Michael Norris is taking on new responsibilities as the director of transfer enrollment at Simpson College. He handles the recruiting aspect of helping college students transfer to Simpson College.

The other aspects of recruiting were split up into two other positions being the veteran recruitment position that is now filled part-time by professor Shane Cox and Tricia Geelan who was the transfer admissions counselor which is now unfilled, but faculty cuts may have played a role in those positions becoming vacant and not filled.

Due to this shift in positions Norris is now responsible for the day to day activities of the position and the broader responsibilities as well. This includes going to colleges and setting up tables and booths for prospective students to look at and see what Simpson College has to offer and try to show them why they should transfer to Simpson.

“It is our job in admissions to continue selling every program even if a program lost a faculty member or their budget got cut,” Norris said.

The way the college is viewed through the eyes of prospective students around program prioritization hasn’t scared them away. It rarely happens that prospective students ask about it but when they do it’s because they somehow already have ties to Simpson, Norris said. The leading cause of the questions posed about the issue was due to misinformation.

Changes are bound to happen when the college goes through a shift and positions are eliminated or left vacant because someone leaves. With these new cuts, Norris explained to prospective students what happened with the cuts and why they happened so that they can understand as much as they can.

As Simpson looks to keep up with the shift in interest in majors, there is no cause for concern in terms of transfer recruitment. As programs are being eliminated new initiatives are being proposed to move forward.

New initiatives are being rolled out for students, transfers and incoming freshman. The addition of the sports communication major and the proposal for the marketing communication major are all recruiting advantages.

“That helps us out on the recruiting side when you have new majors,” Norris said.

While the cuts have affected students and faculty, Simpson still has so much to offer to students and at its core still has so much to love.

“We are still Simpson College a place that I am very proud of and enjoy promoting every single day,” Norris said. “There are students every single day who come on this campus to visit and they are extremely excited about what they see.”

Recruiting hopes to pick up in the next year as Norris spoke to the number of interested students and applications already looking encouraging as Simpson moves to the end of the fall semester.