By Kayla Williamson
Traditional undergraduate student enrollment at Trevecca broke a record-again.
For the past six years traditional undergraduate student numbers have continued to break records. Last year, numbers increased by nearly 3%. This year, they increased by 5%.
This fall, 1,433 students enrolled at Trevecca. In fall of 2018 Trevecca had a total of 1,361 students.
“It’s one of those things where Trevecca has seen some dramatic growth over the last few years, and it’s something exciting to be around,” said Tom Middendorf, university provost.
Efforts are not stopping there. For the fall of 2020, the admissions team is looking for at least 400 for freshman enrollment, says Melinda Miller, executive director of undergraduate admissions. There were 392 Freshman undergraduate this year. They also plan to maintain the 85 transfer students from last year.
Having continuous growth is a positive challenge, Middendorf and Miller both agreed. While recruitment efforts bring and keep students in, it’s a challenge to make sure Trevecca’s infrastructure can hold everyone. Infrastructure ranges from housing, chapel, the cafeteria, classroom space and more.
“Having to be concerned about having on-campus housing space for all of our students is a wonderful challenge to have,” Miller said. “For a university like Trevecca, where nationwide universities similar to us are struggling to grow, we have grown so much that we filled our housing. That’s an amazing challenge to be faced with.”
Middendorf and Miller said there are three main reasons why students keep coming to Trevecca: A strong sense of community, being in the heart of Nashville, and a nurturing team of professors, faculty and staff.
“I think we’ve got wonderful human beings as our faculty, our staff, our administration,” Middendorf said. “There’s something enticing about coming to an institution where it’s hospitable and you have this sense of belonging.”
The marketing team has also played a major part in recruiting students, Miller says. Their emphasis on Nashville being a huge city, and Trevecca being a small community, is part of the appeal for some students, she says.
“We have an amazing marketing team, and our marketing team works together with our enrollment team to really showcase Trevecca as a university,” Miller said. “One of the main things we focus on is the fact that Trevecca is in Nashville, literally one mile from downtown.”
The Trevecca community, which Middendorf said is unique and unapologetically Christian, is another reason that students come to the university. Students, he says, don’t just want an impact on the mind, but they also want to be focused on individually and holistically.
“I do think there’s a real interest in that,” Middendorf said. “They want something authentic and real. They want to be more than a number, and they want to get more than just a piece of paper to use to get a job one day. I think they want to be impacted as whole individuals.”
As for now, Middendorf said he and his team are making plans to expand Trevecca’s growth. More information will be available in the future.
“There are conversations right now about future building projects,” Middendorf said. “We are discussing some exciting future opportunities for Trevecca along this line.”
