WTAMU’s President Walter V. Wendler has his sights set on visiting every public and private high school in the top 26 counties in the Texas Panhandle by Oct. 29 to speak with students about their future.
In 2017, President Wendler embarked on the “Your Community, Your University” tour and he decided to launch it again to hear from students, give advice on what to do after high school and build relationships with schools around the Panhandle.
Wendler said of the three largest freshman classes in the history of WT, two of them have been since he did the first tour.
Wendler said his goal is to help students develop a plan that works for them even if that means not attending a university.
“This is our president going into these high schools, you know, these aren’t recruiters like me going in. That’s my job, but we have our president who is taking the time to go out and talk with students about what their plan is,” said Jeffrey Baylor, associate vice president of enrollment at WTAMU. “When we traveled the region in 2017, I had the opportunity to go with him. It was a buzz among students that a president of a university took the time to come in and talk with them.”
With a loss of human contact due to the pandemic, WTAMU said it even more critical to do this type of recruitment.
Wendler said WT enrollment is down a little bit this semester and hopes this will help increase numbers for the future.
Wendler will kick off his school tour at Randall, Amarillo and Tascosa high schools.