CEMO Panel
Monday's breakfast panel featured Chief Enrollment Management Officers (CEMOs) from Boston University, Maryville University and the University of Manitoba, who shared how they mastered daily challenges and advanced through the ranks—in both traditional and non-traditional ways—to their current positions. The presenters—Jeff von Munkwitz-Smith, Shani Lenore-Jenkins, and Susan Gottheil—discussed the role of mentorship in terms of professional advancement, and how a mentor is someone who helps and directs you in terms of your career, and encourages you to take risks that provide opportunities to learn and grow.
As the session wrapped up, all the presenters gave the following advice to attendees: step out of your comfort zone to grow – this could include stepping up to volunteer for a position or doing a presentation at a meeting. They also recommended going to conferences, being open to change and opportunities, learning, networking, and furthering your education.
Going Beyond Articulation Agreements: How Two Institutions Collaborate for Strategic Enrollment Purposes
Dr. Seth Sykes from VCU and Dr. Bill Fiege from JTCC engaged particpants in an interactive session to discuss ways to make articulation agreements relevant to student and institutional goals. Recent national conversations questioning the viability of articulation agreements have not reduced institutional dependency on such tools for recruitment purposes. Their practical advice focused on four major points: Alignment of strategic goals, alignment of curriculum, alignment of advising services, and alignment of data analysis. Proper attention to these four areas can make the articulation agreement a practical pathway to student degree attainment and a meaningful centerpiece to enrollment, retention, and student success plans at both the community college and the four-year institution. Within that framework, discussions centered on frank sharing of institutional and statewide goals, best practices for the creation of articulation agreements, and the inherent conflict between a need for solid academic advising that might recommend that a student stay at a community college longer to complete their associates degree and institutional pressure to meet enrollment goals. For models, check the JTCCand VCU websites.
SEM Rapid Fire Session I: Student Retention Hot Topics
SEM Rapid Fire sessions are one of the newest additions to the AACRAO Strategic Enrollment Management Conference. Presenters were each allotted five minutes to quickly discuss a specific topic on strategic enrollment management. In this first round of SEM Rapid Fire, presenters shared best practices on assessing retention, recruitment and advising's roles in student satisfaction and student success, how to measure and frame student persistence, and the human face of SEM.
Here are the the presenters and the subjects they covered in this fast-paced session:
- Jay Goff, Saint Louis University "Aiming for Student Success"
- Brian Williams, John Carroll University "(Re)Framing Retention"
- Jenna Kahl, Arizona State University "Stopping Enrollment Hemorrhage: Retention begins on day one of Recruitment"
- Chris Shafer, Shawnee State University "Student Persistence Myth Busting and Planning"
- Stanley Henderson, AACRAO Consulting "Setting Tone in SEM: Instilling Values and Traditions to Build Student Success"