Some Reflections on SEM Structures and Strategies. Part One.

The following is a pre-conference paper prepared for participants at AACRAO's Fifteenth Annual Strategic Enrollment Management Conference (SEM XV), held November 13-16 in Chicago, Illinois. It is the first of a three-part series to appear in C&U. In this series of papers, David Kalsbeek introduces a four-fold construct for differentiating and comparing institutional approaches to SEM, four broad distinct orientations that characterize how SEM structures and strategies are designed in colleges and universities. Around the large mahogany table in its Centennial Conference Room, the president of Alpha University is meeting with his cabinet and the executive committee of the board of trustees in their annual update of the institutions strategic plan. Item C on the agenda: securing our preferred enrollment future.This item was placed on the agenda by the board chairwoman herself, since in each of the past two years, Alpha's enrollment profile and tuition revenue fell short of expectations. been reading about 'enrollment management' in some of the literature receive from the Association of Governing Boards the chairwoman says in opening the discussion on this item. I also heard that Beta University recently created an enrollment management organization, and their freshman class reportedly exceeded all goals this year, which certainly had a negative impact on us. Have we considered such an approach? What would 'enrollment management' look like here at Alpha? have begun discussing that in our weekly cabinet meetings and it's an important question, the president replies. Perhaps each of the VPS can comment on what they see as the appropriate focus of an 'enrollment management' strategy and organizational structure here at Alpha. The vice president for administration begins. From what I've read and seen, the key to successful enrollment management is to integrate and streamline all of our enrollment-related processes and systems. We have many redundancies and disconnects and inefficiencies in our systems, staffing, and structures. All of that adversely affects students and surely negatively impacts our enrollment. Improving those will help us manage the complex processes that support students moving to, through, and successfully out of this institution. An enrollment management initiative would focus our attention on exactly that outcome. I agree that it's important to address all of the so-called administrative 'silos' that fragment our enrollment process and services,reacts the vice president for student affairs, but Alpha is all about students, meeting their expectations, satisfying their needs, and putting them first. Our admission, orientation, registration, and billing processes certainly need to be better integrated. 'enrollment management' is really about putting the needs of each student at the center of our efforts, not the administrative processes of the university. When we focus on putting the needs of each student first and creating a student experience that fully engages students in and out of the classroom, we will improve our enrollment through better recruitment and certainly improved retention. The academic vice president then weighs in. Both of my colleagues have identified some opportunities for improvement, if our enrollment is to support the core academic mission of the institution, it needs to be fused with the development of our academic programs. We are, first and foremost, an academic institution and so our enrollment and all that's involved in managing it needs to be inseparable from our academic goals and academic programs. The outcome of improving our enrollment has to be the development of academic programs that enrich students'lives, and that serve this region by meeting its educational needs. That's all quite interesting the board's vice chairman responds. But in my business, for example, strategic planning doesn't focus on our internal administrative processes or our customer services, or even on improving what we'd consider our core functions-though that's all critical. …