×

SMSU State of Address discusses enrollment and funds

Photo courtesy of SMSU. SMSU President Kumara Jayasuriya gives his annual State of the University Address Friday morning where he discussed enrollment, new programs and fundraising.

MARSHALL — Faculty, staff and students of Southwest Minnesota State University gathered and filled the upper conference room Friday morning to hear President Kumara Jayasuriya give his annual State of the University Address.

Topics discussed included SMSU’s positive enrollment increase, new programs coming and fundraising.

“All I’m doing is sharing good news that happened at SMSU,” Jayasuriya said to open his address. “But, the work is done by faculty, staff, students and also our administrators.”

The university saw an enrollment growth this school year on several counts. The overall headcount of students is up 14.9% from last year. In addition, the full-year equivalent went up 12.8%, the undergraduates increased 2.8% and transfer student enrollment increased 43.9% for both in-person and online.

“I’ve been in higher education for 30 years, and I’ve never seen an increase in every part of enrollment,” Jayasuriya said.

International enrollment also saw a 42% jump.

“As most of you know, international recruitment is pretty hard [and requires] heavy lifting, because not only do we have to recruit students, but they have to get a Visa too,” Jayasuriya said. “That is good to see that we have increased.”

Jayasuriya also mentioned when he was preparing to interview with SMSU for the President position in 2019, he researched the university’s retention rate on IPEDs, a national center for education statistics, and it was at 59% at the time. It has now grown to a 73.4% retention rate.

The President said the Higher Learning Commision (HLC), a regional agency that accredits degree-granting colleges, will be visiting later this month.

“On the 28th and 29th, we have a team coming from HLC to review our school. That is probably going to be the most important thing that we will do this year,” Jayasuriya said. “Without HLC accreditation, we cannot keep our doors open. If all of you can come to some open meetings, and tell why it’s important to have SMSU with the impact on this region and things like that, that will be great.”

SMSU has a goal to increase its enrollment by another 8% for the next school year.

New programs will also soon be underway for the university including a cyber security degree.

“We started a cyber security master degree a couple of years ago, and we had to pause at one point because of staffing issues,” Jayasuriya said. “We have started this again with an on-campus component, so international students can get into that.”

A master’s degree for social work and a full four-year nursing program will be implemented starting in 2026.

“We are starting nursing because of the big demand from the area hospitals. The Sanford in Tracy said over the last two years, they only got like one applicant [from students] or something like that. It is a huge need,” Jayasuriya said. “That’s the main reason. But, this will increase our enrollment further.”

Concluding the address was new fundraising information regarding a school-wide initiative.

The Run Together: Imagine the Impact is a university campaign that began in 2019, which raises money for enhanced academic opportunities, campus experiences and resources, scholarship initiatives, the Southwest Fund and athletics.

There is a $30 million totality goal, which Jayasuriya announced they have raised about $22.4 million so far. The goal for this school year is to bring in $5 million, where about $3.9 million was raised last year.

Examples listed under what costs would continue to cover would be assistance with the nursing program, agriculture and food production programs, fine arts programs, residence hall rejuvenation, distinguished professors, smart classrooms and labs, multipurpose indoor sports facility, scholarships and more.

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today