DePaul faculty and staff are a cornerstone of this institution, and our success in delivering on our mission flows from a shared commitment to our students. Over the course of the pandemic, DePaul faculty and staff demonstrated extraordinary resolve in meeting an unprecedented set of challenges. The results of our collective efforts are starting to bear fruit. The university has enrolled three successive years of record freshman classes. Additionally, despite not having our community together for much of this past year, our first-year retention rate improved. In combination, these achievements have driven overall year over year undergraduate enrollment higher for the first time in nearly a decade.
Despite the pandemic's disruption of normal operations, we've made progress toward the enrollment and retention goals outlined in our strategic plan.
We know there is demographic turbulence ahead and graduate enrollment challenges likely will persist until the downtown Chicago business community becomes fully engaged again. We will continue to look to our dedicated faculty and staff to foster institution-wide engagement in support of long-term success, which includes:
- increased student engagement,
- continued enrollment growth,
- improved retention, persistence and graduation rates, and
- prudent fiscal management.
We recognize the importance of investing in our people to continue this positive momentum. Further, we want to show our appreciation for the tremendous efforts of faculty and staff in adapting to pandemic challenges while continuing to serve our students and the university, as a whole. Our recent successes bring renewed confidence in our progress; as such, university leaders recommended to our Board of Trustees to restore the 403(b) match to 10% and plan for a 2% compensation pool for full- and part-time faculty and staff base increases in January 2022. This recommendation was approved by the Board of Trustees at its regularly scheduled meeting on Oct. 23, 2021.
It is important to note that while we have made progress towards achieving the aggressive goals we have set in enrollment, retention, persistence, graduation and student engagement, we need to continue to work as one to overcome the challenges ahead.
Thank you for everything you do for DePaul.