I picked up the book “A New Formula for Enrollment Management” by John Maguire and Lawrence Butler over the winter break. Maguire and Butler challenge educators in higher education to find new tools that lead to enrollment and retention by building and leveraging a “community of communities.” The book is full of many gems, including tips for all kinds of colleges from small private liberal arts schools to large universities.
Here are 5 resources that resonated with me:
1. Technology. I have been researching other institutions online, and I can attest that many universities are underutilizing their IT resources, including websites, virtual campus tours, blogs, and social media. According to Maguire and Butler, “New and expanding virtual communities allow us to use technology as a way to view the experience and the vehicle for understanding the experience.” In my opinion, universities should be using technology to send a universal message and instead these technologies often appear disjointed and lack cohesion.
2. Finding Meaningful Information. Universities need to track, mine, and interpret data in order to understand the needs, opinions, preferences and patterns within the institution. Extracting meaning and insight from the data is especially challenging because we have so much information available to us. There is definitely value in the data, but I believe the biggest challenge (for myself included) is finding the qualitative as well as quantitative insights in order to understand how the university is functioning.
3. Critics. Getting to know the critics is an underutilized practice in many professions. When critics wield disproportionate influence within a community, there is an opportunity to craft initiatives directed at them. A well-known lesson in customer relations is that the most satisfied customers are often those who have experienced a problem that has been positively resolved. After learning about this, I have started looking at “problem customers” as opportunities to demonstrate our amazing services.
4. Alumni. Maguire and Butler emphasize the value and importance of communities within communities and one of the greatest (and underutilized) strengths of communities within a campus are the alumni. Communities like fraternities, athletics, orientation programs, and some departments have great capacity to build in alumni support. Some possibilities are developing alumni to be mentors, allies, tutors, and donors.
5. Front Line Troops. As a student affairs professional (who is relatively removed from the recruitment and admissions process), my interest in enrollment management is primarily in retention and graduation. A 2005 survey of college presidents found that “student retention” was the second highest concern among 29 issues facing academic institutions. Retention is everyone’s responsibility on a college campus – from the custodian to the administrator. By encouraging all employees (rather than just administrators) at an institution to focus on student success our efforts are greatly strengthened.
What are your tips for enrollment management?
Excellent article, a great deal of valuable information.