Name: Reinventing The Post Admission Process Recording
Uploaded: 2026-05-29T16:56:49.412Z
Duration: 59 min 16 s
Description: Reinventing The Post Admission Process Recording

Transcript for "Reinventing The Post Admission Process Recording": It's an existential moment for so many enrollment leaders. There's extraordinary pressure on top of the pressures that the job normally brings. That's a recent quote from Angel Perez. Many of you may know him. He's the head of the National Association for College Admission Counseling or NACAC. Angel was talking to our Eric Hoover not long ago about Angel's new book, which was published, this year. And the title kinda sums up what we were just talking about, the the moment for many in admissions enrollment in this time right now. The title of that book is the hottest seat on campus, a roadmap for mastering leadership in college admission. You know, today, we'll talk about some of those challenges that Ontell certainly is talking about when it comes to, what enrollment folks are facing, but we're gonna try and offer some solutions as well. Solutions specifically around, the the post admissions phase of the process. Once students have made that deposit and made something of a commitment to a college, how do you make sure they arrive on campus come the fall curbing that growing problem of summer melt that we all know so well? How do you connect those students to student, to student academic affairs, make that handoff, between the two as the folks come to campus? And how do you do this while sitting in that room over the hot seat that Angel was talking about? So I look forward to hearing from all of you about that. I'm Ian Wilhelm, an editor of The Chronicle. I'm a be your moderator for this session today. Really appreciate all of you joining here. We know you're all very busy. We've got a great panel to discuss, today's topic and also offer some advice and ideas. And, again, I hope some solutions that you all can use on your campus. I look forward to hearing from my panel. Of course, I look forward to hearing from all of you out there in our audience as well. Please do take the time and let us know in the q and a some questions or comments you have about the topic. We really do appreciate that. Hope to include as many of those questions as well as comments in today's session as I can. If we don't get to them, don't worry. We do read all of them. They really do help inform our coverage as well as we look at the challenges facing admissions and enrollment folks at different types of institutions. So, again, don't be shy. Let us know what you're thinking. Put your, your thoughts, your comments, your advice for others into the q and a. It'll be really valuable to the chronicle, and I'm sure it'll be valuable to everybody here as well. I wanna thank our sponsor for today's session as well, and that's at QED Insight. Really appreciate their support for the chronicle in this session as well as others we've done. About halfway through today's panel discussion, we're gonna hear from Kelly Dorr, who's cofounder and vice president of science and innovation at Acuity. She's also an adjunct associate professor in the department of medicine in the division of education and innovation at McMaster University in Canada. So I look forward to hearing from Kelly. She'll be talking with my colleague, Liz McMillan. They'll be talking for about seven to eight minutes, and halfway through today's conversation. Afterward, we'll return to the panel conversation and go to the end of the hour. Now let me, now introduce my panelists. I'm gonna, introduce them, by alphabetical order by last name and ask them that they come on screen. As I do, we have first w Kent Barnes, executive vice president for strategy and innovation and VP for enrollment at Augustana College in Illinois. Next is Emily Ingleshaw, associate vice chancellor for enrollment services at the University of California at Riverside. Next is Chad Spencer, vice president of enrollment enrollment management at Center College in Kentucky. Thank you all so very much for being here. As we were saying at the beginning, you all are in the hot seat a little bit, these days as always. So I really appreciate taking the time out to be here for this hour and discuss the topic at hand. I think if we'd start off by asking each of you, how's enrollment going at your college? I don't mean just the numbers. I certainly wanna hear a little bit how this fall has gone, given the challenges of the demographic cliff and all the things, around higher education right now. But also just to give a sense to the folks in the audience a little bit since the profile of your institution, the student body that you draw on, that you bring, together on your campus to let them know a little bit about the context that you're drawing from. And, Kent, if you don't mind, I'll ask you to do that for Augustana to start off with. Sure. Well, thank you, Ian, and thanks for the Chronicle and Acuity for this opportunity. So I I work at Augustana College. We're a a smallish a smallish college in Rock Island, Illinois. We have an enrollment of about 2,500 students, private institution. And, the fall's off to a good start. We have rebounded to pre pandemic levels of enrollment, which is terrific. Augustana is a place that draws from most of The US and we have students from about 50 countries. Probably something that stands out is about one out of every five of our students, is an international student. So even though we've rebounded to pre pandemic levels, we were like many institutions and probably hear from both Emily and Chad that the three and a half week visa interview delay this summer, did impact us. And, we had about 20% fewer international students in our entering class, still a large number. And then it's a 140 of an entering class of about 680, but it was a smaller class than than last year. So the good news is we made up a little bit in the, domestic market, which was was terrific to improve on the challenges. But both off to a great start. So that that's a a quick introduction. I should also just mention, I've I've been at Augustana in my twenty first year, and this is year 34 overall in the work team. And as you described, Ian, the the hot seat. I appreciate that, Ken, in that description. Certainly, and maybe we may have some questions about international students may come up today given the challenges there for one. Emily, I wanna bring you in. Obviously, you're at a different type of institution, a larger institution than Alexander, public institution. Folks are probably familiar with the UC system. Can you talk a little bit about how you're gonna fit within that system and a little bit how you, would describe, Riverside in terms of its student, cohort that it's bringing in? Yeah. Sure. Absolutely. And, happy to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation. Really looking forward to today's conversation. Yeah. So the University of California Riverside, obviously, part of, the UC system. We, have, a student body, of about 27,000 total students on our campus, and that has recently grown. I'll I'll talk about that in a in a second when I talk about how fall looks like for us. Of our 27,000 total students, about 24,000 of them are are undergraduate. Our breakdown is primarily, California students. We have about 95% of our student body is from within the state of California. About 5% are nonresident, and that combines both, our out of state population as well as our international population. In terms of the demographics, about 87% of our students, receive some sort of financial aid, to come to UCR. So whether that be Pell Grants, Cal Grants, institutional grants, federal student loan, 87% of our of our students are receiving some some form of aid. About 48% of our student population is Pell eligible. We're about fifty percent first generation. So, that is those are two stats that that really do kind of set us apart from some of the other, UC campuses that that some of you may be familiar with. Low income students, about 37%. So, so a really, diverse, student population that we're serving about, roughly 41% of our student population is, considered an underrepresented minority. We have, for our fall, we actually enrolled close to 8,300 new students this fall. That includes first year and transfer students. Transfer students make up about a quarter of our entering student population. That's a 23% increase from what we saw in fall twenty twenty four, and that was incredibly intentional on our part. It was about 1,600 additional students we brought in in comparison to fall twenty twenty four, and that was because our our enrollment had been fairly flat for the last several years. And we have growth aspirations, and so we intentionally, made the decision to make up, some of the enrollment growth that we had not experienced in the last several years, and we did it all in one fell swoop. And our intention is to stay at this level moving forward. So, it was an interesting false start for us. We were definitely, prepared for it, and I and, I I do think our students ended up having a a pretty good experience, given, you know, both the large class that we brought in. So that's a little bit about UC Riverside. And I appreciate that brief introduction to it. And certainly, I think some of the questions I may be asking today, I wanna think about thinking about that, couple of those statue missions, specifically the fifty percent first generation. It's a really notable one and just talk about how that may kind of, inform how you kind of communicate, especially as we talked about the post admissions process and whether it brings anything new to to think about when it comes to that. Chad, you're got again, you're different than, UC Riverside for sure. Smaller institution, more like Augustana in some ways, but make sure folks and myself know exactly kind of the context that you're talking about for your institution, how enrollment's going in in the students that you draw to your your your campus. Right. Thank you, Ian. And thank you for inviting me to be a part of the conversation today. And congratulations to Emily and Kent on really successful years last year. Those of us sitting in this hot seat understand how difficult that can be right now. So congratulations. Center can be very accurately described as a traditional liberal arts college and that we are a place of 1,400 students. We are entirely undergraduate. We are nearly entirely residential with 99% of students living here on our campus in Danville, Kentucky. We are a place that has long prided itself on serving the Commonwealth that is Kentucky, and more than 50% of our students come from right here in states. That means about 40 to 43% of them are coming from other states, and we have an international population of about six to 7% of the 1,400 students with us on campus. We are in a phase of, I'd call it, modest growth. You know, our aspiration is to be a place of about 1,500 students. So we're not far from reaching that goal, and we've had we've strung together a a couple of successful years. I arrived in summer of twenty twenty three. Like, Kent and Emily have been doing this work a long time, about twenty seven years in total for me. I've also served as a director of financial aid, and I only mentioned that because center is one of those places that also prides itself on the idea of access and affordability despite a hefty sticker price. We are a four year private liberal arts institution after all, but we are about twenty two percent first generation. Here, we are nearly 30% Pell grant recipients. That's a bit of a departure from the numbers you'd see if you were to look at pre COVID Center College. Our population has shifted a bit, but what hasn't changed is that this is a place that's fortunate and that it attracts high achieving, talented students, and they're coming to us from across the socioeconomic spectrum. So it is one of those places that has dedicated and committed the resources to making an affordable option for as many of those high achieving talented students as possible. This year, we're off to a nice start in terms of the application volumes we're seeing from across populations. If we're to break those out into Kentuckians, other states and international populations, all of those continue to increase. We, like Kent, did encounter some challenges with international student enrollment into this most recent entering class largely due to some visa challenges for those students who are hoping to join us this fall. But, otherwise, feeling good about where we are right now and certainly enjoying this, late October weather that's coming to Kentucky. I'm glad to be here. Yeah. Thanks, Chad. I appreciate that. I appreciate all three of you kind of giving a brief overview. I know there's a lot more to say about your institutions and how you can approach, admitting students as well as recruiting them and the profile that you offer that makes it attractive to enroll there. I know when we talk about this, the challenges of enrollment right now, we can go through all of them. There's so many of them. But I was thinking about this session in kind of a way we can sort let's let's focus on what is an area we can kind of bite off and talk about, which is sort of this post deposit phase, if you will, this moment of kind of curbing summer melt, which has become so more important. Again, drawing on my reporting from my colleague, Eric Hoover, who really focuses on admissions for the Chronicle about how important that it is to make sure, hey. Once students have said they're gonna go here, that they actually show up in the fall. Right? You all know this better than I do, but that's one of some of the reasoning and the thinking that we had about this session as well as writing a report about this recently that Eric did. Kent, he talked to you about that report, and I wanted to dig into some of the ideas that you and I had talked about as well, about sort of making what I would consider before we get sort of the conceptual big changes or big ideas or the really practical things you've learned to dig into when it comes to making sure, that you're thinking about, okay, this student has has expressed their interest. Obviously, they've made a deposit potentially and will be here. But how do I make sure they're gonna be here? How do I make sure that's when, that they're gonna that they fulfill this sort of commitment, if you will, for us as well? And one of those things you've thought about differently is how campus visits have really changed. And this surprised me certainly very different than the many years ago when I was looking at colleges. Yeah. I mean, not only I I think post tuition deposit, but certainly post offer of admission. And I I would think that maybe Chad and Emily have seen this also that there's certainly been a huge change in behavior from when I started in this work where you could rely on students to visit during their junior year or their fall and check you out before they apply. And, I mean, the number of instances that I see now, where students and their application are are explicitly saying, I'm I'm not I'm not visiting until I've been admitted. And sometimes that also translates and and Chad with his financial aid background, I'm not visiting until I know how much it costs either. And and sometimes that happens very late in the cycle and could happen even, following a tuition deposit. But one thing that I recognize this year is how many students who we have show up, in the fall and have not had a a full campus visit, whether they're international students, or, students from outside of the Upper Midwest. And so I think it's really, incumbent upon us to rethink how we introduce our campus to students, during those orientation sessions and not take for granted, that the students who were serving today are the same students who were serving ten years ago. I'll just share one really practical thing that we're doing because I'm sure Chad and Emily have have much to to share on this also. And and that is and and again, we can handle this because of our size. We've we've instituted doing a pre enrollment virtual meeting with all of our enrolling students. And that's part of a strategy to what I describe as get students to the starting line, rather than the finish line, you know, getting them here to that first day of classes. And those have proven to be really, incredibly valuable in helping students navigate what I describe as the hidden curriculum of transition. And that was really, inspired by our work with international students. We were doing that with international students. We've extended that now to, US students. And and I think that that has really helped to cut down on not only some amount but even move in now because we've been able to answer all of those questions that students and families have during what can oftentimes be a really long transition. So I'm sure Chad and Emily might have other practical ideas but that's one thing that we've at least tried to do. We engineer the visit and introduce these pre enrollment meetings. I appreciate that, Kent. Chad, I wonder if we if you had thoughts on that in terms of the campuses and how it may have changed as well as some of the things that, Kent was talking about that may be working for his campus, whether these to consider some of the similar tactics at yours. Yeah. We've had a similar experience here and that there are, declining visit numbers at least pre admission application and pre offer of admission. But as I think about combating summer melt and I love that idea, Kent, with the preenrollment virtual meeting with all incoming students. It wasn't long ago that it felt like once students were deposited, the handoff was occurring in the early summer over to student services, and the admission office practically washed its hands of the class that was enrolled at that point. Well, that's no longer true. So increasing those, those points of of contact with admission officers who continue to serve in that recruitment role up until the date on which students arrive to campus. And even at that point during orientation, I think we're playing more of an active role with the incoming class than ever before. And I can't point necessarily nor nor do I have necessarily well developed, theories or hypothesis or roundness, but I believe as anxiety has increased among young people, the confidence they have in their own decision making is not perhaps what it once was. So I believe it's incumbent upon us to develop emotional connection with students to be really genuine and authentic in the ways in which we're reaching out to them and with the messages and information we're sharing with them. And we're demonstrating our true investments in them as people and future community members, in in ways that they're going to more fully embrace, and to help them to feel more a part of the community before they ever set foot on this campus so that the buy in is greater, and so that we protect ourselves, our institutions from losing these outstanding students who have committed to us, said yes to us. Right? But who until they are here on campus with us, we shouldn't, you know, count as as community members until they're truly here. Yeah. The point about increasing that buy in opportunity for folks, back to Ken's point about, like, make sure that they're really getting students to the starting line. I like this sort of framing as, like, we were kinda thinking of it as, like, oh, the finish line is when you get the the census that they when they were actually on campus. But usually your point, Ken, it's that moment when they're really starting their their educational career, it's something I wanna pick up. We have RCA. We have a question about on how you make some of these things like the handoff, student affairs, and maybe others. But also the thing about the your point about sort of unpacking the hidden curriculum of of that transition, which I hadn't really thought much about. We sort of talked about the hidden curriculum for first generation students and others just in terms of the general about being on campus, but sometimes that transition may have ones, as well. Emily, I wanna get your the the way in here. Again, you're talking about a larger cohort of students, certainly, than Kent and Chad are. You know, something you you and I had talked briefly about is that you all have tried to find a little bit more about what your students are looking for in these moments by surveying them and understanding what they need to kind of dovetails with some of the things we were just talking about. Can you talk about a little bit about how you're thinking about this moment of, like, curbing summer melt and making sure students are coming to your campus once they've said they've made something of a commitment? Yeah. Absolutely. I first just wanted to make a comment about just the the campus visit component of it. One of the things that we that we have found around the campus visit piece, we used to do a a big fall campus open house, to host, seniors, you know, and and have thousands of students show up to that open house event right before our application filing period opened. And we got to the point where those numbers were really starting to diminish. And, so we have moved away from doing that just because of how students are engaging with us before their application period, and and really looking at maybe doing more niche events that are are focused on certain populations to help combat that. So it's it is really interesting how student dynamics are changing. But getting back to the other question that you were asking me in terms of how we're, surveying students, to try and kind of better understand where where their mindset is at the point that, they're committing to us. When I think about kind of the student that we admit back in March or April, is is, in most cases, really not the same student who arrives on our campus in September. Between the months when we've admitted students and they show up, so many things in their life has has adjusted. They've got they may have, financial challenges that they are combating, family shifts, housing insecurity, mental health concerns, or really just simply kind of being uncertain about kind of how they see themselves at at a large r one research institution and sitting in and their sense of being adequately prepared and are are they gonna be successful when they get here. And, the better we can understand some of those nuances that students are experiencing and communicate, to them in a way, like Chad was saying, authentically, that we want to understand where they're coming from, the smoother that transition can be and and help lower our melt. We've gotten to the point where, and this is not a stat I am incredibly proud of. Our melt has been as high as about 20%. We're losing one in five students that initially committed to us, ultimately don't show up for us in in, in the fall. And so one of the things that we instituted, in partnership with our health, well-being, and safety, departments or, organization on campus is this, survey called the Highlander Well-being Connect. It's initiative that is, become one of the ways that we're kind of bridging this process. And it's a mentorship program, but it's not just necessarily a mentorship program. It's really more of an information kind of insight pipeline that through kind of pre matriculation surveys, text message exchanges, structured Zoom sessions, between incoming students and current ECR mentors. The idea is that we collect kind of meaningful information about what the student is feeling, what their hopes are, what they're excited about, but also what they're anxious and scared about and things that they're confused about. And then we try we we do our best to kind of hear what they're saying and then make, proactive connections between the student and the department or office or area or person that can help answer some of their their questions or help them feel more, connected and and understand the resources that are available at a really large institution where we've got so many resources that sometimes that can be overwhelming. We so one of the things that we found out from kind of doing this is when we were looking at the students who melted off during the summer, about sixty one percent of them had never sought out any sort of UCR resource or asked a question, to help kind of make themselves feel a little bit better and more secure, before making that decision not not to show up. And and about a quarter of those students didn't even know those resources existed. So one of the things that we've really tried to do is, is, well, what that tells us is the handoff needs to start much earlier and, connecting students with the resources that they, that they need to be successful, but also to feel, secure in their decision and know that there's a space for him for them, on our campus. Yeah. We have some questions for about that that we could get into about the handoff. But, Ken, I was just wondering about you for you. Have you felt the same way about making sure, you know, what knowing your students and how I think Emily's point about, like, when they enroll, when they are looking at the college perhaps, and then they may change when they come to the campus. So maybe they they they they mature, they change, things happen with the family. I'm just kinda it's interesting point about they may not be the same, since you may have talked to it during the admissions process that they when they actually come to the campus potentially. Well, I think it's an incredibly useful, observation and point. And I I would say that that's similar. And I think that we have to adapt our onboarding systems to account for that. And so, something that I don't wanna have to do again, but last year during the academic year, and I think it relates to a number of the questions in the q and a also. I I did have the opportunity to lead a cross functional team which, completely blew up our student onboarding process from the time that they pay a tuition deposit until they show up on campus. And, it was incredibly painful. It actually started by, me, getting somebody to allow us to record their process, a student and a parent. And three and a half hours of after watching a a family completely dissolve into, just fighting and bickering because of all the different platforms that we introduced, all of the the things that they had to remember, all of the self attestation that we were requiring. I was able to use that as my my evidence that we needed to change the process. And as we blew that system up and, eliminated platforms and streamline, we we allowed, I I think an opportunity for students to make those changes, those updates that they were, instead of entering new information, they were verifying information that we had. And is as they look at that and and, you know, that also gave us an opportunity to say, hey, we know a lot about you. You said that these are the three academic interests that you had when you applied. Are they accurate? You said that you wanna participate in this. And and I think that that's that's one way to make sure that you're inviting students to tell us how they've changed through the process. I I would give that that process overall probably a a an a. We haven't arrived everywhere. We're doing onboarding two point o this year. But but I I think it was a really practical step towards getting students to the starting line. I appreciate that point, Kent. And I think it's something we should continue to dig into it. To put as you mentioned, several people had some more questions kind of about that hand off and chat. I wanna come back to you after we come back to our break here, for a few minutes or our sponsor segment, talk a little bit more about this. So I'm gonna actually launch a poll here that kinda touches upon this. I realize this is something there's a lot of different aspects and nuances to this when I talk about this handoff. It's making this sound very simple. How does a good job does your institution do a good job with the handoff between admissions and enrollment to student and academic affairs? There's lots of elements to that. I'm sure I'm asking very broadly here, but do let me in the q and a the nuances, the things that you do well, the things that you wanna work better on, the way of sharing data when it comes to that. You do learn a lot about the students through that admissions and enrollment process, making sure that data passes on, that information gets to the the right folks on, on, in, the student fairs, academic fairs, and elsewhere for for sure as well. So just let me know in the q and a why you answered the way you did, and, I will pull up and pull some of those comments and questions. On the other side of our sponsor segment here, I wanna introduce, Liz McMillan, ask my panelists to, to go off screen for a few minutes. Liz, over to you. Thanks, Ian. And and thanks to the panel for a really great conversation so far, which I'm gonna continue, with Kimberly Doerr, who is cofounder and vice president of science and innovation at Acuity and also adjunct associate professor in the department of medicine at McMaster University. Welcome, Kelly. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks, Liz. I'm so excited to be here. So thanks for having me. So, you know, for some students, arriving on campus can really feel like a shock. What's your view on what colleges can do to get students ready for their college experience before they get on campus? Yeah. That's that's such a great question because it's very multifaceted. And I think, you know, we've heard things like launch, you know, when they start, college or what, you know, the hand off between admissions. And I think, you know, I really love the term transition. Mhmm. So that we're not really thinking about start and stop times. We're really thinking about it as, you know, how do we build them from high school or, you know, work experiences wherever they're coming from and build them into their college experience and get them ready, which helps to reduce the shock. So lots of work we do even before they're they're setting foot on campus. And, you know, I mean, each school needs to build that in their own way. Chad talked about, you know, really making sure that they have a connection to the community, and I think that is what becomes so special, making them you know, this it's a time a massive transition. And so how do you make them feel that they have a home, that they have this connection? And I I'm a firm believer as well. We talked a lot about, you know, the panel has talked a lot about how different departments that can come in and I certainly got some thoughts on that too. But one thing we haven't heard a lot about is is current students and how we get them involved in the process as well. And so I think, you know, it's that transition time at hand. I almost see them, you know, at as that hand holding on and helping them into, their first steps in college. You know, that that can be, you know, such a huge piece of it. Emily talked a little bit about those surveys and I that can be daunting for some, but I would just encourage everybody micro steps. You know, if you can't do a full survey or run a full focus group, how do you start listening and collecting the information for your students as well? So I I like the idea of hand holding, not necessarily hand off. But for those folks who are in admissions, what can they do to set students up for success? Yeah. As somebody who worked in admissions for a really long time, this was something that I held very dear, because when we think about that, you know, there is much more of a connected responsibility for those student success than we sometimes think about. And sometimes it there can feel like a huge disconnection between the admissions and the recruitment process and then when students are in the program. And I think the more connected we can make them, you know, that includes looking at the data that they have for admissions as well, really making them sure that, you know, we're not seeing that as static information. That's actually transitional information that can help them as they're going through. I also think admissions has a huge role in demystifying the institution. We talk about the amount of student information that students have to take on board when they come in. And I think there can be a support with the admissions process really helping to lower some of that anxiety by bringing in, you know, orientations that are a little bit more narrative when we start our admissions and recruitment process that we're talking about who they're becoming as members of our college communities, you know, sharing stories of individuals who have been successful, normalizing that there's lots of uncertainty, you know, that are gonna happen and, you know, thinking about how we engage them in those micro ways as well, you know, those series of small touch points. Because as we've heard, it's sometimes hard to get them all on campus or for some of the big, webinars or things we're used to them coming. So how do we reframe that into those micro events? Yeah. And and just the fact that we're talking about hand off and transitions really gets at the point that colleges are decentralized. Just the way that they're set up. Right? Doesn't do much to help students and to help that transition process. So what's your take on that, and and what can colleges do to to improve that, if not breakdown silos completely? Yes. I I think we all wanna break down the silos at our institutions. I'm not sure there's a magic, formula for that, unfortunately. But we as we've heard the panelists talk a lot about, you know, it's this this collaborative ownership of success, for students. I can tell you an example from a program that I talked to that I will not name that was having such trouble. They wanted to do some recruitment and, they really weren't getting their marketing department on board, which feels like is is such an obvious thing, but there was this disconnection between marketing's priorities, which were more focused focused on, you know, donations and alumni success than on the other end. And what happens then is you set up misspectations for students. If, you know, the marketing is promising one thing or you're not able to, target those that you want, and that misalignment can be really hard. We I know of programs that, you know, have that strong connection to their marketing department as an example that are actually using it to drive AI searches. So they're setting up the right framing on their websites and in other information so that we know students are using chat g p t and other forms to find the colleges that they wanna apply to now. They're using it to help get information. And so how can you have that collective, you know Ken talked about some cross functional transition teams. I think those are incredible, and they can help bring in the information so that there's consistency that can be provided to the marketing department from those teams, not just at onboarding, but across all times. And I would add, the more we can bring students into those conversations about what that transition should look like, the more successful we're going to be because they're the ones who are in it and closest to it. And, I just think they're a great, resource for us as we're building this out. Those are really great suggestions, Kelly. And I wanna thank you so much, for being here and to Acuity for making this conversation possible. I'm gonna hand things back to Ian and the panel now. Thanks for having us, and thanks for a great conversation. Thanks, Kelly, and thanks to Liz, and thanks again to Acuity Insights, of course, for their, sponsorship and underwriting of this session as well as I bring back the panel. I'm gonna share the results of the poll for everybody to see. Basically, plurality, like, 45% of you said somewhat agree to this question that my institution does a good job with the handoff between admissions and enrollment to student in academic affairs. There's lots of parts to that, I realize. Some interesting comments in the q and a as well about that. Julia wrote ownership of the process and challenging is challenging in terms of who owns the overall process when it includes all university areas. I think back to sort of the point about all those, silos that need to be broken or whatever, metaphor you wanna build, we, make for it. Rachel says, I'm our new director of transition programs, and we have a new director of undergraduate admissions. We are partnering, to revamp this process altogether. It's not where we'd like it to be, but we're on our way together. So some hope there for the institution to partner on this as well. And, Chad, I want to bring you into this this conversation that I'm having about again, I I use the first phrase handoff. I feel like there's a lot of different ways to call it. It's still multipart. It's it's not just one moment in time, obviously, all these things you all know. But how do you think about it at Center College when you're making that that moment when you've got the student and you wanna make sure that they they get to that starting line as Ken has described as they get a good launch into their college career? So I'm a big fan of facilitating connection as early as possible, Ian. And having been here now for two cycles, it it became a priority of my office to connect our deposited students. Let's call them that. Those who who submitted a, an enrollment form. That we connect them as early as possible with our student services offices on campus. It's allowing them to take what we view as steps forward in their enrollment process, which we believe helps to build that connection with the institution and starts with things as simple as completing a housing preference form made immediately available to students after submitting an enrollment deposit. It's making that connection between a financial aid office or scholarship office with students immediately upon them submitting that enrollment form. It's giving them the opportunity to make connection with faculty advisors who are going to help to guide them through that process of making those course selections. It's the introduction of their roommate just as early and as soon as possible after committing to enroll the center. All of these things we view as important because ultimately, there are people on the other side of this process with whom the student is then beginning to form relationship. And if they're forming relationship with people, then they're forming a relationship with community. And if they're doing that, then they're feeling like a part of the community before they actually arrive here. And we are a place that has not, historically hosted summer orientation programs that bring students to campus in the months leading up to the August, start date, and, therefore, they're not spending time in person on this campus in advance of, showing up for fall term. So we believe that making those connections and the other ways and that's why I'm so drawn to Kent's idea about this idea of a virtual preenrollment meeting for all students because then we actually have faces, right, that people can become familiar with. But it's at least facilitating those connections with as many folks on campus and with their peers as possible. Appreciate that, Chad. And and to that preenrollment meeting, yeah, we've got a lot of interest in the, the q and a, Kent. I appreciate you for typing away. They're offering some people some examples or at least talking a little bit more about it. Do you mind just sharing that too? Just, some folks were asking, like, okay. Who's doing it? Is it look like a checklist? Just talk a little bit more about it since there is some interest there. I know we may be able to to get to all the details, but, I think you just spend a little bit more time given the interest in the the audience and the q and a about it. Yeah. I'll I'll I'll I'll be brief. I mean, the, q the the preenrollment meetings, like, all depends on the student. Some takes ten minutes. They've got everything ready to go. They are all in. They're Yeah. They've already been preregistered, and they have zero questions. There are other times where we will actually take a student's, take over their screen and walk them through onboarding steps, in order to make sure that they are ready for preregistration, that they don't have any questions about the housing application. That that could be, you know, an hour and a half. It just, sort of depends on on the the circumstances, but, it's been incredibly impactful. And as Chad said, you you put a a face with a name and you understand that student's circumstances, and I do think it helps improve the the handoff. I appreciate that. Again, I appreciate also answering some questions in the, the q and a about it as well. And, Emily, I know you were in there poking around too. I appreciate that. One question I think was that I think you may be able to answer, Emily, comes from John. And he he asked, do you any of you see different or slash similar challenges with MELT for the first gen and student veteran audiences? I'm curious if if, Emily, this is an area when it comes to, veterans and, first generation generation students, you can see similarities or differences. Just kinda curious if you anyway, you can kinda come at John's question about the about those two different, potentially different student cohorts. Yeah. Yeah. Our veteran student population on our campus is fairly small. But in terms of thinking about, our first generation students that, we're working with, given kind of the the large proportion of first gen students that we see and serve. A a lot of it has to do with just, especially kind of in this transition period, understanding, the fact that once you commit to us, that is, like, the first step of, like, 500 different pieces that have to fall into place before you're here in fall. And first gen families don't necessarily understand all of the nuances, all the boxes you have to continue to check off. And so one of the things that our that our campus does really well, but it it also can cause confusion, and so we're really trying to work through this, is we've got a a lot of different communications that are going out to families to help them navigate kind of that administrative journey that gets them to campus in the fall. So people are hearing from admissions about get your final documents in, from our health, well-being, and safety, about, health insurance waivers, from academic units, about, placement exams, from our student life, about orientation, from our advisors, about, registering for classes. And all of those communications, are happening in their own worlds. And so one of the things that, we have really come to understand, more recently than not is that, that all needs to be really much better communicated and coordinated by a central entity. And, enrollment services, has stepped in to kind of be that that space that is gonna take the lead on corralling all of these kind of disparate but important communications into a cohesive kind of communication plan that is going out to students, to help them navigate that journey, which I think is, speaks to kind of them it's especially important for our first generation families that that our, that our campus, serves because they don't have any that that whole process is very opaque to them. Yeah. I can imagine. I mean, just going through the obviously, all the different communications going on. There's a confusion that can come thinking you've made a choice, but then more emails come, more nudges come through text and all that kind of stuff and how to sort that and being, getting this idea of making it seamless as possible, while making sure you all have the information to, that you need from the students seems really key. We have another question in terms of that communication here, from from Kim. And we've kinda touched upon a little bit, but it's good to kinda dig into. But she writes, curious to hear what role slash support communication plays in your efforts to reduce MELD and increase retention. So, you know, talking to those family members, sometimes it's it can be students who are traditionally aged. Obviously, there's many students who are coming who are maybe adult learners as well. But when it comes to perhaps more so those traditional aged students, you know, the family communication is key, I imagine. It always has been. I'm just curious if you feel like it's evolved in any ways, if anything has changed about it, that you feel like it's it's bringing those students in a bit more or, excuse me, those families and those supporters in a bit more in a way that helps a bit with that onboarding, like, a bit of that, making sure the student feels a part of the community by making sure their family feels a part of the community. Any thoughts about how that communication may have changed at all or more nuanced to that question I'm asking? I mean, I think parents are critically important at least for a place like us. I mean, we're fairly traditional. So our Sure. But we have five in person on campus summer orientation sessions, and there's a parent track or parent and and and supporter track, and then there's a student track. We we believe that that's part of the recruitment process. We have to continually recruit, inform, educate, our our parents, and and supporters in that process. So I don't know that it's changed, but I I do think today's parents are more discerning consumers, and, are are more more curious, and and so you ignore them at your own own peril. We oftentimes have parents who participate in the preenrollment meetings as well. Similarly, we we made a bit of a transition a few years ago in that we were fairly traditional and that, during the recruitment process, we would split a student and parents, and, you know, we'd interview the student and then invite the parents back. And there's been such a change that now it's a family meeting. And, rather than than go through that that sort of interview. So I I think that there are some some changes. I think that, generally, they're positive changes, but it does take a little bit to educate your campus community to understand how parents have have changed from the way they were thirty years ago Sure. In supporting the student's college search and select them. Well, you make a good point. It it really depends on the type of family or where they're coming from, you know, first generation or not because pays for the ask, like, how are you all including parents' families in the transition process but without promoting the parent to do all the work for the students? So the sort of the the flip side is that, you know, I was trying to give my questions for the parents who may not be as engaged or who are unfamiliar with the process. These are the parents who are, gonna be really engaged. And you gotta have to start to set the boundaries with those parents and say, okay. You're maybe yes. You should come to the preenrollment session, but make sure your your your son or daughter or is thinking through some of these things on their own or all these things and making sure they're starting to kinda take that step forward into adulthood as well. Chad, any thoughts on that? I know I just sort of painted a broad, stereotype of different parents in some ways. I maybe like that at times. You can ask my my kids' high school teachers. But, Chad, any thoughts on sort of, like, just communicating with parents generally could be, and, again, it's a really broad nuances there because there are lots of different types of parents. Right? And they don't all they only fit under one category for sure. Right. Right. But I think Ted and I are similar mind there and the the term he used, you know, discerning consumer absolutely applies here, and that's true of parents, certainly. It's also true of today's college bound students. I feel like they're more discerning than maybe past generations of of students have been, particularly as it relates to finances. But as we as center colleges thought about, parent communication specifically, absolutely, there's been an evolution. And we discovered that with the, rising or increasing, participation, let's call it, of parents in the college search and selection process to the point now where students are telling us that it's their parents first who they turn to for counsel and guidance on this rather than college counselors, teachers, and and other adults. We've just developed a communications flow that is very specifically for parents tailored for them and tailored to meet their needs. So that'll provide to them the timely and relevant information they're going to need, throughout this process and especially so post enrollment post enrollment deposits that is so that they can be kept up to date on everything the parents need to know and also the things their students are supposed to be doing so that those conversations can happen within the household between parent and student. Hopefully, they're happening. Right? And the communication lines are open there, under the the students and parents' roof, but to where then parents can be actively engaged, and actively engaged not only in what their students are required to be doing, but also with the college that their student is soon going to call home. Right? If they have greater comfort with the place, then we believe they're going to be, more supportive of their student's choice to be with us. And if that's the case and that they're confident in the work we're doing because we've, engaged them and kept them informed throughout the process, then we believe that they are going to then or reward that confidence, I think, through greater support of the institution. Appreciate that, Chad. Can I just say something real quick about the the parent engagement piece too is, one of the things how we have adjusted a little bit in how we're communicating with parents is, going back to basics to a certain extent and thinking about, are there any sort of things intentionally that we can put in the mail that gets to the home so that the parents actually see the communication? Because we don't have email addresses for all of our parents, but there are some certain things that if the parents knew about could be, game changers to help with the process. So, for example, this past year, we know that if a student, doesn't take their placement exams in a timely manner, they're already at risk of, of not retaining. And so, we sent a mailer, into the home so that parents could see, like, placement tests are taking place on these dates. Like, make sure you're talking to your students because the last thing that our students are wanting to do or take placement tests in the summer because they're like, you know, yay. I graduated. College is really the last thing they're thinking about. But if we can engage the the parents, on this, like, this is a really important milestone, but be intentional about what we're sending in the mail so it doesn't become, you know, information overload. That that can also help the process a bit. Appreciate that, Emily. We've got about ten more minutes here, and I wanna get to a couple more questions. They're a little bit more broad in in the perspective. And I wanna go back to this metaphor, which I think I'm already, afraid I'm overusing it, but the hot seat idea. You know, enrollment is a challenge right now. We've heard some positive stories here. It's not only about sort of specific things you all could do in the audience, to to perhaps, you know, help deal with summer melt and some other things make the handoff better. But still it's a challenging time. We've heard some good numbers from some of you, some modest growth, potentials. But I'm just kinda curious. What's it like to how how do you when you suggested how folks are manage be managing their teams right now, and it's sitting in this seat, any tips on kind of yeah. How do you kind of make sure you, take care of yourself and your teams while you're going through all of this? Not an easy question to answer, I realize, but just kinda curious if you guys could kinda comment on the overall sense right now, of being in a in a tough spot that higher ed is is, a place where enrollment is gonna be challenged for the next couple years most likely. Again, I realize that fluctuates have been a type of institution. It depends on where you are in the country with all this demographic shift. But, Kent, I'll let you go first. Any thoughts generally on this idea of, like, hey. Yes. Here's how we should be managing this moment. Well well, thanks. That is a a packed question given Fair enough. I'm only in chat some time to think about it. I I I'm not sure that that really there's ever been a moment where, enrollment work has been easy. I think that there have always been challenges. But there are also enormous, rewards. I I I love this work. I I love the role that enrollment people play, not only on campuses, but in the broader ecosystem. I'm a believer that the single greatest export of The United States is American higher education, and to have a a part in that is incredibly rewarding. I I do think that the role of a chief enrollment officer, though, is to make sure that that hot seat, doesn't get pushed down so that everybody on your team, however extended that team is, feels that same pressure. I mean, the the role of a chief enrollment officer is to get everyone on the team to show up ready, mission from God every single day. And, I I I think that that takes a little bit of compartmentalizing, which is is not necessarily a bad thing in this case. I I can tell you that when I started, my hair was like Emily's, and now you can see my hair is like Chad's. And, that that that's kind of what what happens in this role, but it's tremendously rewarding work, even with the headwinds that that are ahead. It it actually is gonna allow for, I I think, an incredible amount of creativity, and and nimbleness, and and I think we're gonna be able to try some things that that maybe we've we've thought about. We're gonna we're gonna have some bad ideas, but I think there are also gonna be some really good ideas. And and I'm sure Emily and and Chad have something to share too. Okay. And I appreciate that. You know? I work ahead of the journalist. We just wanna focus on what's negative and what's kinda going on. But I appreciate your point. But, hey. So it's been challenging for a long time. It will force some creativity. And, yes, back to your point, you all got into this for a reason. Right? You guys did this work for a reason, and then it sounds like you still find that rewarding, and that's a good point. Also, your point about, like, making sure that you're not pushing some of that pressure down, but trying to maintain it so it doesn't feel like the the folks who work with you on your campus are could still do their jobs without feeling that too much of that pressure. Emily, any thoughts on this just in terms of, like, what Kent was saying, on his good points about sort of how to manage this moment? Yeah. You know, from an institution that, came from, like, the last couple years not exactly hitting our enrollment target to this year kind of intentionally, like, overshooting it. Like, the the joke that we always make is, like, if we don't hit our target, you know, everyone's looking at at me. Like, what happened? But if we do hit our targets, you know, oh, the campus effort, everyone did great kind of thing. So it's, what a great team. So it it's it's all to say, from my perspective, you know, what was said earlier, enrollment work has always been intense, and tons of pressure on it, especially because of the fight the financial component of what it means to the institution to hit your targets or not hit your targets. But it has felt, especially relentless from my perspective in the last couple years, just shifting demographics, like, the ex external pressures more or less budget issues. But I think from my perspective, I think what I have learned over the last couple years is is that motivation really doesn't come from shielding teams from that reality, but really trying to give them clarity and connection with it. You know, our strategic plan really kind of is our is our guiding post, our guiding principle. And so when we're getting pulled from a million different directions and being asked to do this, or what about this initiative, or how are you reacting to this, Having our strategic plan really be kind of what guides our work and our effort, and that's what we always come back to. Does that fit into our strategic plan? I really also, with my team, try and emphasize, transparency and shared purpose. I'm super intentional about, explaining the why behind every decision that we're making, behind every target, behind every adjustment, budget reduction, budget augmentation, new initiatives, all of the things so that everybody, is is, you know, on the train same train heading in the same direction. And I guess, finally, like, just trying to get people connected to our to the meaning of the work, and what our work is about. It's especially, you know, on our campus, the population that we serve, it's about access, it's about opportunity, it's about transforming lives. And if not us, then who? Like, we we are meant to be in these seats that we're sitting in, in this moment, and, and and and it's for a good purpose. Interesting. We were meant to be seeing the seats that we're sitting in in this moment. Emily, it's a good point. It's kind of a reassured one in that sense. Chad, any thoughts on this big picture question I'm asking, to for all you to just speak briefly about in some ways. I apologize for it's a big picture question. Sure. No. And I appreciate Emily and and Ken's thoughts. I agree wholeheartedly. And this just reminds me of a conversation I had three hours ago with the second year admission counselor who is particularly outstanding. And I just expressed to her as the work we get to do each day has never been more important than it is in this moment. And I was expressing to her as well that my hope is that we will retain talented, hardworking, dedicated, empathetic people, in higher ed and specifically in this admission financial aid world because we are serving students, and our focus needs to be student first. Institutional values. Right. I would imagine, our campus certainly and all those who tuned in, align with those of center where we are a student focused operation, and we're working to provide for the needs of those students who are are seeking a center education. Right? And that should be what motivates us every day to keep doing this good work. So nothing more to say. Emily and Kent covered it, but I think we're all in agreement with that. There's never been a more challenging time than the one we're living in right now, but there's also never been a more rewarding fulfilling time to get to do this work on behalf of, the students who are are seeking out our institutions. It seems like a great note to end on. I appreciate that. That was Chad Spencer from Center College. Also, Emily Ingleshaw, University of California at Riverside, and w Kent Barnes at Augustana College. I thank you all very much for joining the session. As we said, you are working very hard, and we do appreciate and thank you all for, taking the time out. Of course, I wanna thank, everybody who attended today as well. We're gonna send you all an email with a link to the recording as well as some of the resources we shared in the chat today. Please do feel free to share that email with colleagues that we think will be valuable information. I wanna thank Acuity Insights again for supporting this session, and thanks to my colleagues, like Elizabeth Willen as well as Kelly Dorr from Acuity for their contributions to the discussion. Just again to mention everybody who put their comments and questions into q and a. I'm sorry we couldn't get to all of them today, but we do read them all. I'll share some of those with my colleagues here at the Chronicle as we think more about the the challenges facing, admissions officers and recruitment and enrollment, but also think about some of the ways that, some tips and ideas about how to make through, what can be a challenging moment for some institutions. But we really do appreciate everybody who spent the time and to share their ideas in there. I'm Ian Wilhelm, for The Chronicle. Thanks for being here, everybody.