Stanley E. Henderson University of Michigan-Dearborn

How to Speak SEM-ese Challenges and Leadership in Enrollment Management
Stanley E. Henderson University of Michigan-Dearborn MACRAO 2014 Annual Conference November 5, 2014

Introducing Stanley Henderson
Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Life, University of Michigan-Dearborn since 2005 Began in Admissions at Michigan State in 1970, went on to Wichita State, Western Michigan, University of Cincinnati, University of Illinois AACRAO’s first VP for Enrollment Management (1990); President ( ); Distinguished Service Award (2007), Founders Award for Leadership (2008) Co-founder of SEM conference in 1991 (one of only three people to have attended every SEM); wrote first history of SEM; most quoted on the “Academic Context” of SEM; SEM Lifetime Achievement Award (2014) BA from Michigan State, MA from Cornell, doctoral course work at Illinois Once called “Dad to 9000 students.” Ask anything about US Presidents! How to Speak “SEM-ese”

SEM-ese is like Chinese: 4 Definitions for Each Character, Depending on the Inflection
While those of us in Enrollment Management are speaking from the SEM text, which brings insight to enrollment issues and offers significant assistance, including leveraging existing staff... It would be the rare enrollment manager who had never thought about how there always seems to be an academic solution to every problem on campus Provosts, deans, and the faculty all see issues through an academic lens and formulate resolutions on their terms without regard for—or even inclusion of—others’ perspectives

The Result: The Academic Tower of Enrollment Babel
Academic departments hire new advisors or staff that will continue to do what hasn’t worked Faculty design new programs that will attract the few while ignoring SEM’s sure winners and insisting that “Admissions should visit high schools!” Academic policies seek maximum penalties instead of teachable moments for offenses students don’t understand Deans and chairs ignore the role their actions have played in enrollment shortfalls and expect SEM practitioners to fix things they were excluded from in the first place

SEM-ese Interpreters: Translating Our Language into an Academic Context
We need to know grammar and structure of SEM-ese The context The theory The template The practice We also need to know what gives it inflection and makes it come alive Service Collaboration Culture Partnerships Community

The Challenges of Context Off Campus and On

What Shapes the EM Environment?
Demographic shifts Changing economics of higher education The public policy and the legal environment The changing competition The “Information Age” The “Communication Age”

Impact of 2014 Midterm Elections and a GOP Congress
Good news: less regulation Bad news: less money for research and student aid Opposition to executive action agenda re: For-profit college industry Push for college ratings system Democrats agenda de-emphasized Allowing student loan borrowers to lower their interest rates Holding colleges accountable for high default rates Further clamp-down on for profits AACRAO, 2014 How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Impact of the 2014 Midterm Elections in the Senate
New chair of Education Committee in the Senate will be Lamar Alexander of Tennessee His main higher ed agenda: Deregulate it! Will drive reauthorization of the Higher Education Act What to expect: Staunch opponent of Obama accountability agenda Likely to shift accreditors away from regulatory compliance Supporter of streamlining student aid; could see simplified federal student aid form AACRAO, 2014 How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Redefining Higher Ed Industrial Age Information Age Teaching franchise
Information infrastructure as a support tool Separate learning systems Silos Bureaucratic systems Rigid pre-designed processes Information Age Learning franchise Information infrastructure as instrument of transformation Fused learning systems Big tent Self-informing, self-correcting systems Families of transactions customized to needs of learners, faculty, staff

Consider Elements of Campus Culture
Unpacking Campus Culture Pervasive attitude to not be content to rest on past success Sense of inclusiveness on the part of all members of the campus community as opposed to just an institution A strongly held sense of mission that recognizes the campus as “distinctive” or “special.” “The people are special.” A Matter of Culture and Leadership: Student Success in State Colleges and Universities, AASCU, 2005

Unpacking Culture – Setting High Expectations
A culture of high expectations is a culture of mutual expectations. Student success is up to students. Set high expectations for students. “People don’t rise to low expectations.” We cannot just hold students to high standards. We must also do everything in our power to provide them with the support they need to succeed and to build students’ sense of personal responsibility for their achievement. Leaders need to set high targets for faculty and staff performance. They need to set targets that actually can be met, provide support and example to meet them, then raise the bar another notch. A culture that succeeds like this is always in dynamic balance. A Matter of Culture and Leadership: Student Success in State Colleges and Universities, AASCU, 2005

The Corporate University
Our campuses are being “corporatized” by business practices, a drive for efficiency, intrusion of portfolios that have non-student-centered viewpoints— all couched in terms of “professionalizing” the campus Hierarchical leadership models concentrate decision-making in senior leadership without input from those in the trenches who understand the issues and student needs Deliver or else management requires results NOW The impact on us as enrollment professionals is that we are as much at risk as Brady Hoke if we don’t have that perfect recruitment season—the only difference is that if he’s fired, he gets a multi-million dollar payout How to Speak “SEM-ese”

The Dispensable Staff There is a concerning faculty/staff divide where increasingly staff are likened to the wheels on a wagon—necessary but easily replaced Staff with operational responsibilities in running offices are upbraided if they fall behind the on campus projects that dedicated academic staff can devote full time to Deans meet to discuss enrollment planning without representatives of the enrollment units present A view that “we will decide and you will implement” “Our new program is stalled in the Registrar’s Office” As a result, there is a sense of marginalization among many staff, a sense of almost being disrespected How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Enrollment Management is an Institutional Balancing Act
Meeting Enrollment Goals Improving Quality Increasing Diversity Ensuring Access and Affordability Increasing Net Tuition Revenue Increasing Retention & Graduation Rates Improving Student Learning Outcomes

Theory: Guiding Principles for the SEM Ethos

STRATEGIC Enrollment Management
Comprehensive process Achieving and maintaining optimal recruitment, retention, and graduation rates Optimum defined in academic context Institution-wide process that touches every aspect of institutional function and culture Academics are an umbrella concept M. Dolence, 1993

Shared Responsibility
If SEM reflects institutional identity, culture, it becomes an institution-wide strategy owned by each member of the community No individual or office is responsible for enrollment strategy or outcomes Each member of community takes responsibility for nurturing SEM Ethos

Integrated Institutional Planning
As an academic enterprise, SEM can be easily integrated into institutional planning If it’s academically centered, SEM will be a defining part of institutional positioning If SEM isn’t part of strategic planning, not much can be accomplished

Focus on Service In SEM Ethos processes and procedures are more important than structure Academic foundation dictates business practices Business practices need to be aligned with academic mission Institutions want to test students’ talents in the classroom, not their patience in navigating institutional business practices

Students’ Seamless View
Students see enrollment as a seamless process, not as a railroad track with multiple station stops Enrollment is non-stop rather than stop and go (or even one-stop) SEM is a big tent view of student expectations: everything is there, but they don’t want to touch what they don’t need

Intuitive Service It doesn’t matter if it makes sense to us: does it make sense to the students? Why is the student in the institution? The only way he/she stays in school is for an academic reason Retention is academic success Processes and procedures should enhance academic success

Key Performance Indicators
Enrollment managers struggle with notion of KPIs as indices of institutional health In reality, KPIs are placeholders for institutional values Bodies, not student fit, approach is out of synch with the academic values of the institution If the enrollment manager has an academic understanding of the place, KPIs set themselves

Research and Evaluation
With SEM Ethos SEM has to have research and evaluation plan SEM staff are “people people” More and more industry standard is data and research—tools of the academy SEM units cannot continue to do “feel good” programs that can’t show support for academic goals

SEM for the Long Haul SEM is long-term and never finished
Academic foundation is fluid; so must SEM be Academic disciplines change with new research, new paradigms, new interests Changes cannot be instantaneous There needs to be a run up to the take-off point SEM must follow the deliberate path of the long-term academic, not the quick fix of the repairman

The SEM Blueprint: A Refocusing of SEM

The Elusive SEM Template
Every enrollment manager wants one We all say it doesn’t exist, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach It’s not very helpful to tell the young enrollment manager that she has to get to know her institution In fact, the SEM Ethos does provide a template

Template: Academic Leadership
Leadership articulates the strategic academic aspirations, goals, needs, and strategies of faculty and students If the CEO says, “Enrollment is paramount,” and fails to say, “to the academic mission,” EM fails All must understand that academic well-being is linked to enrollment health

Template: Integrated Planning
enrollment management (lower case) is just managing enrollments STRATEGIC Enrollment Management (upper case) happens when SEM unit planning and strategies are integrated with the institution’s strategic plan, academic master plan, and its fundamental (academic) mission

Template: Lateral Communication
Top-down communication is necessary to set the tone, but successful implementation of SEM requires lateral communication across campus SEM needs lateral communication to ensure adherence to the institution’s academic ethos Colleges to enrollment units and enrollment units to colleges: the tentacles of an octopus Communication has to become a part of the culture; it has to express the ethos of the place

Template: Structure for Participation
The institutional academic ethos will set the structure to provide a means for faculty, staff, and students to contribute to SEM SEM structure grows out of the core of an individual institution; it cannot be transplanted from institution X or Y The structure cannot be more important than the cultural foundation itself

Template: Matching Structure to Mission
A community college may have a campus-wide structure The research extensive university may have multiple structures in academic units The wise enrollment manager will seek to know the academic grounding of the institution and then seek a structure based on that foundation

Applying the SEM TEMPLATE The Faces of SEM
Integrating Structure, Planning, Leadership, and Community

Structural/Managerial Face of SEM
Focuses on the structure and management of those departments and functions formally charged with achieving the institution’s enrollment goals SEM decisions focus on optimal resource allocation to achieve enrollment goals Marketing and recruitment priorities Need-based versus merit-based FA packaging Course offerings and scheduling Service efficiency – One-Stop Processing of academic policy Student intervention initiatives

Planning Face of SEM Focuses on the outward- and forward-looking at activities that guide the institution’s pursuit of its preferred future in a constantly changing and competitive environment Focuses on long-range planning and institution-wide strategy development New curricula & academic programs Facilities development and renovation Marketing and image campaigns Investments in technology Pricing decisions Retention planning programs (early alert interventions, first year seminar, learning communities, support services, academic advising, etc.)

Leadership Face of SEM Focuses on leadership as a shared responsibility—occurring at all levels and deeply embedded in the way the institution works as on organization on a day-to-day basis No silos Enabling leadership at multiple levels Servant leadership Engender trust Communicate purpose Motivate people

The Human Face of SEM In an institution, there is always a policy, a rule, a faculty culture, or an answer In a community, we must look beyond the policies and the history to find what benefits individual students and the community itself The Community of SEM is about building relationships; understanding how to create, nurture, and appreciate relationships will help the enrollment manager to structure, plan, and lead SEM This is the Human Face of SEM, integrating the other faces into the Community of SEM that emphasizes Student Success through services and inclusion in a culture of participation and contribution

Putting Humanity into Each SEM Face
The community of SEM can harness the broader culture and broaden the academic solution syndrome by ensuring that there is a human face in each of SEM’s traditional three faces. Structure should facilitate seamless service and create open channels for feedback and foster creativity. Planning should understand that data are critical only insofar as they improve service and contribute to the cradle to endowment concept of student success, and… Leadership must be willing to lose itself in followership How to Speak “SEM-ese”

The Community of SEM… Requires an understanding of the complex dynamics that shape the university’s culture as well as its enrollment profile Requires a focus not on individual functional and departmental silos but on the entire enrollment process as service for success Requires keeping the emphasis on student success through the enrollment continuum

Continued Cultivation
General Prospects Inquiries Applicants Depositors Enrollees Continuing Students ACTIONS Specific Graduates Alumni Continued Cultivation

Recruitment / Marketing Co-curricular support
SEM Planning Recruitment / Marketing Classroom experience Co-curricular support Degree/goal attainment Orientation Student’s college career Financial support Academic support Admission Retention Alumni Numbers are often the beginning point in enrollment discussions, but in reality, the issue is enabling students to be successful. If you deliver on that goal, the numbers will take care of themselves. Often EM structures are limited to admission and transition programs, and to me those functions are closely tied to academics. But in the culture of higher education – especially research universities -- that is not a widely held view. Stretching Oregon State – gain additional inroads into academics by increasing the number of points at which we address an explicitly academic agenda. Importance Recruitment: perceived academic quality Retention: connections with faculty Credibility: more than just student services Turning the enrollment funnel on its side…..to express progression forward….and emphasize the multi-dimensional processes that exist.

Moving from the traditional enrollment management perspective….
Traditional Enrollment Perspective Classroom experience Co-curricular support Recruitment / Marketing Degree/goal attainment Orientation Student’s Experiences Financial support Academic support Admission Retention Alumni Numbers are often the beginning point in enrollment discussions, but in reality, the issue is enabling students to be successful. If you deliver on that goal, the numbers will take care of themselves. Often EM structures are limited to admission and transition programs, and to me those functions are closely tied to academics. But in the culture of higher education – especially research universities -- that is not a widely held view. Stretching Oregon State – gain additional inroads into academics by increasing the number of points at which we address an explicitly academic agenda. Importance Recruitment: perceived academic quality Retention: connections with faculty Credibility: more than just student services

…to a fully integrated Strategic Enrollment Management perspective.
The SEM Perspective Classroom experience Co-curricular support Degree/goal attainment Recruitment / Marketing Orientation Student’s Experiences Financial support Academic support Admission Retention Alumni Numbers are often the beginning point in enrollment discussions, but in reality, the issue is enabling students to be successful. If you deliver on that goal, the numbers will take care of themselves. Often EM structures are limited to admission and transition programs, and to me those functions are closely tied to academics. But in the culture of higher education – especially research universities -- that is not a widely held view. Stretching Oregon State – gain additional inroads into academics by increasing the number of points at which we address an explicitly academic agenda. Importance Recruitment: perceived academic quality Retention: connections with faculty Credibility: more than just student services

Setting Enrollment Goals: The Classic Conundrum
All may want better students Administration may want more students Faculty usually want fewer students Departments may be reducing capacity Access vs. Quality

Important Reminders SEM is… Mission and niche based
Subject to organizational history Dependent on expertise of available staff About collaboration, not org charts As we talked about earlier Structures left-over from the past

SEM is a Journey SEM requires systems thinking
SEM requires strategic thinking SEM is resource hungry and it is all about ROI SEM is growth by substitution (can’t do it unless you take something away) SEM Math (2 + 3 = 7)

Strategic Enrollment Management at Work in an Academic World
The Practice Strategic Enrollment Management at Work in an Academic World

Our Every Day Reality in Student Success
There is abundant evidence that students are not as engaged as we would like There is also evidence that students are not as engaged during the first year of college as they thought they would be! Levels of performance in high DWFI rate courses should be a cause for embarrassment and action, especially in mathematics There is still too much unacceptable attrition There is much instability in the viability and leadership of retention of Student Success “programs”

Our Every Day Reality in Student Success
The response of the academy to the challenges of Student Success has been primarily to design “programs” rather than a more comprehensive institutional response We are competing for ever scarcer resources in a larger society that does not currently share our values And we are competing for students’ most precious of resources: their time, energies, attention, priorities, discretionary monies—Success in college vis a vis their jobs, families, pursuits of pleasures, busy demanding lives

What Will It Take to Build Success?
Core values that support a set of assumptions about a comprehensive, integrated, and coordinated approach Programs and services designed with intentionality, purpose, integration of effort, service efficiency, and positive interventions with students Integrated cross-campus collaborations and partnerships between faculty, staff, and administration Use of assessment and data for informed decision making Understanding of how campus cultures impact enrollment management efforts

But Remember… There are NO SILVER BULLETS! There is no template, one-size-fits-all model that ensures student success Campuses have to move from “enrollment by chance” to “enrollment by design” To do that, strategic enrollment planning has to first understand and then become part of the culture of the entire campus Only then can there be clear goals and efforts for optimal enrollment to fulfill institutional mission and services and programs to improve student learning and success

Defining Moments of the Millennials Experience
Oklahoma City bombing Schoolyard shootings OJ Simpson arrest Columbine Contested presidential election 9/11 and the War on Terror 2 sets of parents, 4 sets of grandparents Technology pervasive How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Common Experiences Shape Common Values
Special Sheltered Family-oriented Confident Team-oriented Conventional Pressured Achieving How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Millennial College Students…
Have “helicopter parents” who will scrutinize what goes on in the classroom and on campus Assume they will be successful Expect one-on-one attention that “no child left behind” instills Expect technology to be integrated into the classroom How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Millennials’ Behavior
Perceive greater danger and less reward in being creatively different Are risk averse Want and expect team teaching and team grading of team projects Are less likely to “cheat” but may have difficulty defining “cheating”—is it plagiarism or is it information morphing? Expect and want high academic standards but also expect A’s How to Speak “SEM-ese”

How to Sweet-Talk Millennials
“You’ll be working with other bright, creative people.” “Your professor is in his/her late sixties” (the later, the better!). “You and your team can help turn this place around/accomplish this task/finish this project.” “You can be a hero here.” How to Speak “SEM-ese”

How Different Are the Millennials?
When they see wire-rimmed glasses, they think Harry Potter, not John Lennon “Press pound” on the phone is now translated as “hit hashtag.” Celebrity “selfies” are far cooler than autographs. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has always been the only news program that really “gets it right.” Hard liquor has always been advertised on television. Hong Kong has always been part of China Courts have always been overturning bans on same-sex marriages. Joe Camel has never introduced one of them to smoking. How to Speak “SEM-ese”

The Millennials’ World
Yet another blessing of digital technology: They have never had to hide their dirty magazines under the bed. Attending schools outside their neighborhoods, they gather with friends on Skype, not in their local park. Affirmative Action has always been outlawed in California. “Good feedback” means getting 30 likes on your last Facebook post in a single afternoon. Their collection of U.S. quarters has always celebrated the individual states. Since Toys R Us created a toy registry for kids, visits to Santa are just a formality. Beloit College, 2014 How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Guess Who’s NOT Going to College?
Among high achievers from low-income families, 75% went to college but only 29% graduated Among high achievers from high-income families, 99% went to college and 74% graduated

Hopes Delayed Among the best-prepared American high school students: 20% of those from low-income families don’t go directly on to college Among high achievers from high-income families, only 3% don’t enter college right away

The Changing College Student
Hispanic students will increase from a 9.3% share of public high school graduates in 1994 to nearly 20% in 2014. White students will decline as a percentage of the high school graduating class, going from 72.4% to 58% in the same time period WICHE, 2003

The Faces of the New Students
Minority share of high school grads has grown from about 7 percent in 1960 to 31 percent by 2002 and Will grow further to 45 percent by 2018. Mortenson When the Boomer Echo peaks at 3.2 million high school grads in , 80% of the growth from the beginning of the 21st century will be students of color.

New Students: A Profile in Barriers
Over 16% of the entering class each year will come from families with annual incomes under $20,000 The New Students will be the first in their families to go to college Many will come from academically weak schools How to Speak “SEM-ese”

First Generation Students
34% of 5-17 year olds in the US are considered first generation students 41% of those are African-American 61% are Latino 23% are white NCES, 2012

82% of non-first generation students enrolled in US colleges immediately after high school 54% of first generation students whose parents finished high school enrolled immediately 36% of those whose parents had less than a high school education enrolled immediately Choy, NCES, 2001

50% of students in US higher education are first generation 30% (5.6 million) of US college freshmen are first generation 24% (4.5 million) are first generation and low income More than 25% of those will leave after their first years Only 11% will eventually graduate Whereas 55% of higher income, first generation students will And 78% of higher income, second generation student will US Department of Education, 2010

The average age of enrollment for first-generation college students is 22, compared to 20 for students who are not first generation 54% of first-generation students were financially on their own, while only 27% of students who were not first generation had full financial responsibility for themselves 30% of first generation students had dependents with 11 percent being single parents, while only 14% of non-first generation students had dependents and only 4% were single parents. Concordia University-Online, 2009

Latino/a Students Between 2000 and 2012 the states with the fastest growing Latino population were: Tennessee up 163% South Carolina up 161% Alabama up 157% Kentucky up 135% South Dakota up 132% Saenz, 2014 How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Latinos in the US 2014 54.1 million 17% of US population
35.5% foreign born Nearly half live in California and Texas Two thirds live in California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois Median age is 27; nationally it’s 37 Every year an estimated 600,000 Latinos turn 18 Saenz, 2014 How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Latinos in College In California in % of Latino high school graduates were eligible for admission to the CU OR the CSU systems; for Latinas it was 33% This means that 77% of Latinos and 67% of Latinas were eligible ONLY for the California community college system In Texas 8.9% of Latino eighth graders earn a higher education credential in 11 years 7.7% of African-American eighth graders earn a higher education credential in 11 years 16% of all eighth graders earn a higher education credential in 11 years Saenz, 2014 How to Speak “SEM-ese”

What’s Happening to our Latino boys?
Over-representation in special ed Over-representation in school discipline pipeline Under-resourced schools, novice teachers, leadership turnover, systemic inequalities Fewer males in teaching ranks Disparate learning styles are not considered Saenz, 2014 How to Speak “SEM-ese”

A Generation Abandoned
They will not be students who have traditionally been represented in American higher education What will be the response to them by our admissions officers embedded in enrollment management? How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Building Rankings, not Futures
The Academy Awards of higher education Lobbying the rankers Mailed ads How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Tools and Accomplices: The Usual Suspects
Early admission Out-of-state admission at public institutions High school counselors and their trophy schools Helicopter parents and their Christmas card kids How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Raising Our Profile vs. Growing Our Leaders
Abandoning the marginally prepared to raise the academic profile Screening out with traditional measures Higher education as the hospital that doesn’t want anyone too sick Excellence measured by diversity or academic quality: Are they mutually exclusive? How to Speak “SEM-ese”

A New SEM Agenda: Beating Back Barriers
Begin early with providing information and support related to going to college Embrace families’/communities’ social and cultural values that support achievement and college aspirations Create school structure that facilitates supportive relationships with caring adults, mentors, and peers with postsecondary aspirations Empower parents to advocate for their children How to Speak “SEM-ese”

Who’s Job Is It Anyway? Retention officer, yes, but where does he/she reside? Academic Affairs? The faculty have the most contact with the student Student Affairs? Over 50% of what you learn in college is learned outside of class

It’s a Partnership The faculty need to take responsibility for engaging the student, whether in the co-curriculum, the academic realm of the classroom, or experiential learning The student life professional needs to take responsibility for the academic success of students—every student activity or organization is an enrollment unit

The Blended Outlook Enrollment Management is a quintessentially academic enterprise Still, at the end of the day, it is about individual student academic success And it is supported by administrative changes to policies and procedures that make it difficult for students to navigate the campus

The Sex Appeal of Recruitment
Campuses obsess over freshmen numbers The glitz and glamour of recruitment lives in the fast lane Retention is the gray lady of enrollment management Enrollment Management as the tortoise and the hare—steady wins the race

The Value of Value Autopsy studies always show students leave for academic, financial, or personal reasons. These may be placeholders for students’ perceptions that they are not getting enough value for the time, money, effort they are putting in Price elasticity studies show cost is not as important in decision as perceived value

Build Value and They Will Stay
The enrollment management agenda should be directed at what leads students to perceive value in their education Value provides a new definition of retention built around what motivates students Perhaps the high ability, third generation student can more readily see value in school; hence more go, and more stay

Service as Retention Retention improvement comes from improved business practices B. Bontrager Seamless enrollment processes provide perception of value Let students’ talents be challenged in the classroom rather than have their patience tested in navigating the institutional bureaucracy

Engagement as Retention
Involvement redefined What keeps the student going to class, doing the assignments, passing the tests? For some, extracurricular activities For others, internships and co-op For still others, undergraduate research For a few, study abroad Don’t forget what they do in their community—how can that be harnessed to the campus?

Linking Recruitment and Retention
Market student engagement through individualized opportunities to capture student interest Guarantee student engagement Study retention rates by individual high schools: where they fall below the class average, gear recruitment to retention services

Building Buy-in to Value
Parents want to be reassured they sent their student to the right place—tell them that regularly, at least during the freshman year If the student is unhappy or unfocussed, the parents who have been told repeatedly they did the right thing may be more likely to support the student in staying the course

Retention for More Than a Day
Data identifies and tracks the at-risk groups Research identifies the services that can keep students successful Recruiting for retention identifies and admits the students most likely to match the institutional Ethos and to succeed Service helps retention

MERGERS AND PARTNERS Through the SEM Lens
Improving service as a template for partnership development. Reviewing processes and procedures on an annual basis. Building a culture of education, not regulation. Cross-training and blending.

STRATEGY ISSUES Academic offerings and support services Marketing
Security Buildings and grounds—the Million Dollar Walk Student services and activities Recruitment/admissions/enrollment Information technology KPIs/data/research/evaluation

Student Success, not Retention
Retention is clinical rather than aspirational Retention is merely a measurement, a benchmark of educational attainment And often, as John Gardner would argue, a minimum one at that: Retention is a C- and a pulse, the ability to fog a mirror Retention restrains us, limits our vision and our capacity for creativity and excellence

Recent trends in Student Success Best Practices
Use of technology to track and monitor student engagement, utilization of services Starfish Early Alert and Connect MapWorks Degree audits and maps Swiping Use of data to identify risk characteristics, apply predictive modeling Matching GPA’s to graduation rates to determine where to put resources Identifying key courses for graduation Attendance

Structures Retention Office Retention Committee Student Success Alliance Executive officers or Boots-on-the-ground Staff? Policies Requiring students to take certain courses and earn certain GPAs semester by semester Reassigning majors Advising plans requiring use of career planning

State accountabilities Funding based on graduation rates Loss of state aid for repeated classes (students pay) Federal policies Lifetime limits on federal financial aid (Pell Grants, loans) Future: Loss of aid for poor graduation rates? Membership Organization services Education Advisory Board Research publications, general and customized Interest Forums: Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Business Affairs, etc. Data and analytics for end-to-end solutions

SEM Leadership: Inspiration and Perspiration
Reflections

Acknowledgements With thanks to my fellow AACRAO Senior Consultants…
Acknowledgements With thanks to my fellow AACRAO Senior Consultants… Bob Bontrager Jody Gordon Tom Green Wendy Kilgore Clayton Smith Amanda Yale

Stanley E. Henderson sehender@umich.edu
Questions & Comments Stanley E. Henderson

Stanley E. Henderson University of Michigan-Dearborn

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