Enrollment Management: Key Elements for Building and Implementing an Enrollment Plan.

This article provides the basic elements for constructing a comprehensive enrollment management plan. While enrollment professionals develop and implement plans, it is important to recognize that the campus climate and institutional leadership impact the enrollment plan's development and implementation. Enrollment management is as much an art as it is a science. Just as every institution has a mission statement that expresses its purpose (educational goals and market segment), there needs to be a map that shows where you've come from, where you are, and where you are going. The enrollment plan serves as the map for achieving specific institutional goals, typically connected to student body size, enrollment mix, and revenue, while also providing specific indicators on the effectiveness of the learning environment (e.g., first-year persistence, graduation rates, etc.). It also involves departmental leaders understanding one another's unique contribution towards achieving the institution's goals. This article will focus on three components that determine the ease with which a comprehensive enrollment plan may be created and implemented: * Institutional Traits * Individual Traits * Enrollment Plan Elements Institutional Traits: The Campus Climate While creating a comprehensive enrollment plan requires a total-institution commitment, the campus climate sets the tone for creating and supporting an enrollment plan. The first step is to determine if there is an institutional vision statement. * What are the goals and aspirations of your institution? * What market niche are you serving or hope to serve in the future? * What sets you apart from your competitors? * Where do you hope to be in five, ten, or twenty years? VISION AND PRESIDENT'S LEADERSHIP The president is the institution's vision champion as she constantly reinforces its message to key stakeholders (board of trustees, donors, alumni, parents, students, faculty, and staff). The vision must become part of the branding strategy, which builds consistency and momentum across various messages. One way of knowing whether or not your institution has a dearly defined vision statement is by seeing whether faculty and staff are able to articulate how their work contributes to the vision's achievement. At Seattle Pacific University, the vision statement is brief and to the point-Engaging the Culture, Changing the World. While simply stated, faculty and staff across the community have been able to latch on to this statement and express how their work supports the vision. In the various academic, administrative, and enrollment (admissions, registrar, financial aid) departments, each has spent time exploring and clarifying the various ways they contribute to the vision. KEY LEADERS BUY-IN; COMMITMENT TO THE VISION AND GOALS While the president's sponsorship is the crucial first step in articulating a vision, its fulfillment relies on it becoming part of the cultural fabric. The rubber hits the road when various departmental plans with their unique goals, strategies, and resource requests merge into one strategic plan (e.g., academics, enrollment, facilities, fund-raising, etc.). When leaders begin to compete for finite resources, the level of buy-in to the institutional vision is tested, as choices will be made about where to invest these resources. The annual budget planning cycle tests the resolve of the administration to fund the vision and make choices among competing priorities. Will funding be available to increase financial aid to students, or should funding be directed to hire new faculty, or should it be directed to help purchase new technology to enhance the learning environment? How may you determine if your college or university has the institutional traits that support the development and implementation of a comprehensive enrollment management plan? …