Dr. Judi M. Roller, Associate Provost
Academic Programs and Services
SUBJECT:
FUTURE AGENDA ITEM - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
This summer an enrollment management initiative began at the university
with the appointment of an Enrollment Management Steering Committee. In
her charge to the committee, Provost McNairy indicated that the committee
was to:
Develop a long-term enrollment management plan and provide
recommendations for university action.
Develop subcommittee charges and appoint subcommittees
Identify issues to be addressed which could include, but are not
limited to:
African-American and Latino Student Retention
Majors with capacity and over capacity
Annually fluctuating enrollments
Mix of student body
Admissions policies and practices
Institutional image
Graduate education
Develop recommendations for optimizing student retention
Identify a preferred student profile and develop strategies for
recruiting this student body
Identify institutional vulnerabilities and develop recommendations for
addressing these issues
Recommend a cumulative and longitudinal student tracking model
Assess institutional policies and procedures as they affect enrollment
management
Develop timeline
The Committee members are: Dr. Bennett F. Berhow, Mr. Darrell C. Davis,
Dr. Michael A. Dianna, Ms. Amy H. Dmitzak, Ms. Patricia Hopson-Shelton,
Dr. Gary R. Hovinen, Mr. David L. Myer, Mr. Joseph E. Revelt, Dr. Larry N.
Reinking, Dr. Judi M. Roller (Chair), Dr. Beverly E. Schneller, Ms. Linda
A. Suskie, and Dr. Robert O. Thomas.
At this point, the Committee is actively seeking faculty input on its
charge, both through the schools and the Faculty Senate. The Senate
subcommittee on Admissions, Advisement and Student Affairs has recommended
the distribution of this brief update and discussion at Senate as the best
procedure to seek your assistance. Specifically, we are asking for your
ideas, observations, suggestions, concerns, and experiences regarding the
following issues, as well as those delineated earlier; particularly as
they affect the classroom:
Student retention and graduation rates, particularly for students of
color
Over-subscribed and under-subscribed majors
Admissions policies and practices
Preferred student profile
Attached is a list of questions the Committee initially used to guide its
charge that may be helpful information and we would appreciate your
comments on these questions as well. The Committee has thus far heard
presentations on student demographics from Institutional Research, an
Admissions presentation on its policies and activities, and a report on
student retention and persistence. The Steering Committee has also
established three sub-committees on student focus groups, over-subscribed
and under-subscribed majors, and student retnetion.
The committee members and I look forward to your input and discussion.
QUESTIONS
Marketing, Pre-Admissions and Admission
What are our marketing and recruitment strategies and are they
effective?
Are current admissions criteria appropriate? Should criteria vary
based on students intended majors?
What are the policies governing admission as an undeclared major and
are they appropriate?
Student Assessment Services
Are current methods of placement testing effective?
Which support services, including, but not limited to, financial aid,
ACE, Act 101/PACE, Resident Life, Academic Advisement, and Orientation,
are effective in enhancing student success and retention and why?
How effective are we at academic advising and how does it affect
student enrollment?
Why are students taking longer and/or taking more than the required
amount of credit to earn a degree?
How should outcomes-based assessment integrate with enrollment
management?
Retention
What are job placement rates by major?
What are our interventions and outreach efforts?
Strategic Planning
What are the university's goals for student enrollment?
How has our student body changed over the last five years and how has
the institution effected and/or responded to these changes?
Which factors affecting the unviersity's student enrollment are most
likely to change over the next five years and how?
What is the present procedure for projecting enrollments and how might
it be improved?
What is the present and future role of the enrollment projection
group?
How do Enrollment Bands, Out-of-State Restrictions, and other
artificial constraints affect our mix of students?
What is the optimum size for our freshman and transfer population?
What are our various sub-populations of students; what are appropriate
mixes of these populations; and what are their needs? How effectively are
these needs being met?
What are the university's over-enrolled and under-enrolled majors,
given current huma, physical, and fiscal resources and how should these
enrollments be managed?
What is the unviersity's "niche"?
How will distance learning initiatives affect enrollment?
How will enrollment management be integrated with the unviersity's
mission and strategic goals and themes?
Recommendations
What recommendations should be made based on the findings and how
should they be implemented.
This document is heavily indebted to Peter T. Ewell, Recruitment,
Retention, and Student Flow: A Comprehensive Approach to Enrollment
Management Research, MCHEMS Monograph #7, 1985 as well as to
enrollment management inititatives at Wright State University (Dayton,
Ohio) and the University of Hawaii.
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