Visionaries share best practices for a new era in SEM

November 14, 2013
  • AACRAO Connect

AACRAO’s 2013 Executive Symposium ConferenceSEM as a Driver for Academic Planning—brought together senior level college administrators, including chancellors, presidents, board members, provosts, chief enrollment management officers, and their executive teams to address the most pressing enrollment management issues. Held November 10, the meeting revealed a consensus among participants: there is a new normal in higher education.  

Buffeted by economic shifts, demographic changes, increased expectations, and tight finances, institutions must find new ways to achieve goals. Institutional leaders also must contend with implications of  Obama’s completion agenda, new and complex financial aid models, and  the movement to performance-based funding.   

This year’s Executive Symposium program included  a stimulating combination of targeted input from leading strategic enrollment management (SEM) professionals, strategies for implementing SEM, and actionable ideas for improving enrollment and financial outcomes—including topics such as:

SEM Core Concepts and Environmental Scanning:  Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) provides a thoughtful paradigm to focus institutional efforts on how to best meet student needs.  This discussion reviewed critical SEM concepts, including a focus on the student lifecycle continuum, setting institutional enrollment goals, data analysis, infrastructure analysis and the effective use of environmental scans.

It Takes (at Least) Two to Tango – Curriculum Planning for SEM:  Instructional programs and course offerings are the real destinations of students. Partnerships among enrollment professionals, faculty, and instructional program leaders are critical in meeting the complex needs and demands of prospective and current students while also working within budget and resource parameters.  Presenters explained the integration and roles of instruction, student services, finance, marketing and research.  They identified several new ways to structure instructional programming in order to strategically manage enrollment.

Perspectives on Executive SEM Leadership: The Chancellor of University of Deluth faced a major decline in enrollment that had hit many institutions years earlier.  A quick turnaround was critical, but as she and her team investigated what needed to be done, challenges continued to mount.  With strong and engaged leadership, they were able to turn around entering student enrollment within a single year (projected at a 6.5% increase for fall) due to full support from their university leadership; clear expectations on goals, accountability and resources; and the education of campus-wide constituents on the need and benefits.                                                          

A number of attendees shared their comments immediately following the symposium: 

“The Executive Symposium brings together many different perspectives around a factor to achieve institutional success and effectiveness: strategic enrollment management.  We learn through building better models and sharing best practices.” Michael Barron—Assistant Provost for Enrollment Management and Executive Director of Admissions, The University of Iowa

“The symposium introduced me to the wide range of activities to consider as you work to optimize enrollment.  Interesting to me is how it all fits together.  It was inspiring  to hear about the innovative application of the student life cycle.” Dirk Baldwin, Ph.D.—Interim Dean, The University of Wisconsin Parkside

“This meeting provides a framework for discussing data-enriched decisions and ideas for increasing buy-in by all campus constituents.  Enrollment is campus-wide effort.  I now have concrete ideas how to build and roll out a SEM plan to sustain future enrollment growth.” Danette Anderson—Director of Enrollment, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy

Leading the discussion at this year’s Executive Symposium program were Bob Bontrager, Senior Director of AACRAO Consulting and SEM Initiatives; Jay Goff, Vice President for Enrollment and Retention Management, Saint Louis University;  Andrea Schokker, Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD); Christine Kerlin, Former Vice President for the University Center and Strategic Planning, Everett Community College; and Sunny BurnsVice President for Student Learning and Student Success at Cascadia Community College.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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