenge, though, is the last couple of years, the class sizes have been smaller and they haven't been retained as well. So, yes, we have work to do."

Retention is critical

So, while there was a modest gain in bringing in more freshmen to the school, with more gains needed in the future, bringing students back to Millsaps after having already been on campus is critical.

He said that after having only 128 freshmen last year, that class dropped to just 93 for this year with only 98 juniors on campus.

Neville has some new strategies to address enrollment. Millsaps and the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges signed an agreement that will simplify the transfer process for students at one of the state’s two-year institutions.

"Traditionally, we have had a really good relationship with the state's community colleges, but I think that has lapsed a little bit in recent years," Neville said. "I don't know that we have done anything to make it easier for transfers, but with this agreement, we are making it more clear how credits transfer. I think this will help things quite a bit and that will be a real area of focus."

He went on to say no matter what, Millsaps will not back away from the academic standards it has set for itself and that it is known for. He has said the school is not trying to become and Ole Miss or Mississippi State with 25,000 students. Instead, he wants to rebuild the enrollment incrementally to what he believes is a sustainable number, even though he would not say exactly what his goal is at the moment.

At the community college level, he said the school is eyeing a particular section of the population.

"There is an honor society in the community colleges that is the perfect place for us to engage students," Neville said. "Recruiting those students as they graduate and trying to bring them to Millsaps would be a real win-win for the students and also for Millsaps."

While some of this has been worked on in the past, the initiatives for recruitment have been ramped up since June, specifically looking for transfer students, Jackson Metro students and incoming freshmen in general.

"We have separated these jobs to have people specifically working on different areas of recruiting instead of having everything all in one bucket," Neville said. "We are going to be working to strengthen our relationships with college counselors in the metro area and rebuilding engagement with them."

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With just 594 students on campus, the estimate is that around half are athletes. Having said that, Neville does not believe that bringing in more athletes or adding programs for the sake of bringing in bodies, like many institutions similar to Millsaps have done, is the right course of action. He says there is a value to Millsaps that he wants to pursue and recruit to.

"The key is the student best for Millsaps is somebody who doesn't feel the need to follow the crowd and wants to stand out, chart their own path and be a leader," Neville said. "Making the value of that clear to those types of students is going to be part of what we are focused on going forward. This is a really good place. It has been a good place for decades and we need to tell that story and be very strategic in how we go out and engage students."

Neville said the goal is for there to be a 90% retention rate between students' freshman and sophomore years with less attrition every year after that with another goal of having an 80% graduation rate for incoming freshman.

"Again, that speak to retention and keeping kids on campus," he said.

Personal attention to students

One more way Millsaps intends to improve retention is to make sure all students aren't being lost within the school by counselors checking in on grades with individuals on a more regular basis.

"The partnership between the instructional side and the advising side is just key to retention and student success," Neville said. "The faculty member needs to be able to go to the advisor and advise that a particular student is having a particular problem and facilitate finding a tutor for that student. We have connected the coaches into that to make sure they can see attendance in real time and grades in real time."

In all, Neville says he knows there are many incremental changes and that none of them will be the magic bullet of double the enrollment overnight.

One example is that last year at this time, Millsaps had only granted admission to 18 students for the next schools year. At this point, for the 2025-26 year, Millsaps has granted admission to 52.

"We are sprinting out of the blocks. There are a lot of things we have to do. We know that," he said. "But we are making the changes and we believe we have see positive outcomes already."

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Enrollment figures at Millsaps College tell interesting story. See details