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Challenges for a Vice President for Enrollment Management

Challenges for a Vice President for Enrollment Management

A Conversation with Emeritus Vice President L. David Eaton

The role of a Vice President for Enrollment Management is more challenging than ever, requiring data-driven decision-making, strategic vision, and adaptability. A Vice President for Enrollment Management plays a crucial role in shaping a college or university’s student body, ensuring financial stability, and maintaining institutional reputation. However, the role comes with significant challenges, including shifting demographics, economic pressures, and evolving student expectations. In this Blog, we have conversations with Vice President Emeritus L. David Eaton about the key challenges a Vice President for Enrollment Management faces.

Introduction: Emeritus Vice President L. David Eaton’s career as college and university administrator spans more than four decades, the first 23 years in the field of student affairs and most recently, 22 years as the Vice President for Enrollment Management at the State University of New York at New Paltz, a position he held until his retirement on December 31st, 2020.

“The Hottest Seat on Campus” is the title of an article by Eric Hoover published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 15, 2014 that describes the high stakes position college and university chief enrollment officers occupy in a climate of increased competition, declining household incomes and declining numbers of high school graduates.  Ten years later, the continuing decline in high school graduates and financial challenges facing both families of college bound students and institutions of higher education has made the hot seat even hotter.

The first order of business for an enrollment management division is to enable the institution to pay the bills. That line of demarcation marks the difference between success and failure. Measuring outcomes across the institution from academic affairs, student affairs, and administration and finance can be complicated and opaque. Not so with enrollment management, the numbers are clear and available for all to see and the consequences of failing to meet enrollment targets ripple throughout the institution in negative ways.

Question: What were your key responsibilities as a Vice President for Enrollment Management?

Comments:   A common misperception of enrollment management is that it is primarily about admissions recruiting and marketing. It is much more comprehensive. While recruiting a full class of incoming students is an important function, retaining them and supporting them through to degree completion is equally important. It is therefore essential that an enrollment management division contains departments that directly influence retention and degree completion. It is also important that the chief enrollment officer is a member of the president’s cabinet and reports directly to the president. The Enrollment Management Division at SUNY New Paltz was comprised of the following departments:

  • Undergraduate Admission – Provides a myriad of programs and activities focused on recruiting new transfer and first-year students. Activities include attending college fairs, high school and community college visits, campus visits, managing student ambassadors, making application decisions, and customer relations management (CRM).
  • Records and Registration/Registrar – This area represents a critical interface between the institution and the student throughout their academic career. This includes making sure that the courses students need are available when they need them in order to progress toward degree completion in a timely and efficient manner.
  • Student Financial Services (financial aid) – Provides financial services to students through Federal grants and loans, scholarships, State aid, and financial advice and support which is essential to retention and degree completion.
  • The Office of Academic Advising – Serves primarily undeclared undergraduate students and provides guidance of course selection, meeting General Education requirements and selecting a major.
  • Student Accounts – Provides services to students and parents who are navigating the challenges of paying for a college education and serves as a crucial link between billing and financial aid.
  • Office of Veteran and Military Services – This area is an essential part of recruiting and retaining veterans and military affiliated family members. This is a population that has complex financial support systems and, for veterans, guidance as they face the challenges of re-entering civilian life on a college campus.

Question: What were your key challenges as a Vice President for Enrollment Management?

Comments: These are not in order of importance.

  • Developing systems for collecting and organizing longitudinal enrollment data. This includes application, acceptance and yield data, retention and degree completion data, and a comprehensive enrollment numbers.
  • Tracking admissions and enrollment data daily is critical to being able to make timely decisions based on developing trends. It is also important to share such trends with senior leadership to ensure that everyone is on the same page and to develop institutional strategies, as necessary.
  • Recruiting, training, and developing a highly capable and motivated team of direct reports who do the same in their respective departments.
  • Continuously communicating to all members of the campus community that on a college campus, enrollment management is everyone’s responsibility. This is true at all levels, from making the campus a friendly and attractive place, providing quality service and a warm and friendly atmosphere across all departments and offices, and fostering a high quality and welcoming academic environment.
  • Communicating market trends in student recruitment to senior leadership and academic deans, particularly as it relates to degree programs and concentrations.

Question:  What factors are affecting our prospective student pool?

Comments: The most prominent factor is the declining number of high school graduates caused by declining birth rates in the U.S. The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), who tracks this data on a state-by-state basis and the data indicates that high school graduate numbers will hit their peak in the mid-2020’s and then begin to decline modestly until 2037. The changing demographics very by state region, thus the enrollment challenges will vary by geographic region with the Northeast and the Midwest predicted to see the largest declines. Although the drops are modest, they will produce stress for a college and university recruitment environment where many campuses are already struggling with enrollment declines.

Question: What are the external factors affecting students’ recruitment?

Comments:

  • As the higher education community learned last year with the problematic rollout of the FAFSA, colleges and universities could not get financial aid packages to admitted students in a timely manner. This led to significant challenges for prospective students, their parents and the institutions that accepted them.
  • Another factor on the horizon that carries the potential for significant negative consequences for the higher education community is the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education. This is particularly worrisome for Federal student aid programs the offer loans and grants to college students and their families. This does not only impact new student recruitment but may negatively impact currently enrolled students who are dependent on Federal aid to remain enrolled.
  • For those of us who managed enrollments during national economic downturns, we experienced enrollment increases because pursuing a degree was an attractive choice in a weak job market. Conversely, a strong job market, like the one we have recently experienced, makes working an attractive choice for some who would otherwise pursue a college degree.
  • People have speculated about the value of a college degree. The irony here is that some of those remarks are made by successful people who have college degrees from elite universities. This debate makes more sense when coupled with the escalating cost of higher education which is a relevant factor in the choice to pursue a college degree.

Question: What are the top reasons admitted students do not enroll (yield challenges)?

Comments: Recruiting college students in a highly competitive market has a negative impact on yield. This is primarily because today’s college bound apply to multiple colleges and will only enroll at one. Systems, like SUNY, allow applicants to apply to up to seven campuses on a single application. The Common Application promotes multiple applications as well. This inflates application numbers which, in turn, reduces yield.

Prospective students that participate in a campus tour, open house, or accepted students’ day, are far more likely to enroll than those that do not. The challenge is to get accepted students to visit at some stage in the application process. This promotes what the industry calls “fit.”  Prospective students who visit multiple campuses develop feelings about which institution is the best fit for them. It is an important consideration and is difficult to influence. Each institution has its own culture and personality, and all are a good fit for some and not for others.

Cost and financial aid, including scholarships, are particularly key factors influencing yield. Building a large pool of scholarship funds is essential for leveraging yield through financial incentives. This is true for both public and private colleges and universities. Tuition discounting is a widely utilized tool for private colleges but does have negative financial consequences if not responsibly managed.

Question: How important is it for a Vice President of Enrollment Management to have a mentor?

Comments: It is important for all professionals to have a mentor. Mentors influenced and enhanced our own careers from our entry level positions, through middle management, to executive level jobs. Mentors can be former colleagues, colleagues, supervisors, former supervisors, friends, and executive coaches. Twenty-two years as a vice president for enrollment management with an exceptionally successful record, provides me with the breadth of experiences that may be useful in providing mentorship and coaching to a more junior level vice president. Furthermore, in the extremely challenging emerging enrollment management environment, enrollment management vice presidents would welcome professional coaching and mentorship.

Thank you, David.