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 SEM America |
| Strategic Enrollment Management WORKS |
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| SEM WORKS AMERICA E-NEWSLETTER, Volume 6, 2009 |
INTRODUCTION
Did you know that commercial airliners are only on-course approximately 10% of the time? During the other 90% of that time the pilots are working to navigate the external environment to move the plane back to its original flight path. Enrollment management is just like that… it is a "managing" of enrollment across time, events, and variations in the external environment.
And this rolling with the ebb and flow of a fluctuating economy, of demographic shifts in the population, of the after tremors from significant world events, stock market vacillation, and turnover in government power is what colleges and universities (and their enrollment managers) have been dealing with ever since the inception of higher education.
It is then safe to say that February 2009 brings nothing new to the desk of enrollment managers. And while there is no value in ignoring reality or hiding one's head in the sand, there is also no value to be had in dwelling for too long on the challenges that currently present themselves in our economy, our country, and our world except for the purpose of learning how to navigate them.
And so, this edition is dedicated to the more hopeful side of enrollment management. Along with a look at how a change in government might positively impact education, you will find articles and audio/video clips below that offer insight about how to recruit more effectively in today's market, the value of innovation in admissions, as well as the importance of focusing on retention in a time when recruitment budgets are taking a serious hit.
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Faculty-Delivered Student Recruitment Strategies (Innovative Educators webinar), February 26
Customer Service Workshop (Community College of Baltimore County), March 2-4
View all upcoming events
To learn more about the events, please contact (800) 494-3710 or [email protected]
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RECRUITMENT
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- Email Marketing Tips for Higher Education Professionals: Email now has the power to help your institution "increase enrollments and streamline communications" according to Joe Soltis, the Director of Permission-Based Email Marketing for Fathom SEO. In this video clip he talks about the "Return on Investment (ROI)" on funds spent on email marketing, and goes on to offer an overview of some of the effective email strategies employed by institutions of higher learning such as Harvard, Colorado State, and Corning University (to name a few). Learn more about these strategies.
- From "Good" to "Great" Student Recruitment: In his book entitled "Good to Great", Jim Collins expands on tools and strategies that can help to move an organization from being good to excelling in their particular industry. In the attached podcast, Dr. Jim Black, President and CEO of SEM WORKS, one of the world's leading enrollment management consulting firms, discusses the application of these concepts to higher education. In particular, Dr. Black reviews five universal strategies that can make a significant difference in your recruitment efforts. Listen to this podcast.
- Making Your Online Forms Work Harder For You: It would be difficult in this digital age to argue against the benefits of having a website for promoting your organization and drawing in your customers. In fact, one might be hard pressed to find a college or university that does not already have one. As well, many institutions of higher learning are coming to see the value of providing their website visitors with information request forms that can be completed and submitted online. However, what might be less understood is the importance of creating forms that are simple, user-friendly, reliably active, and that can act as a tool for redirecting visitors to other valuable web-pages after they have electronically submitted their initial request. According to Chris Lucas, the author of an article entitled "5 Ways to Make Your Site's Contact Form Work Harder", there is an art to making your online forms work harder for you. Read more.
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ADMISSIONS / ENROLLMENT
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- College Summit: According to J.B. Schramm, CEO of the College Summit, "Students from the low-income quartile who gets A's on standardized tests go to college at the same rate as their higher income peers who get D's on the same tests." Along with this paper sponsored by College Summit on the idea that high schools may be the best place to create college-going behavior in lower-income students, PBS has also profiled this unique organization in the following clip.
- Innovation in Enrollment - Teenagers in College: In this era of precarious enrollment management, harvesting numbers from the ranks of high schools students aged 14 to 18 may be a sure-thing. Many colleges and universities across North America are experimenting with, and succeeding at, the enrollment of teenagers in college-level courses who have not yet even graduated from high school. Once such example is a program at Simon's Rock at Bard College where junior and senior high school students can attend the college program fulltime. Listen to the audio clip. Another variation on this theme is the Learn & Earn Online (LEO) Program in North Carolina where high school students of all ages from across the state can participate online in college-level coursework at UNC - Greensboro or at community colleges. In the LEO program, courses earned online can count as both high school and college credit. Learn more about LEO.
- The Changing Face of Community Colleges: Imagine if you will, a community college that only approves fulltime enrollment, restricts students to job-robust majors, and insists on an in-person interview as a required part of the application process. While these requirements may all seem to run counter to the open-door philosophy of community colleges across the USA, the CUNY system is currently pitching just such an idea to legislators. This innovative institution would be the first two-year institution added to the CUNY system in 37 years and would have a two-fold purpose; to help offset burgeoning enrollment across the city, and to strengthen graduation rates through the implementation of more rigorous curriculum standards. Read more. (PDF)
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RETENTION
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- Achieving the Dream: Hanging in there from semester to semester until graduation day is no small feat for any student enrolled at any institution of higher learning across North America. But community college students seem to experience more than their fair share of retention and graduation issues. Consequently, the "Achieving the Dream" Initiative, created by the Lumina Foundation and in partnership with other organizations, was designed to tackle the precarious issue of student success in the community college system. The project is now 82 institutions strong across 15 states and has been funded to the tune of $100 million. The attached article describes this program and provides three testimonials by participating institutions. Read more.
- The Problem of Losing Freshman Students: According to a recent ACT Inc. survey, "The percentage of U.S. college freshmen who return to the same college for their second year of school is declining." The report goes on to say that retention is at its lowest since 1983. And while losing freshman students is an old problem faced by institutions of higher learning, its marked increase in the past few years has earned the concept a new name, that of "swirling" students. Swirling students feel no particular loyalty to any one college, will take some courses here, and other courses there, and may or may not ever pull it all together to graduate from one institution. But just as interesting is the fact that, while two-year institutions traditionally have higher attrition rates than four-year schools, the gap is closing with two-year institutions seeing a recent retention increase from 51% to 52% in the 2007-2008 academic year. Review the data for four-year private, four-year public, and two-year public institutions.
- Minority Retention - One Size Does NOT Fit All: If you already knew that there were inequities between the admission of minority students versus non-minority students, then you might not be surprised to hear that their retention rates differ as well. And when performance (graduation) rates become the indicator for future federal funding, lower retention rates among high minority enrollment schools is a very big deal. This video clip discusses minority retention and reviews four examples of innovation programs designed to assist minority students persist throughout their college experience. The first program is based on the notion that retention begins in preparing students in the community for the college experience even before they apply. The second program expects to catch students as soon as they step through the college door, and to that end, has conducted entry focus groups to discover motivates minority students to attend and the resources they identify as critical to their ability to persist. The third is a program called African American Male Institute that works to develop discipline, accountability, and leadership skills in freshman students. And the fourth program takes a look at minority students who have enrolled in a doctoratal degree, the types of institutions that awarded those degrees, the percentage that completed their studies, as well as other personal demographic characteristics of this group. Hear about these four programs.
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SPECIAL TOPICS
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- ROEI - Return on Education Investment: - Eligibility for aid, tuition fees and total cost of attendance are all important considerations for students who are researching their university options. And in the spirit of "knowledge is power" the University of Wisconsin-Madison's (UWM) website offers links to students so they can determine their estimated family contribution for financial aid as well as the total cost of attending the university. But most notable on UWM's financial aid website is a link that provides access to a "payback calculator", allowing students to estimate their potential salary earnings after graduation and over the course of their career. According to that calculator, a four year degree can yield a $200,000 to $700,000 return on investment over above those with just a high school diploma. Read more and try out the calculator.
- Stimulus Package Impact on Education: According to the New York Times, Obama's stimulus package will have an impact on most aspects of both K-12 and higher education in America. Most significant about the plan is that it changes the role of the federal government in education, which has traditionally been the domain of state and local government. Read more about these impacts. In this article, however, Naomi Rockler- Gladen outlines the plan's impacts specific to colleges and universities including Pell Grant increases, a tax credit opportunity, and science fellowships.
- New Secretary of Education Speaks Out: Immediately following Obama's inauguration, Arne Duncan was confirmed as the new president's choice for the position of Secretary of Education. In this short video clip, Mr. Duncan comments on public concerns about lateral entry teachers; increasing effectiveness of training in the trades and the positive impact this could have on the workforce and employment rates; student loan forgiveness in higher education; simplifying the FAFSA form; and increasing the Pell Grant. Listen to Mr. Duncan's remarks on this important subject.
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Return to Top
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This e-newsletter was edited by Maggie Killoran for SEM WORKS, based on publicly-available information. Neither the editor nor SEM WORKS assume liability for comments or information posted by others. Please send your comments to Kara Mohre, Director of Marketing at [email protected]
407 Pebble Ridge Court - Greensboro, North Carolina 27455 - USA
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