By Angi Long, University Registrar at Taylor University
Many colleges and universities utilize Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) plans to manage student enrollment. A SEM plan is designed to Link, Integrate, and Extend (LinkEx) (Gordon & Wankel, 2023) current efforts into a cohesive and strategic trajectory. Registrar, Student Success, and Advising professionals play a critical role in identifying links and strategically integrating and extending them into student enrollment goals.
Case study utilizing the LinkEx model at a liberal arts university (1800 students):
Early in the SEM development process, a team met regularly to review the university’s mission and strategic plan and to identify SEM goals. Then, a broader group met to develop strategies and tactics. Utilizing subgroups that overlapped with the
specific roles and responsibilities, three common topics surfaced among various subgroups: barriers to enrollment, retention, and timely graduation. The Registrar’s Office, Center for Academic Success, and Advising were represented in the majority
of the subgroups.
The creation and implementation of the SEM plan clearly demonstrated that integrated efforts between the Registrar, Dean of Student Success, and Director of Advising could link strategies and extend them into tactics surrounding enrollment goals within
the SEM plan.
The University Registrar is uniquely positioned to contribute to SEM integrative work due to the regular engagement with faculty, staff, prospective students, current students, and alumni. The registrar can identify pain points and successes directly
related to enrollment.
The Dean of Student Success provides academic coaching, assistance navigating academic procedures, and academic success skills. Their role affords an opportunity for specific insight into successes and challenges related to enrollment.
The Director of Advising collaborates with faculty advisors to support students in planning and achieving their educational goals and guide students to make informed decisions as they pursue their academic interests and aspirations. In this role,
the Director of Advising can identify barriers related to course selection, pathways to completion, and technological tools.
The Registrar, Dean of Student Success, and Director of Advising identified shared areas of concern, developed a plan to integrate efforts, and extended the efforts that were likely to have the greatest impact on enrollment. Including a member of Technology
Services from the inception of these meetings ensured technological infrastructure could support the proposed integrated efforts. Technology Services provided timelines to update processes, audits, reports, upgrades, and implementations.
During the summer, a series of meetings
reviewed policies and procedures that inhibit student success, retention, graduation;
developed communication enhancements to improve faculty training and student experience;
identified office inefficiencies that directly impact student experience and enrollment;
And determined needed technological improvements.
After determining priorities including ease of implementation, level of impact on enrollment, financial needs, and depth of technology requirements, a prioritized timeline was developed for addressing areas of concern. Identification of campus partners
that would need to be involved with each tactic provided an opportunity to include additional perspectives. Reviewed data related to exceptions to academic regulations from the prior year to identify problematic academic policies. One such policy
was the repeat policy. Since the Registrar and Dean of Student Success are ex-officio members of the committee responsible for repeat policy, they worked with the committee to submit an agreed-upon updated policy to the faculty for consideration,
including rationale and supporting data. Upon approval, the repeat policy eliminated barriers to success and allowed for continuous enrollment. Other policies that were addressed include the course withdrawal policy, transfer credit policies,
and departmental credit limits. After early delays caused by submitting the policy changes individually through the governance structure, interrelated policy changes were combined and processed through the university governance process for a more
thorough and efficient development and implementation.
Identified necessary improvements needed in advising for students. Through collaborative work, a robust summer advising model for new students was created. Through this collaborative process, the Director of Advising, Registrar, and Dean of
Student Success addressed registration hurdles. System support and training was provided for summer advisors. The Director of Advising worked with the registrar team to identify ways to better utilize the newly implemented degree audit
system and registration portal for summer advising. A LMS course was created for new students to introduce them to the student portal, degree audit system, and registration process. The Director of Advising and Advising Committee created
resources to train and equip faculty to advise students more effectively using the new degree audit system. This was a substantial project that spanned multiple academic years. This significantly enhanced the incoming student’s ability
to use systems and register for courses during the summer prior to their first term at the institution.
Addressed the academic standing policy. The existing academic standing policy was difficult to understand and explain to students. Linking this hurdle to concerns expressed by the Dean of Student Success, it was evident that the policy was
inhibiting student success in unintended ways. The Dean of Student Success and Registrar drafted a new policy with scenarios, data, and rationale for the appropriate committee. Once approved, the Registrar and Dean of Student Success worked
with Technology Services to create an automated process to notify students of their academic standing as a step in the review process at the end of the term. Not only did the LinkEx process contribute to a tactic in the SEM plan, but it
also provided an opportunity to streamline the process of notifying students and advisors in a timely manner.
Through this process, it was evident that SEM goals were met more efficiently when ideas were linked and exchanged. More importantly, this process illuminated additional ideas and tactics that might not have surfaced otherwise. Although the Registrar,
Dean of Student Success, Director of Advising, and Technology Services were the key players in this case study, the concepts of LinkEx extend far beyond these confines in collaboration with the included campus partners. The positive experience
of LinkEx continues to inform my work after a recent move to another university. Even though the universities differ in staffing and governance, the methodology applies.
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