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Retired and Former AACRAO Members

Connect to the world of higher education

With AACRAO membership you'll be connected to more than 11,000 members from institutions around the world. Facilitate your professional development by attending discounted meetings, gaining complimentary subscriptions to our College & University journal and more.

Why should you join? Development never ends, retired or not. Keep current on trends in the field by collaborating with our members and lending your voice to discussions about practices in the field. 

Annual Membership Price: $151

Requirements: YOU BE A RETIRED MEMBER OR A MEMBER WHO LOST EMPLOYMENT AND IS NO LONGER ELIGIBLE FOR INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP.  

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AACRAO's bi-weekly professional development e-newsletter

SEM Conference - Collaborative Partnerships between Recruitment and Admissions

Nov 10, 2023, 15:05 PM
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Summary : Optimizing the partnership between recruitment and admissions to promote student success.
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By Heather Zimar, AACRAO Managing Editor, Journals & Publications

At Clark University, the directors of recruitment, marketing, and admissions have been working together over the last year to optimize their partnership, specifically between recruitment and admissions. 

Alyssa Orlando, Director of Graduate Admissions, and Amy Daly Gardner, Associate Dean, Director of Graduate Admissions, shared with attendees at the 2023 AACRAO SEM Conference the steps they took to identify hand-off points from student recruitment to the admissions team. 

Gardner and Orlando explained that historically there had been a divide between recruitment and admissions teams at the campus; recruiters were seen as staff who travel and meet with students and external partners, while admissions team members were seen as the “boots on the ground” staff who process applications and maintain system operations. “This can cause friction between individual employees and, ultimately, decrease divisions’ morale,” said Gardner. “It’s an “us” vs. “them” mentality.” 

Gardner said she made it her goal to break down that division, and Orlando had a similar perspective when she came to the university.

Now, we’re all working toward a common goal, Garner said. 

They shared four key steps for fostering their collaboration: 

  • Partnerships. This included working with dual degree programs at the graduate level as well as internal partners, ensuring that both recruitment and admissions voices were at the table. 
  • Process. This focused on establishing a student- and customer-centric admissions process, including: reframing the way staff were thinking about admissions policies and procedures; moving some responsibilities from recruiting to the admissions team, and vice versa; and creating some shared work of which everyone takes ownership. 
  • Communication. For both internal and external communications, Daly and Orlando said they were purposeful in defining the means of communication to improve overall team morale and relationships. For internal communications, this included team chats, channels, and limited use of email except for documenting decision-making. For external communications, (student services, agencies, vendors), this included documenting everything via email and looping in marketing, recruitment, and admissions when beginning and conversation with a new partner.
  • Technology. A great CRM makes everything a little better, Orlando said. 

We want to do what’s best for the students, she said. We feel this collaborative situation is what’s best for the students.

Categories :
  • Admissions
  • Admissions and Recruitment
  • Enrollment Management
Tags :
  • sem2023
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