Dear SEM Colleagues,

As we prepare to come together at our 33rd annual Strategic Enrollment Management Conference in Seattle, we face serious enrollment challenges and accept the paramount role that enrollment management strategy, practice, and initiatives will play in meeting the challenges of today’s higher education landscape. Research on the impacts of COVID-19 on higher education worldwide has just begun to produce some initial insights into the level of disruption and the level of opportunity those impacts created. Online teaching and other forms of academic delivery took a leap forward from interesting and supportive to essential and mainstream. We are seeing community college enrollments, which had been gradually sliding since 2011, take another sharp downward turn this year. And the looming “enrollment cliff” has many of us concerned about the future of higher education. We certainly live in challenging times!

This special edition of SEM Quarterly pulls from the past year’s articles to present conference participants a wide array of topics and issues, touching on research, equity, leadership, recruitment, international admissions, retention, and community college issues. Many, if not all, of these will be covered in plenaries, workshops, and sessions. As you turn your attention from matters on campus to this opportunity to learn and reflect on the trends, opportunities, and challenges in enrollment, we hope that these articles will be thought-provoking for you, as well, and that you will find yourself starting #SEM2023 with some background and frames of reference to guide you through the conference experience.

It would be impossible to present this special issue of SEMQ without the talents and hard work of Managing Editor Heather Zimar. Many thanks, Heather, for your insights and dedication. Let me also acknowledge the hard work of our SEMQ Editorial Board members and our many authors whose research and writing skills you will witness in reading their works.

Best wishes for a successful SEM Conference in Seattle!

Clayton Smith, Ed.D.

Editor-in-Chief 

Research:

Understanding an Institution’s Culture by Candice Wiilson-Stykes

Equity:

Putting on our Reality Glasses: Policy Review and Project Management through an Equity Lens by Autumn Landis, Kristin Benson, and Rebecca Mathern

Leadership:

Attracting and Retaining Transformative Leaders in Enrollment Management by Lisa Emery and Rema Reynolds Vassar

International:

Admission Quotas in India and China by Muhammad Kashif Rahimoon

Recruitment:

The Influence of Instagram and Social Media Marketing Engagement on Prospective College Students’ Choice of University by Joy de los Reyes

Retention:

Recruitment and Retention at the Department-Level: What Measures Can Departments Implement to Positively Impact Student Enrollment? by Steven D. Roper

Community College:

High-Impact Pathways: Developing Sustainable, Strategic Partnerships to Support Enrollment Pipelines by Andrew Crawford, Jonathan Gates, Donald Bean