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The countdown to college is on. In just weeks, many students will be back in class.

<b>News 12</b>'s Elizabeth Hashagen was joined by Richard Gatteau, the vice president for student affairs at SUNY Stony Brook, and Karl Koeppel, the Molloy College dean of students, to talk about what students can expect for the upcoming school year.

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The New Normal: What's changing this upcoming school year, and what is staying the same?

729TheNewNormalCollegeBTS

I'm gonna start with you. I know the new students are going to be arriving on campus really soon and I guess the big question is going to be, what's the same and what's different this year? Well, we're very excited. We are gearing up in about three weeks. All our new students will be arriving at stony brook and related to covid health and safety is always top of mind for us wanting to make sure we're requiring the vaccination for students to come a negative test to come into the residence halls to move in, just making sure those precautions that have worked in the past continue as is To keep infection rates low. But we're really excited to bring back everything that people know pre pandemic around athletics, around recreational events, clubs and activities. And we're happy to say our residence halls will be full again with 10,000 residents this year. And what about boosters? So, boosters, they're just being strongly encouraged and that's true across the Sunni system. Okay, And then carl, what's going on at molloy University. So really, it's um a lot of the same as stony brook. We're really excited again for the students to be coming back in person engaging with student life opportunities, engaging with really, as many in person classes um, from a covid vaccine standpoint, really, again, mandating the primary series, but strongly encouraging boosters and really, again, just excited. There's an energy in the air that I was thinking about this the other day, that really just when we were talking to students, they were just so excited again, after the past couple of years to really be engaged in person. And I think to there must be such an excitement for those incoming students. Uh you know, who are making this big transition to go to college now, especially because their high school experience was one with, you know, remote and zoom and all those kind of things rick. It's been a roller coaster and I think that the word we keep using is resilience. And so this generation of students coming into college now, they've experienced some really difficult times and persevered. And so that's the group coming in and we're excited to have them in essence feel a more normal experience. But I know that Malloy and it started, but we do offer online classes and so for students who experienced the remote learning in high school, some may have really enjoyed it. And this is an opportunity to then consider taking a mix of in person and online classes as part of their curriculum. Alright, let's talk a little bit about the mental health you were mentioning resilience there, there was this survey that was conducted by Inside higher education college polls and they found that undergraduate students were more than twice as likely to rate their overall mental health as poor And only 9% saying excellent. So we know the role of, of mental health and you know, the big change that comes when you go to a college campus. So I guess the first thing carl I'm gonna say to you is, how does the college make sure to serve those students who need that help? Well, I think it's recognizing, I think um backing up how important mental health is to overall student success. So I think sometimes we live in a realm where we're talking about academics floating around on one side and really anything that's not on the other side, but really reaffirming the connection back and forth. And I think it's something important at molloy especially to really how we engage and really we advocate that mental health is part of overall wellness for students and it's not something that in the past might have been a little bit more taboo, but it's kind of bigger puzzle of, okay, are you sleeping? Are you engaging in positive activities? Are you taking advantage of campus services and really putting that all together to ultimately be as successful as you can? Yeah, I would um, I would think that having those conversations are different in today's day and age rick than they were just a few years ago because mental health is something that, you know, gratefully, we we really have had now as part of our conversation. I mean, covid certainly exacerbated it, but but my sense is when we look at a lot of the data, knowing that mental health is this is a national issue and looking at the college population, we know the data shows that anxiety and depression are the top two concerns that are raised. And so the question is, what are we going to do about it? And we put a lot of effort into prevention education. We obviously prices response is an important part to make sure students are healthy and safe. We have the resources of our amazing university hospital, but basically I wanted to share knowing today's college population, They don't live within the 9-5 world that maybe offices are open. And so we've actually just invested in a really important service that gives students 24/7 access to tele counseling and telemedicine. So I think that that's really become becoming a trend at colleges to provide round the clock weekend evening access, both in our case From medical assistance if you need a prescription for something or if you want to talk to a counselor on the spot or making regular tele counseling appointment. So in essence, the online experience from COVID has transitioned into the mental health space to have that tell accounting model be a pretty effective way to connect with people. I want to talk about enrollment. And while it appears, you know, looking at the data here that applications are up enrollment is actually down in a lot of places, undergraduate enrollment for instance, dropped by close to 5% in the spring of 2022. Um, when you take a look at the national student clearinghouse Research center and and you know, they have a lot of voluminous status. So I guess, carl, what are you seeing when it comes to trends and enrollment. Um, so really this upcoming fall, we're actually really excited. We've had really strong registration and I think that's something that was really even more evident. We had our new student orientation program a couple weeks ago and ended up between two new student orientation sessions. Almost 1000 parents and families and students on campus. And really we have not kind of seeing that energy and that excitement in a long time, but really Very strong registration numbers right now. All right, great. & Rick, you know, when you take a look at that application process, it seems to be, you know, so competitive. You take a look at that. You know, the common app report and you see, you know how much those applications have gone up more than 20%. Yeah, I think it's somewhat of a tale of two cities though. The highest selective schools are absolutely getting these record applications incredibly low admit rates. But, but there is the other side of schools and again, knowing that we have lower birth rates and other factors, Obviously affordability is a factor. Other factors come into play about college applications. More students are applying to more schools, which is why application numbers go up to, I'm pleased at stony brook, we have, have had record and very strong application rates and and a lot of it comes down to value affordability and quality are the metrics that a lot of families are looking at to make their decisions and to that point, I wonder too about the, you know, impact of inflation, you know, you have a certain budget, you've saved a certain amount of money. College is obviously expensive, but then the cost is going to increase, you know, because of what we're dealing with right now economically call. So I think um it's important to really look at the bottom line and I think it's important at the same time to recognize what resources may be available on the individual campus. So I've had students come to me and say how do I balance this? How do I kind of put all those different numbers together and here, especially at molloy we work hard to look at what opportunities we have and how do we connect the student to the appropriate resources in terms of the financial aid office are really what other opportunities are out there and look at how do we best make this fit and work for the individual students. So it's something I've always prided myself in how can we look not overarching only as an overall group, but if a student presents and says I need to really kind of navigate this even uncharted waters. So I think it's important that sometimes students come in and don't know How to navigate some of those financial aid questions are really kind of those pieces, let's sit down. Let's have a conversation about what works and the experience of, of trying to figure it out right and exactly, exactly Claire says the most important thing all parents should do is have a frank conversation with their child on what is affordable and what their payments will look like after graduation. And to be realistic that they don't need to spend $40,000 a year on an education rick. I think that's an important point. I certainly family resources come into play as carl mentioned. It's very important to look at your financial resources, both as a family but also connecting with financial aid offices to determine. And I agree there there should be a limit in terms of borrowing that you do, knowing that you have to pay that back at some point. But certainly within new york state and and other other states across the country, there are a lot of financial aid programs. We have the Pell federal Grant we've tapped in new york state, the Excelsior program. These are all excellent programs to provide a lot of financial support to families. And obviously the thoughts is a really important tool that we want families to complete on time. So that that helps in colleges determining that the awards that they can offer. And certainly students can get merit aid by colleges and many colleges, No, you can't often afford the sticker price in most cases. So how do they bring the tuition down to a level that more families can afford? And so there's a competitive market out there for students to choose from. Which is why I think more students apply to more colleges to then figure out what's going to be the most affordable and best option for me. Right? Because Colleen said she, you know, No, no. That that that's 29% is a little unusual. I would suggest you shop around at different lenders. You could look at federal rates and other state rates, but you have to lower it to. All right.

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