Assessing Your Internal Environment: Understanding Constraints in Enrollment Planning

Enrollment planning steering committees around the country are tasked with increasing freshman enrollment only to find out there is no more freshman housing available, there is no additional parking, and freshman-level classes are already filled to 98 percent capacity. Even the best thought-out strategic plans sometimes miss the mark when it comes to assessing internal strengths and weaknesses. The strategic enrollment plan begins with a good understanding of the institution's vision, mission, and values. The next step is understanding the institution's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). Most institutions involved in strategic planning do a good job in assessing the external environment but fall short of understanding what their institution can really deliver from an internal perspective. To use a SWOT analysis effectively, it should be conducted from an internal and external perspective. This article examines five steps to completing an internal assessment. Five Steps to an Internal Assessment According to Robert Sevier (2001), one of the main reasons for an institution's marketing failure is having unreasonable expectations. Institutions need to make strategic decisions based on solid, defendable data. The following steps will help you understand your internal constraints in enrollment planning. 1 Identify the key success factors that influence enrollment and successful student life on your campus. Key success factors are broad, overarching categories that should tie directly to your vision, mission, and values. Start with an exhaustive list of key success factors and then prioritize the list based on potential impact on performance. Keep the final number of key success factors limited. The exact key success factors will vary from institution to institution, depending on environment. Among them might be things like: * Student Life * Academics * Financial Assistance * Internal Processes Once determined, list the key success factors in a chart like the one adapted from the Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award Criteria for Education (see Figure 1). 2 Once you have your list of key success factors, take each key success factor one at a time and brainstorm activities that support it. You might want to establish one subcommittee for each key success factor. While the number of key success factors is kept limited, the list of activities supporting each key success factor can be extensive. This list should contain innovative features that set your institution apart from other institutions. The activities should cross departments, meaning each department in the institution should have at least one activity that supports each key success factor. This is where you can seek to be unique in how you deliver services to your students and stakeholders. Philip Kotler (1997) writes that when a service is not easily differentiated, the key to competitive success often lies in providing more value-added services and improving their quality. Although all institutions claim to deliver student life, for example, how does your institution stand apart and do it better? Nancy Scott, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Kent State University in Ohio, describes an intricate web of activities that support Kent State's Strategic Enrollment Management program. Kent State coordinates with its various schools, colleges, and campuses to establish enrollment targets-from recruitment and marketing to student life and retention. Kent State determines which academic units have enrollment growth potential based upon existing environmental factors, the school's resources, and the University's strategic direction. The essence of strategy is choosing to perform activities differently than your rivals. The success of strategy depends on doing many things well and integrating them (Porter 1996). 3 Identify goals for each activity based on your level of service commitment to your students and stakeholders. …