As a consultant for more than 500 colleges and universities, I have observed that most institutions have a well-orchestrated communications plan for prospective students, but few have a similar practice for current students. In fact, most current student communications are ad hoc, nestled deep inside departmental silos, and do little to impact student behavior.

In this session, we will discuss the silos often found in small universities and departments, and how to break those via tracking metrics, campaign planning, and cross-communication for enrollment initiatives. Key components of campaign planning will be covered, as well as how marketing strategy meets enrollment initiatives via a multi-channel approach.

The sizable investments enrollment managers make and the significant importance each of our institutions place on every enrolling class command we examine how we orient our operations.  Without the ability to execute our strategies those investments aren’t worth the paper they are written on.  No one has enough resources or enough time to accomplish everything they want to; can we make sure that we align our operations to achieve what we have to accomplish?  How can we learn to walk when we are expected to be world class sprinters at the same time?  We have all come

With the decline in higher education enrollment now impacting graduate programs, competition among these programs has intensified. With most institutions seeking to do more, building a more effective outreach and communication pipeline in campaigning students is a critical first step for many.

We are all familiar with the pressures of bringing in the class and meeting those ceaselessly aspirational recruiting goals. We also know that we can’t do it alone.  This session will explore practical solutions to engaging a breadth of college and university constituencies to maximize your recruiting efforts.  We will share strategies to facilitate the investment of faculty, coaches, marketing, financial aid, business office, the registrar, and alumni in recruiting to all the programs in your university’s portfolio of programs.

The population of students who identify as having “no religion” is on the rise. In 2018 the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey found that more Americans identify themselves as having no religion than those who identify as Catholic or Evangelical. In this session we will explore the non-believing student experience, identify ways in which we can better support non-believing students, and discuss ways to further dialogue on campus.

When we stopped to ask if our new student registration process was really working for our students, we weren’t sure.  A hard look at what we thought was the way to do it, revealed some true barriers for students – so with the help of a survey, some creative class bundles and lots of adjustments along the way, we think we’ve arrived at that sweet spot of leveraging technology but keeping the personal touch! Oh, should we also mention that we did more with less?

The higher education enrollment dearth has led to increased competition for students and a deliberate focus on retention, especially at small colleges and universities.  Important to this work is the retention of traditionally marginalized student populations (i.e. BIPOC, LGBTQ+, first generation, and low-income), whose enrollment are steadily increasing while their retention numbers continue to lag behind their peers.

Despite the heavy headwinds enrollment leaders are facing these days caused by shrinking budgets, demographic shifts and, of course, the pandemic, expectations for most of us remain the same: increase enrollment, increase quality, increase diversity and increase net tuition revenue. One thing is for sure - we can’t do this alone. Learn how one enrollment manager leveraged resources and developed relationships with external partners to exceed enrollment goals.

Generation X parents and their Generation Z students are delaying their campus visits until after being admitted,
often double depositing to save their place in the class until they can get to campus. This messes with the enrollment
funnel and lowers yield. When they do make it to campus, they have high, and very specific expectations. In our
session, we’ll provide best practices for marketing your campus visit and share insights into crafting a campus visit that
meets your enrollment goals and the needs of your audiences.

Via three facilitated sessions, a SEM self-assessment, and supplementary readings, participants will be led through a process for creating a new enrollment plan or refining an existing one.  In Session 2, the focus will shift to how to establish and leverage realistic enrollment goals for planning and implementation purposes.  Throughout the sessions, there will be ample opportunity for discussion and the sharing of lessons learned and best practices.

This session will examine the process they have used to create learning communities to support a variety of campus populations. Two models of learning communities: one aimed at learning support students, as well as a learning community integrating domestic travel study, will be examined and discussed, and implications for strategic partnerships across academic and student affairs will be explored with attendees.

With increased competition for fewer students, colleges and universities are beginning to realize that retaining students is much more cost effective than replacing students. That said, admissions offices generally have larger budgets, multiple consultants, and fancy tools when compared to retention counterparts. Oftentimes, it’s even difficult to identify which campus department is truly responsible for retention.

Do you have a retention plan?  Do you have an approach to outreach of not registered students?  Do you know all the messages that are sent to returning students about their continuation at your institution? Have you examined policies that impact retention- positively or negatively? This session will examine one institution's intentional approach to returning student retention along with engaging in dialogue about other ways that institutions can be more efficient, effective and intentional about retaining students.

Have you felt defeated within your institution or even within your own team? So have we. Let’s talk about repairing a team from within, to them carry that on to other staff & faculty on your campus. Now let’s take that energy even further and carry the positivity into the community.  Once we believe in ourselves and our message, we can get true buy in from others.

We often talk about breaking down silos; sometimes it literally takes tearing down the walls.  In this session, we will share how a major renovation project provided the opportunity to build stronger teams, increase collaborations among staff, and create a vibrant student success and learning commons for our students.  As with most construction projects, there were bumps along the way and hard hats were needed to avoid potentially falling objects and the occasional jabs of “this will never work,” but the punch lists have been completed, the teams are thriving, and the students l

This session explores what a small university has done for student success by building relationships with students in unique ways.  Many initiatives will be shared that include campus supports, campus planning, and resident housing initiatives.  An emphasis on a team approach will be discussed.

How AI & ML techniques can help to improve YoY enrollment yield and increase tuition revenue up to 10%. Higher Education Institutions are struggling in making improvements in scientifically assessing inquiries, determining optimal funding, and determining student retention and on-time graduation. Mr. Mehrotra will highlight use cases and how to solve this education equation to improve the overall efficiency from the Inquiry to the Graduation process.

Via three facilitated sessions, a SEM self-assessment, and supplementary readings, participants will be led through a process for creating a new enrollment plan or refining an existing one.   Session 3 will address the elements of an enrollment plan and how to transition to implementation and ongoing plan assessment. Methods for building campus-wide enrollment plan awareness and buy-in also will be presented. Throughout the sessions, there will be ample opportunity for discussion and the sharing of lessons learned and best practices.

During this closing session, attendees will review the top leadership skills necessary to thrive as we meet today’s opportunities and challenges.  It has been a crazy few years, but our students are counting on us to pay it forward so they have access to quality learning experiences across higher education.  Enrollment Management Professional play a pivotal role on our campuses and yes, it is our time to lead!   In this closing session, we will pull together the lessons from NSCEC 2022 and develop an action plan for implementation.  What and who are you waiting for?