SEM-EP Celebrates Ten Years
AACRAO’s Strategic Enrollment Management Endorsement Program (SEM-EP) recently entered its tenth year offering enrollment management credentials to higher education professionals. In celebration, a recent College & University article highlights four perspectives from individuals associated with this unique credential: Joe Head, founder and first director of SEM-EP; Christopher Tremblay, current director of SEM-EP; Kimberley Buster-Williams, current assistant director of SEM-EP; and Patrick Tanner, SEM-EP’s 50th graduate. The authors share the history and growth of the program.
Enrollment management is thought to have first surfaced at Boston University in the 1970s and was further shaped by Don Hossler and John Bean, wrote Head. “As enrollment management spread within higher education, young professionals began to search for options that would prepare them to lead in the field effectively,” he added. “The perceptive practitioner understood that training was needed to generate optimal enrollments that would sustain institutions and gain professional standing.”
Over the years, interest in a credentialing program for SEM practitioners increased. After significant research and discussion centering on delivery, access, cost, instruction, and staffing, Head, along with Bob Bontrager, began developing the program under the leadership of Jerry Sullivan, AACRAO’s former executive director.
Launched in 2012, SEM-EP is a self-paced professional development program for in-service practitioners employed at national and international postsecondary universities. It includes webinars, field visits, and a capstone. The SEM Endorsement offers formal recognition of an enrollment management skill set. Upon successful completion, candidates are listed and recognized on the AACRAO SEM-EP web registry page and receive a SEM Endorsement digital badge.
In 2017, Tremblay and Buster-Williams took over the leadership of SEM-EP. The program has since introduced partial scholarships to qualified candidates and established the first university agreement connected to SEM-EP, which allows professionals who have earned the SEM Endorsement to receive three credits toward the completion of the Doctor of Education: Leadership in Higher Education degree at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. Several SEM-EP graduates have given back to the association by serving as evaluators, reviewing assignments, and offering feedback.
Our graduates have studied and produced reports that have addressed some important topics in our field: shifting institutional scholarship budgets, the future of enrollment leadership, SEM project management, evaluating the impact of timely outreach on re-registration, public-private partnerships, as well as SEM in law school and medical school settings, Tremblay wrote.
Patrick Tanner, SEM-EP’s 50th graduate, added:
To say that the AACRAO SEM-EP experience has been helpful could not be more of an understatement….Along with my fellow graduates, I have come away with a broadened perspective on what enrollment management is and what it could be. I find myself listening for different parts of conversations on campus. I’m utilizing renewed energy to collaborate across divisions to advance on completion metrics.
Other articles in this issue include:
Features
How Data Stewards Make Decisions to Protect or Disclose Student Information: Toward Consistent Criteria by Heather Abbot
The Impact of Student Swirling and Transfer Credit Hours on Earning a Bachelor’s Degree by Mark F. Daddona, Charlie L. Harris, Celena Mondie-Milner, Jonathon Goodson
An Interview with Lorri Saddler by Seth Kamen
An Interview with Patricia Smith by Sarah Tuxbury
Commentary
First-Generation College Students and Career Development by Monique L. Snowden
Responding to COVID-19 Series
Crisis after Crisis: Why We Can’t Give Up Hope amidst the Pandemic by Ryan Fewins-Bliss
Remote Learning Adaptations in Optometric Clinical Education by Sandra Mohr
PIVOT! Course Scheduling in the Age of a Pandemic by Danielle Faucett
The AACRAO Review
Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling reviewed by Kris Anderson
The Low Density University: 15 Scenarios for Higher Education reviewed by Stephen Handel
Transfer Website Strategy Guide: How to Create and Sustain a Transfer Student-Centered Web Presence reviewed by Joseph Mews
Explore AACRAO's College & University Journal, a quarterly educational policy and research journal.