The collective high school Class of 2009 was the largest in U.S. history. Combined with an economy that’s encouraging many non-traditional students to resume collegiate studies, record classes are in place on college campuses across the nation. Small, private colleges in this region are no exception.

Enrollment increases may be a good thing, but they don’t happen in a vacuum. And longer-term trends are about to drop a number of challenges into the laps of private college administrators.

Moody’s, the business ratings service, anticipates a “sharp deterioration” in the financial outlook for many private colleges in the next fiscal year, thanks to investment losses and the prospect of a lingering economic downtown. It projected less tuition pricing flexibility, enrollment declines, delays in capital investment and less tuition, gift, and endowment revenue.

But some of these current trends play to the strengths of smaller, more flexible institutions: they can quickly adopt changes in academic programming, alter marketing and student-retention efforts, even, in some cases, move more quickly to put additional money into on-campus residences, at a time when construction spending has bottomed out in other sectors.

That, too, will quickly change.

“Geographically, what we are concerned about as we look to the future— and its a trend we’re cognizant of—the number of college-age students begins to decline after this year,” said Steve Minnis, president of Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan. “We know we have to look outside this region for strong recruiting efforts in Texas, Colorado and Arizona—areas with an increase in college-age students.”

Benedictine, like many colleges, will officially record its largest incoming class in its history this fall. While admissions officers make their livings reeling new students in, that very increase also presents its own operational challenges. Colleges must be nimble enough to adapt to the spike, but not so rigid as to put in place programs and facilities that could prove unsustainable should demand fall.

As evidence of that, Benedictine has strengthened its engineering program, forging an alliance with the University of North Dakota, and will roll out a nursing program next fall.

Moves like that, says Avila College’s Ned Harris, will help small colleges make sure the demand for their services doesn’t fall. Harris, the vice president for enrollment and student development, said Avila was a place that, “historically has watched pretty carefully where student enrollment is.”

“If we experience under-enrollment for a period of time,” he said, “we’re the kind of institution that doesn’t continue to carry programs without enrollment. On the other side of that, we try to respond to needs we see in the marketplace.”

An example of that, he noted, was the new concentration in the undergraduate biology major, adding environmental science to the lineup because of the spiking interest for careers in environmental sustainability. Avila also acted on market research and its assessment of changes in demand to add majors in corporate communications, human resources and entrepreneurial leadership.

Like Benedictine, Avila just recruited its largest incoming class. The south Kansas City college is also taking the mindset that this economic climate is, in fact, an opportunity to strengthen its position as a college choice.

“We have become a lot more proactive with retaining current students, working with them, monitoring what’s going on with them academically, so that as they re-register—or don’t, as the case may be—we’re doing the follow-up to make sure they’re going to return, and if not, intervene if it has to do with finances,” Harris said.

That re-enrollment effort, he said, should help keep the school’s numbers up even as the national pool of incoming freshmen begins to drain.

Finally, the school is investing in more on-campus residences, a feature increasingly attractive to parents weighing the known costs of a room-and-board package against the potential risks of commuting in an age of uncertain fuel costs.

At William Jewell College in Liberty, officials went back to the drawing board twice in the past 24 months to find ways to add value to the educational product. What they came up with, said Rick Winslow, vice president for enrollment and student affairs, were initiatives that continue to set the college apart.

The first was a decision to offer the core curriculum as a second major to every student. Combining basic courses with requirements for three substantial outside experiences—student leadership, an internship or a volunteer effort abroad are a few examples—all students can graduate with at least a double major.

“We’re the only college we know of in America providing our core curriculum as a major,” Winslow said.

The other change was to offer a guarantee—backed by up to one semester’s free tuition—of graduating within the target four-year window, a feature popular with parents and students during tough economic times.

Other trends are asserting themselves at institutions like Columbia College, a small liberal arts campus with 1,200 students at its base. But Columbia has a vastly larger reach—more than 25,000 other students scattered around the nation and overseas, thanks to satellite campuses, on-line adult education programs and graduate studies.

“Our full-time numbers are down a bit,” said Tery Donelson, assistant vice president for enrollment management on the campus in Columbia. “Students are working more, and that makes the overall cost of college a little cheaper. It’s not a significant drop, but we’re seeing the number of full-time students down 4 to 5 percent over last year.”

The economy’s incentive for workers to brush up on skills, however, has enrollment for the entire college up about 10 percent, Donelson said.

“If we’re going to see an impact anywhere, it’s in the adult-education community, with a slowing of new students, meaning the ones with the furthest to go,” he said. “Four years is a long way out, and many students think they can’t get there. But the student with just a year, two years to go, they make up a lot of returning students, and that’s where the growth is from last year.”

As a result, Columbia College has bolstered its internal marketing efforts, expediting student services, beefing up financial-aid options, working to improve transfer credits and the like.

“We put more money into the increased customer-service aspect, which helps,” Donelson said, “but the economy is probably the biggest driver in increasing adult enrollments.”

Social media Web sites are also making an impact, said Ottawa University President Kevin Eichner.

“The way students get information today, for some time now, the Web site has been the front door of the university,” Eichner said. “But with social media and other forms of communication, with residentially inclined students, that’s changing that world very rapidly.

“And that has lots of implications, as opposed to the old days and 4-color brochures. You still have to have those, but it’s a very different approach.”

The recruitment issue is a particularly important one for Ottawa University, which is revising its long-term plan to accommodate 1,500 students on its home campus by 2020, roughly triple this year’s enrollment figure.