Two men who were Lincoln University students 40 years ago told LU's Faculty Senate on Thursday morning they're working together to help bring more students to the school now.
Earl Wheatfall, the LU Foundation's interim director, and computer science teacher Mike Nichols told the faculty they want to turn around Lincoln's "continuous decline" of the past seven years.
In the 2011-12 academic year, LU records show, Lincoln had 3,950 full- and part-time students - with more than 60 percent coming from Missouri and two-thirds of the Missourians coming from seven Mid-Missouri counties.
In the 2015-16 academic year - the most recent that LU has published all the statistics - the school's records show a 13.5 percent drop in total enrollment to 3,418 students, with just under 56 percent coming from Missouri and less than 60 percent of the Missourians coming from Cole and six surrounding counties.
Wheatfall said: "I belong to the West End Rotary where I meet a lot of people, and I would say that 90 percent of the people there have gone to Lincoln.
"So, we've lost that connection somewhere."
Nichols and Wheatfall reminded the faculty that Lincoln's existing residence halls are full, and there's no money currently available to build another one even though it's needed.
So the best way to expand, Nichols said, is recruiting additional students who can commute to the campus and not require dormitory space - or who could attend evening classes that Lincoln currently hasn't offered in more than a decade, but is studying to see if they should be resumed.
"We have something new, exciting and cost-effective that we think could change the trend of our enrollment," Wheatfall said.
Theirs is a two-pronged approach.
One, Nichols said, is getting Board of Curators approval before it can be implemented.
"We propose to create a Heart of Missouri scholarship," he explained. "We hope that this scholarship will help us to entice local commuter students to attend Lincoln University when they would otherwise perhaps not consider going to college at all."
If approved by administrators and the curators, the scholarship would provide $1,000 for each semester the student attended Lincoln and remained in good standing.
The second part of their idea needs help - a personal touch - from LU faculty and staff.
"We need you to help us to, whenever you come in front of students, say 'Lincoln is the best buy you can get,'" Wheatfall said.
Nichols added: "If you live close to a local high school, it would be a great help if you could maybe visit that school once a month and talk with a counselor."
Faculty also were asked Thursday to help on Feb. 7 with Lincoln's annual "Lobby Day" at the Capitol.
University Relations Director Misty Young said, in addition to continuing to remind lawmakers of the importance of LU's state match to get federal land grant funding, this year the school also will be talking about basic operating funds.
Gov. Eric Greitens has proposed an overall 10 percent cut to the state's higher education schools for the state business year that begins July 1.
Faculty Senate Chair Stephanie Clark said: "We need students - but we need to convince the Legislature not to keep taking our money."