If you want to catch fish you have to go fishing: Enrollment - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

“If you want to catch fish… you have to go fishing”:

Enrollment Management in the Strategic Age

Daniel T. Barkowitz AVP Financial Aid and Veterans Affairs Valencia College

Enrollment Management (EM): A Brief History

• Age of Recruitment
• 1970s through mid-1980s
• Focus on financial aid packaging and leveraging / enhanced

recruitment models

• Age of Structure
• Mid-1980s through 2005
• Added organizational structures (EM divisions, redefinition of

Student Affairs)

• Age of Academic Context
• 2005 to now
• Added a recognition that academics are an integral part of EM

A Move to Strategic Enrollment Management

• “...a comprehensive process designed

to help an institution achieve and maintain the optimum recruitment, retention and graduation rates of students, where optimum is defined in the academic context of the institution” (Dolence, 1993, 1997).

Goals of SEM

• Establish clear enrollment goals
• Promote student success
• Determine, achieve and maintain
• ptimum enrollment
• Enable the delivery of effective

academic programs

• Generate tuition
• Enable financial planning
• Increase organizational efficiency
• Improve service levels

Challenges to SEM (as described)

• Where is the connection to the institution’s

mission?

• Who defines student success? Does

graduation = success?

• How do you define the characteristics of

successful applicants (academic and non- academic)?

• If the best way to guarantee graduation is to

selectively admit, what do Community / State Colleges do?

• Does parallel play = successful collaboration?

A New Definition of SEM

• “Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) has become integral to

enhancing student success at institutions of higher learning. By promoting clarity of institutional mission from the perspective of student access and success, SEM provides a paradigm for cutting through the clutter of competing priorities to focus on what will best serve student needs and support their educational attainment. The resulting alignment of institutional mission, enrollment goals, targeted investments, and budget outcomes enables planning that is more strategic, in turn leading to improved outcomes for the institution as a whole, as well as individual departments” (AACRAO, 2013)

Core concepts for true SEM practice

• SEM is guided by Strategic Plan
• All SEM activities are mission

driven

• SEM develops an institutional

culture of student success

• SEM involves all internal and

external constituents

• External partnerships are critical
• Data-driven decisions
• Enrollment goals are based on

capacity and the strategic plan, not simply on student profile or revenue needs

• Academic offerings tie in to

institutional mission and to the career needs of the future

• Creative thinking and a view
• utside of higher education
• Technology is used to enhance

service to students

My (selected) personal EM history

• Assistant Vice President of Financial Aid and Veterans Affairs, Valencia

College, 2017-present

• Dean of Enrollment Management, St. Johns River State College, 2015-2017
• Executive Director, Temple Beth Shalom, 2011-15
• Dean of Financial Aid / Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Columbia College

and Engineering, Columbia University, 2009-11

• Director of Student Financial Aid & Student Employment, MIT, 2002-09
• Consultant, CedarCrestone, 2000-02
• Director of Financial Aid, Lasell College, 1996-2000
• Director of Operations and Training, Mass. Educational Financing Authority

(MEFA), 1992-96

Lessons Learned – Preferential Packaging

• Analysis of Discount Rate
• Institutional Grant Awarded ÷ Tuition Revenue Collected
• Analysis of Yield
• % Need Covered by Grant
• Higher % Need Led to Greater Yield
• Desired Yield by Target Group (by major, by geography, by

athlete, etc.)

• Packaging a small “no need” grant
• What is the per student cost of aid? What if we bring in a no

need student at less than that cost?

• Understanding the impact of merit awards on financial

aid application and yield

Lessons Learned – Student Affairs / Student Financial Services / Enrollment Management?

• Structure leads to focus
• Finance  Bottom Line Analysis
• Student Affairs  Student Development
• Enrollment Management  Retention, Yield, Graduation
• Collegial Relationships
• Committee work (Financial Aid Committee, Student Performance, Student

Discipline)

• Holistic student review (Teacup / Early Warning, Student Performance Flags,

Student Academic Review)

• Partnership with Multicultural Affairs / Student Activities / Residence Life

Lessons Learned – Be A Recognized Voice on Campus

• Becoming a voice on campus?
• Becoming data driven
• Speaking with authority
• Partnering with senior leadership
• Speaking truth to power
• Being true to our professional ethics
• AND learning from Confucius — “The green

reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm.”

Lessons Learned – Draw from your Experience

• Some major lessons will be learned from
• utside your regular job
• Continuing to learn from industry reports /

peers / professional organizations

• Outside activities may teach us a lot about
• ur higher ed world
• Taking advantage of opportunities to work
• utside of our comfort zone!

Lessons Learned – When the Money is Tight / Open Access Institutions

• Partnering for access and local outreach
• Taking advantage of Workforce Development as a

way to meet community needs

• Looking carefully at limited access programs
• Work on items within our control / our division
• Better scheduling
• Better customer service
• Communication with students about enrollment choices
• Other thoughts?

Resources

• http://www.educationalpolicy.org/pdf/SEM%20Guide.pdf – A Practical Guide to Strategic

Enrollment Management Planning

• http://docplayer.net/3064683-A-collection-of-best-practices-from-north-carolina-community-

colleges.html - Enrollment Management and Student Retention Best Practices

• http://consulting.aacrao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/AACRAO_Roadmap_FINAL.pdf - A

Community College Roadmap for the SEM Journey

• https://valenciacollege.edu/academic-affairs/institutional-effectiveness-planning/strategic-

plan/enrollmentplan/ - Valencia College’s Enrollment Plan

• http://www.nasfaa.org/strategic_enrollment_mgmt_sessions - NASFAA Leadership &

Legislative Conference

• AACRAO - http://www.aacrao.org/
• SEM Quarterly
• SEM Endorsement Program
• SEM Conference

Questions? Comments? Fishy Stories?