When most Marshall fans think about recruiting, they're likely wondering whether the school has a shot at signing West Virginia's biggest football star.
But the word has a far broader meaning at the university.
When Marshall officials mention recruiting, they're talking about enrollment and getting students to the school.
Until lately, the issue had been a bit of a sore subject with MU leadership.
Last fall, there were 13,661 students enrolled at Marshall.
While that was still down slightly from the previous year's figure of 13,810, MU still had something to be proud of. Freshman enrollment was up for the first time in five years.
The university is expected to see a positive impact in enrollment next fall as a benefit of the Warner Bros. motion picture "We Are Marshall," and there are plenty of other things going on that are aimed specifically at getting high schoolers in the area and across the country to think about Marshall.
University President Stephen Kopp even went as far as to make personal recruiting pitches at high schools across West Virginia during the fall, something typically reserved for the recruiting office.
"We are getting out and are far more visible than we've been in recent years in terms of the high schools, meeting with students, meeting with counselors and teachers," Kopp said. "And that has intensified with me going out and talking to the students."
The downward trend in enrollment that the university seems to be reversing was caused by a number of factors, Kopp said.
"In my experience, it's all about relationships, and making contact with students before they get through high school," he said. "I think in looking back, I'm not sure that was happening the way it was supposed to be. In terms of face-to-face, we did not spend enough time out in the community.
"We have many alumni outside the state who could be very influential in informing students about Marshall," he said. "It's my understanding they were kind of pushed to the side and not used the way they could be."
Kopp said the university is trying to reach all students, not just the groups that already know they will continue their education after high school.
"We're trying to reach that other group as well that really hasn't yet made the decision to go to college," he said. "We want to get them to look at their future if they do go to college versus what it would look like if they didn't."
Marshall has been addressing recruiting since Kopp came on board as president three years ago. The school got serious when it hired Jean Marie Gilman to be the university's first ever director of recruitment. Gilman had been serving in a similar role at Louisiana State University before coming to Huntington.
"Jean has been doing a fantastic job," Kopp said. "Everything I've seen coming from her office has been positive."
Before, Marshall had an enrollment management office that was also responsible for recruiting. That has been completely overhauled, Kopp said.
"We broke it up to have a director of recruitment and a director of admissions," he said. "We brought in more recruiters to pay attention to all of the counties in the state, including some places we may have taken for granted. We're also recruiting very actively outside of the state.
"My philosophy on this is if you're in a growth mode, which we are -- we want to grow overall undergraduate enrollment here -- whether we recruit in-state or out-of-state, it's total enrollment we're looking at," he added. "We're not going to deny any West Virginia student the opportunity to come to Marshall, but, in addition, we're looking to what we term the border states, and beyond."
Kopp said he believes Marshall now has the right people and the right system in place to grow the student body.
Another area that helps is construction. Kopp said potential students want to see that a university is growing, and the construction of two new dorms, a new student recreation facility, an engineering lab and softball field, among others, gets that message across.
"When you see things that are vibrant and the landscape changing for the better, it sends a very strong message, especially when you look at what those facilities are," he said. "These are all facilities for students. We're not putting up office buildings for administrators. That's not our number one concern."
Ben Fields is a reporter for The Herald-Dispatch. Comments may be e-mailed to him at befields@herald-dispatch.com.
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