When Denise Johnson-Jennings and Mark Volpatti, of Indiana University-Purdue University-Columbus, saw downtown Los Angeles preparing for a half-marathon a day before their presentation at AACRAO’s 2014 SEM Conference, they decided at the last minute to enter the race.
“You have to be ready for an unexpected opportunity,” said Volpatti during a Monday morning session at SEM. He and Johnson-Jennings explained how this philosophy played a role in their small campus implementing cross-functional positions to meet multiple human resources tasks within a SEM culture.
In their SEM session "Collaborate, Integrate, Celebrate: Holistic Enrollment Approaches at a Small College," the presenters described their campus effort to focus on the relationship between Enrollment Management and Human Resources. “We have worked better together to create some positions that work across areas and be a little bit more aware of our committee structures and the people we’re involving across an Enrollment Management perspective,” Johnson-Jennings said.
During their session, the presenters led small groups in a discussion about the challenges they have experienced with having various people and departments working together to facilitate Enrollment Management on their campuses. Practitioners from across a wide variety of campuses shared their individual issues, which included: a lack of clear communication and face time with colleagues; too many silos, lack of staying on message or consistent branding and identity, lack of inclusiveness, especially faculty voices; and too much anecdotal information and not enough data-informed decisions.
The presenters touched on many of these issues as they explained their own journey through collaboration, which included cross training staff; unified efforts to attract, retain, educate, and graduate students; and increasing buy-in, particularly from faculty. They discussed integration processes such as competency mapping, critical workload analysis, and critical workforce analysis, all of which helped determine current and future staffing needs and opportunities. The result was a redesign of staffing through the Enrollment Management function, containing costs and resulting in cross training and job enrichment for existing talent.
Johnson-Jennings and Volpatti emphasized the importance of having a long-term plan, noting they had been training for separate running events before they arrived in Los Angeles. But they noted what can be learned by taking on new opportunities.
“I learned things yesterday as a new runner asked me questions,” said Johnson-Jennings.
She added: “Recreate your teams; not the wheel. Ask yourself what is going to be best for your institution, and where are you missing the boat? How are we going to move forward?”
Johnson-Jennings and Volpatti are celebrating their success. They have experienced a 40 percent increase in applicants and now have the largest freshmen class ever. Their fall enrollment this year, and over the last two years, is up over 5 percent. “It’s the most growth we’ve had ever,” Johnson-Jennings said.