NAU-Yuma sees enrollment jump

  Spring enrollment at Northern Arizona University-Yuma has jumped in a year's time, thanks in part to an increase in the number of new students.

Overall enrollment for the current spring semester is 619, up from 608 in the spring semester of 2008, according to the NAU admissions office. In the same period, the number of new students transferring from a community college or other institutions jumped 36 percent, from 47 to 64.

  Most of the first-time students come from Arizona Western College or Imperial Valley College, both of which are two-year institutions, although some transfer from four-year universities.

  NAU-Yuma does not offer lower-level courses. All of its students completed those courses at a community college or at another university, then transferred to NAU-Yuma.

  Officials attribute the increase both to aggressive efforts to recruit new students and an increase in the number and variety of degree programs available to Yuma-area residents who would otherwise have to travel out of town for higher education.

  In the past year, NAU-Yuma has developed four new degree programs - business administration, public agency management, biology and environmental science - and next fall, it will begin offering a technology management program.

  The public agency management degree program, said NAU-Yuma admissions director Eileen Knight, is particularly sought after by law enforcement officers and firefighters to advance in their careers.

  "With the increase in the diversity of the types of programs offered at the Yuma branch campus, we, of course, expect an increase in enrollment. It is also the case that we have instituted a very aggressive recruitment effort, which is already starting to pay dividends," said Larry Gould, campus executive officer at NAU-Yuma.

  The recruitment efforts, led by Knight, include visits to area high schools to explain the four-year degree education path offered in conjunction with NAU-Yuma's partners: AWC and IVC.

  In that collaboration, students take their lower-level classes at AWC or IVC and then advance to NAU-Yuma courses to complete their bachelor degree programs and even earn post-graduate degrees. NAU-Yuma offers master's and doctoral degree programs in a variety of fields of education and counseling.

  "I think one of the reasons we are doing well," said Knight, "is that students have an opportunity to stay at home with their family and continue their educations. So the cost of room and board has been eliminated."

  NAU-Yuma, which opened in 1988, shares classroom space with AWC on the community college campus east of Yuma.

  Recruitment sessions also have been held with city and county government employees and with Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents, and NAU-Yuma has opened a recruitment and advising office at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma for Marines and their spouses.

NAU-Yuma offers these bachelor degree programs:


Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary studies
• Administration of justice
• Biology
• Criminology & criminal justice
• Emergency services administration
• Environmental sciences
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Technology management (beginning fall 2009)

90/30 Degree Plan (degree can be either B.A. or B.S. in interdisciplinary studies)
• Humanities
• Public agency management

Bachelor of Arts
• Psychology
• Spanish

Bachelor of Science
• Criminology & criminal justice
• Biology
• Environmental sciences
• Psychology

Bachelor of Applied Sciences
• Administration of justice
• Emergency services administration
• Public agency management
• Social & community services
• Early childhood education
•Technology management (beginning fall 2009)

Bachelor of Business Administration

Bachelor of Science in nursing

Bachelor of Science in education
• Elementary education
• Secondary education: Earth sciences
• Secondary education: biology
• Secondary education: Spanish

Bachelor of social work

NAU-Yuma offers post-graduate programs:

Master of Arts
• Counseling: community counseling

Master of Education
• Bilingual/multicultural education
• Counseling: school counseling
• Early childhood education
• Elementary education: certification
• Elementary education: continuing professional
• Human relations
• Secondary education: continuing professional
• Special education: early childhood
• Special education: continuing professional
• Educational leadership

Doctor of Education
• Educational leadership
• Certificates & endorsements
• Administrative certification
• Bilingual education
• English as a second language
• Gifted
• Middle-level teaching
• Principal
• Reading specialist
• Superintendent

Post-degree certifications
• Elementary education
• Secondary education
• Special education