Developing and implementing a SEM plan is an important journey at many institutions. In the April 2017 issue of SEM Quarterly, Kyle Baillie and Jody Gordon of the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) share their institution’s efforts in creating a SEM Plan and the impact of this work on planning within student affairs. They outline an eight-step organizational change model (Kotter 1995) that many institutions might find useful in framing their SEM actions:
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Establishing a sense of urgency
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Forming a powerful guiding coalition
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Creating a vision
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Communicating the vision
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Empowering others to act on the vision
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Planning for and creating short term wins
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Consolidating improvements and producing still more change
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Institutionalising new approaches.
UFV used a modified ‘Kotter Change Model’ (Kotter, 2012) “to promote adoption, support and achievement of the nine SEM goals included in the Plan,” Ballie and Gordon wrote. “While originally designed for the business sector, the Kotter Change Model is broadly applicable and adaptable due to its foundational focus on the human response of the organizational change, rather than being subsumed with the change issue itself. This was particularly useful at UFV as the institution has a sizeable long serving and change resistant employee population.”
UVF integrated their SEM Plan into the budget process and the institution’s overall planning cycle, the authors stated, making SEM and student success “a significant agent of change for student affairs at UFV.”
They added, “The University continues to gather data, celebrate projects completed and obstacles removed, goals attained, and keeps focused on the fact that SEM, at its heart, is about student success.”
Read the entire article, which includes themes of inclusion, executive buy-in, data utilization and collaboration, here.
SEMQ 5(1) also includes articles by: Tricia A. Seifert, Montana State University and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; Kathleen Moore, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; Jacqueline Beaulieu, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education; Christine H. Arnold, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Marie Elaine Gioiosa, Iona College; and Gabriel Serna, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Topics include: perceptions of student success & retention efforts; higher education costs and net price at four-year public institutions; and finance, policy and inclusive practices in SEM for undocumented students.
SEM Quarterly, published by AACRAO and Wiley Periodicals, provides knowledge and insight into the ongoing evolution of strategic enrollment management (SEM). SEMQ bridges the gap between theory and practice with articles by thought leaders and practitioners who address the emerging dynamics of SEM, including: executive-level leadership, leading strategies, internationalization, research, academic orientation, and current trends.
For more information, or to submit a manuscript, please contact Editor-in-Chief Tom Green at tomg@aacrao.org, or Managing Editor Heather Zimar at heatherz@aacrao.org.
References
Kotter, J. (1995). Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review, 1-8.
Kotter, J. (2012). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.