Emporia State University is asking for support from the city of Emporia and Lyon County on a multifaceted plan to bring more students to campus.
Emporia State Vice President Jim Williams led separate discussions at both the city and county meetings Wednesday. The Emporia State Foundation is on board for $350,000 as a one-time funding stream, and ESU is asking both the city and county for $350,000 each. Williams tells KVOE News the plan is to attract students through three different ways:
Emporia State is looking both short-term and long-term with this program, even though funding is being requested for just one year. Over the next six years, Williams says an additional 2,000 high school students will be eligible for college in a five-state region including Kansas — and close to 200 higher education institutions will be fighting to get those students to enroll. Emporia State had a decline in enrollment for the current school year, but Williams says projections for next year are promising at this time. He also says an increase of 100 on-campus students could trigger an extra $400,000 per year in revenue for the city and county, with as much as $1.4 million in economic growth over a student’s four-year stay at ESU.
Lyon County has been supporting ESU’s Presidential Scholarship program five years now with $250,000 per year, and Wednesday’s proposal would be in addition to the current county donation. Emporia supported the Presidential Scholarship program for several years but that has ended, according to ESU administrators.
County commissioners plan to continue their conversations — and possibly vote on support — at their action meeting Thursday, which will start at 9 am. Emporia city commissioners will continue their discussions next month, but a timeline for any city decision is currently pending.
