NRCCUA NEWS!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 10/19/2006

10/19/2006

Until a few days ago, Dean O'Driscoll had never heard of the National Research Center for College & University Admissions.

Now, O'Driscoll is going to do his best to make sure everybody - especially prospective Southern Utah University students - has heard of it.

The NRCCUA, a leading education research organization that strives to link college-bound students with public and private institutions of higher education from across the United States, recently ranked SUU's Web site (www.suu.edu) among the nation's 10 best in its eighth annual Enrollment Power Index study.

"This was a huge surprise," said O'Driscoll, the university's director of marketing and public relations. "The more I think about this award, the more important it is. (The Internet) is the way teenagers communicate these days...They're electronically minded, so if you can communicate with them online, you've really made it."

SUU has made it, according to the NRCCUA.

Of the 3,015 postsecondary institutions whose sites were graded, SUU finished No. 9 and was one of just 157 schools to receive an 'A' grade. No other Utah school placed in the top 10.

"It was a complete shock, but it was a real pleasant surprise" said SUU Webmaster Jill Whitaker, who oversees the 85,000 pages on the university's massive Web site. "I think it just validates what we're doing on our site."

The university's latest award - SUU has been recognized in the past two years by U.S. News and World Report, Consumers Digest and the Princeton Review for being a great educational value - should only help boost enrollment numbers.

SUU has led the Utah System of Higher Education in growth for each of the past three years, and total headcount crested 7,000 for the first time in university history this fall.

In the past three years, SUU's total enrollment has grown, remarkably, by 981 students.

"We have a lot of challenges in front of us to make our goal of 9,000 by 2011," said O'Driscoll.

The NRCCUA's stamp of approval will undoubtedly aid SUU's chances of reaching that goal.

"With students more Internet-savvy than ever before, it is important for admissions sections of university Web sites to be up to date with the latest technology and have the information students expect," said Don Munce, president of NRCCUA.

"Students visit these sites to help them make important decisions about their future, and a quality Web site can make all the difference."

Shortly after learning of the NRCCUA award, O'Driscoll was scrambling to change billboard artwork and pondering other ways to spread the word, including radio and television commercials and print advertisements.

"This is a great message to get out to the people who we need to know," O'Driscoll said.

Indeed it is.