Collaboration across institutional silos and between faculty, staff, and administrators, development of data-informed decision-making to guide enrollment management planning and implementation, and support for institutional priorities have long been core to enrollment management’s twin priorities: institutional health and student success. This issue of SEM Quarterly speaks to how current SEM practitioners are increasing our understanding of these topics and what we can do to enhance our practice in each of these areas.

In today’s increasingly digital world, institutional leaders are tasked with embracing an enterprise-wide approach to manage more data than ever before to create equitable and inclusive institutions and support student success. Jenay Robert, Kathe Pelletier, and Betsy Tippens Renitz suggest that the development of effective data governance begins with a culture shift that results in student success becoming the responsibility of every campus stakeholder to promote meaningful data-informed decision-making and pave the way for unified and collaborative data governance practices.

While holistic admissions is often used in graduate admissions decision-making, it is not clear how it connects with institutional priorities and impacts equitable access to graduate education. Joseph Paris and Jake Winfield share the results of an exploratory mixed-method study that sought to develop a deep understanding of graduate admissions holistic review practices and how they relate to institutional priorities. They found that holistic admissions review is a flexible tool to evaluate applicants to identify their potential for success; however, it is not practiced in a standardized way across institutions. They conclude by calling for the development of a comprehensive definition of holistic review and its implications for policy and practice.

Enrollment management offices are increasingly being asked to do more with fewer resources. To better optimize the use of human and financial resources, enrollment management leaders need data to understand what resonates with an institution’s audience and to help everyone on campus be more strategic. Ashley Miller describes how Purdue University, using a MaxDiff approach, developed communication messages that optimized impact on the student enrollment journey. Actionable steps to influence communication strategies are presented.

Collaboration with faculty members is often seen as essential to SEM planning as a way to place it securely within the institutional academic context. D. William Kay, Steven Smith, Vurain Tabvuma, and Katelynn Carter-Rogers describe how Saint Mary’s University fostered the development of a faculty learning community through the use of Wenger-Trayner’s “Learning in a Landscape of Practice” framework to embrace social learning to imagine and reimagine individual and group locations in relation to the larger institutional picture and the development of a co-curricular program to support student success. They call on educational leaders to support the development and participation in faculty social learning communities that includes both explicit and implicit supports.

While SEM professionals have long espoused collaboration as a core best practice, we still see silos emerging within our campus environments. Rocky Christensen, Cynthis Grunden, and Keri Walters identify the risks that arise when financial aid professionals are excluded from SEM committees and how their inclusion can lead to informed decision-making and successful SEM outcomes. They also present suggestions for increasing collaboration between academic affairs and other college personnel who contribute to academic program development and financial aid program support.

Brent Gage provides us with a look into the new book, Becoming a Student Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success, which presents a shift in paradigm and campus culture that suggests that educational leaders should seek to lead the “ideal college” rather than seeking to enroll the “ideal student” by demonstrating empathy for the students we serve. In this way, our institutions would be better positioned to serve today’s students by embracing collaboration and working creatively with our campus colleagues.

Successful enrolment management practitioners need to have a broad knowledge and skill set ranging from data analysis, collaboration, empathy, and social learning to a commitment to equity and inclusion.

Happy reading.