Spotlight on SEM: Recruitment & College Readiness

October 20, 2015
  • AACRAO Connect
  • Student Recruitment
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AACRAO Spotlight interviews are published biweekly before major professional development meetings. They feature our conversations with industry experts, highlighting key issues and promoting sessions and workshops at the upcoming conference.

There's still time to register for the SEM Conference.  You may also download the registration brochure to preview conference sessions and workshops.

In this issue of Connect, we talked with presenters of sessions focusing on recruitment and college readiness.  We talked with Thomas Kinsey and Tanya Lane-Martin from Genessee Community College on how they used data to improve their recruitment communications plan.  We spoke with Rebel Smith from the University of Arkansas on recruiting the online, off-campus student population.  Finally, we talked with Monique Perry on how to institutionalize SEM at a 2-year college.


The Right Message at the Right Time

In order to apply, enroll and complete college, students need the right message at the right time. Colleges must communicate with students in a timely and useful way. In the Age of Information, however, it’s not easy to ensure that students are getting the message.

This is the issue that Thomas Kinsey, Data Steward, and Tanya Lane-Martin, Assistant Dean for Enrollment Management/Director of Admissions, at Genesee Community College, New York, will address in their session “The Right Message at the Right Time” at AACRAO’s 2015 SEM Conference.

Ahead of the meeting, they talked to us about how they improved their communications plan and what they’ll cover in their session.

Read the interview with Kinsey and Lane-Martin here.


Recruiting and Providing Student Services for Online Programs at a Traditional, Public University

“Traditional recruitment has to change to suit the online market,” said Rebel Smith, Director of Recruitment and Enrollment Management for Online and Distance Education Programs at the University of Arkansas. “We can’t keep using the same methods we’ve always used. The online, off-campus population is very different.”

In her upcoming AACRAO SEM Conference Session “Recruiting and providing student services for online programs at a traditional public university,” Smith will talk about some of the key perspective shifts that have to happen in order for traditional public universities to successfully recruit and retain online students. She’ll also encourage attendees to share their own experience with online students and programs so participants can get a sense of what has and hasn’t worked among their peer institutions.

Read the interview with Smith here.


Advancing the SEM Agenda at the Community/Technical College - Leadership and Change Management Lessons from the Front Lines

The landscape of enrollment at today's 2-year instiution is a roller-coaster. With declines in state-funding and increased demands of accountability and value community/technical colleges sometimes struggle to implement a SEM culture and make inroades in recruitment, retention and placement.

This session will focus on sharing York Technical College's pathway to implementing a SEM culture and the lessons learned along the journey that is still continuing.

Read the interview with Perry here.

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