Strategic Enrollment Management Consultation for Bemidji State University

Final ReportBob BontragerMonique Snowden

April 9, 2008

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Project Overview Bemidji State University (BSU) contracted with AACRAO

Consulting to review the University’s recruitment and retention programs, with particular attention to the effective use of enrollment-related technologies.

AACRAO Consultant Bob Bontrager visited campus February 6-7, 2008 to conduct an initial assessment of BSU’s overall position relative to strategic enrollment management (SEM), particularly its retention programs.

AACRAO Consultants Bob Bontrager and Monique Snowden visited BSU March 3-4 to assess recruitment programs and enrollment-related technologies.

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Visit 1 Meetings were held with:

Consulting Project TeamPresident's CabinetDirectors of academic support unitsStudent leadersAcademic DirectorsAcademic Department ChairsBSU Faculty Association Executive CommitteeBSU Student SenateResidential Life staffFinancial Aid staffStudent Development staffUniversity FoundationAlumni AssociationAthleticsCenter for Extended Learning

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Visit 2 Meetings were held with:

Consulting Project Team President’s Cabinet Admissions/Scholarship staff Faculty

— Deans, Chairs BSUAF Executive Committee Technology staff

— ISRS, AdmitGold, Data Warehouse, BSU website, Campus network ISRS functional users

— Registrar, Financial Aid, Residential Life Students Marketing and Communications Center for Extended Learning Graduate Studies International program center American Indian Resource Center

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Enrollment Planning Model

MeetingGoals

Tactics

Strategies

Data

Clear Mission and Goals

Enrollment InfrastructureStructure, Staffing, Skills, Systems,

Service

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Clarity of Mission and GoalsObservations BSU is well positioned for enrollment growth. The University offers

high quality academic and student life programs that area attractive to students both within and beyond the Northern Minnesota region.

To effectively manage enrollment requires clarity of mission and comprehensive, detailed enrollment goals. BSU has done excellent strategic planning in recent years to clarify its mission and set broad enrollment goals. More detailed and longer term goals are needed. This will enable the University to adopt a more proactive approach to enrollment.

BSU’s current enrollment projections are done on an annual basis. The University will benefit from extending the planning horizon, determining its desired future, and setting enrollment targets for the next 5-10 years. This will facilitate strategic planning across the institution.

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Clarity of Mission and GoalsRecommendation

Implement a process to develop targets for the number, types, and proportions of students BSU desires in order to fulfill its mission and achieve its enrollment goals over the next 10 years. The goal-setting process should include: Oversight and an initial draft developed by an ongoing

Strategic Enrollment Management Team. Campus-wide engagement and feedback. Final approval by the President’s Council.

TechnologyObservations

MnSCU Information Technology Services is BSU’s most important IT partnership.

ISRS is the most critical enrollment technology. BSU has acquired a number of technology offerings

(e.g. AdmitGold, ACT product portfolio, DARS/CAS, RightNow) that have disparate data structures.

Related to Institutional Research issues, there is no clear presence of bona fide business intelligence technology/capability.

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TechnologyObservations Decisions concerning IT acquisitions should be informed

by a committee members who have an understanding of how technology features and functionality are marketed.

BSU has made significant gains with the acquisition and utilization of AdmitGold (GoldMine) and associated add-ons.

Prior to the GoldMine acquisition, BSU staff noted that “nothing was recorded…no matter what you did”.

GoldMine has a very favorable rating among the primary users in Admissions for the basic admission process functionality it provides.

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TechnologyObservations Admissions is encountering challenges with

assessing the effectiveness of communication plans and electronic campaigns; absence of email delivery and viewing confirmation.

GoldMine is an affordable technology solution for small private colleges operating on a relatively small scale. It generally is not used by larger institutions.

GoldMine’s configurable interface and ability to customize data elements has yielded the AdmitGold offering. BSU uses a few popular add-ons.

TechnologyObservations

MasterMine is a GoldMine add-on developed by MasterMine Software, Inc; the add-on uses Microsoft Excel to retrieve and present GoldMine data.

Specifically, the add-on uses the pivot table features of Excel to present summary data and enable drill-down capability. The functionality is very accessible to those with rudimentary knowledge of Excel.

According to the vendor, MasterMine functions include “simple reports, on-the-fly analysis, 1-button graphing, data quality management, database segmentation and group record processing.”

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TechnologyObservations

The functions are marketed as “three key functions for any business”:

GoldMine ReportingGoldMine Business Analysis and Business ManagementGoldMine Data Management and Clean-up

GoldBox and BR7 are add-ons for GoldMine developed and supported by Redstone SoftBase Company; these add-ons facilitate data manipulation of the GoldMine database.

BR7 is a freeware product.

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TechnologyObservations

Licensed clients of GoldBox are using BR7 in conjunction with a GoldBox are provided support.

As for freeware users, the vendor notes, “Redstone SoftBase Company is not liable in any way for maintaining the integrity of your data - this is YOUR responsibility!”

The provider’s website notes, “MasterMine is true "Business Intelligence." That makes you the Master of GoldMine!...Data mining, Data management and Simpler Reporting in combination solve the biggest problem with GoldMine”

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TechnologyObservations

In support of a strategic enrollment management plan, current operational and tactical uses of technology should be augmented by strategic acquisition, development, positioning and leveraging of IT resources (people, data/information, applications and infrastructure).

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TechnologyRecommendations Develop and raise the awareness of value-based IT to

support enrollmentFurther engage the IT staff as partners in meeting the

University’s enrollment goals. The IT organization’s role in and responsibility to deliver value toward the achievement and support of enrollment goals/objectives should be explicit.

Executive leadership should set a strategic direction for campus IT and establish a formalized committee to set priorities and monitor progress. The chief enrollment officer should serve on this committee.

Business unit leaders should define business requirements (unit specific and integrated) and assure that value is delivered and risks are mitigated.

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TechnologyRecommendations Develop and raise the awareness of value-based IT

to support enrollment (continued). Identify how IT can create value by enabling new enrollment

processes, making current enrollment processes more efficient, and ensuring that the university’s enrollment management efforts are more effective as a direct and indirect result of IT.

Particular attention should be placed on web-based solutions and an optimal infrastructure to advance an integrated look and feel. Star and Bowker emphasize that “infrastructure simultaneously represents work and effortlessly supports it; making possible collective accomplishment.”

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Technology Recommendations

Manage IT as a strategic asset.Standardize processes and technologies wherever

appropriate.

Develop a plan for keeping technologies up to date, taking into consideration that there are different methods of delivery and support available (e.g. outsourcing, insourcing, hosted solutions, remote support). Explore alternatives…Be innovative!

Involve functional, technical and financial specialists to determine the desirable and best terms in contract negotiation of IT licenses and maintenance.

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Technology Recommendations

Manage IT as a strategic asset (continued).Align procurement practices and the distribution of IT

investments to support strategic objectives.

Enlist the assistance of BSU’s human resource leadership to conduct a staffing analysis (including skills, leveling and salaries), placing particular focus on forming a web and data services team.

IT acquisitions/initiatives should: 1) align strategically with the university’s enrollment goals, 2) deliver and support value-added services and information, 3) facilitate resource optimization, 4) minimize/mitigate risk factors and 5) enhance performance capacity.

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TechnologyRecommendations

Define IT enrollment-based goals.Define IT goals based in terms of meeting the enrollment

requirements for information and services

View affected IT resources from an enrollment-centric point of view. BSU should align the IT and strategic enrollment management plans.

Establish accessible methods and transparent metrics that reveal the impact and contribution of IT investments toward value creation; from an enrollment management perspective.

Focus not only on the end of technology (i.e. the proverbial ‘widget’ and outputs) but the available and desired means (i.e. resources and inputs).

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TechnologyRecommendations

Define IT enrollment-based goals (continued). Institutionalize the partnership, shared responsibility and

decision-making between enrollment management leader and IT leaders/providers (internal and external).

Organizational communication research suggests that a “discourse of mutuality” can enhance cooperation, collaboration and coordination; which are considered paramount to achieving effectiveness and efficiency goals and objectives.

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Institutional ResearchObservations BSU has good descriptive data on its students, but

lacks analytical data to drive effective enrollment decisions. Nonaka and Takekuchi posit, “it is always knowledge ‘to some

end’…knowledge like information is about meaning.”

One of the basic tenets of strategic enrollment management is accountability, that is, tracking the outcome of specific recruitment and retention initiatives to determine their impact on enrollment numbers. BSU needs to adopt a “culture of accountability”, using enhanced institutional research to track the effectiveness of enrollment initiatives.

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Institutional Research Observations “Data mining is the use of automated data analysis

techniques to uncover previously undetected relationships among data items. Data mining often involves the analysis of data stored in a data warehouse. Three of the major data mining techniques are regression, classification and clustering.”

Business intelligence technologies use “data that has been stored in a data warehouse, software applications are able to use this data to report past business information as well as predict future business information, including trends, threats, opportunities and patterns.”

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Institutional ResearchObservations Formal student satisfaction data is critical to the

development of effective recruitment and retention programs. Such data was last gathered at BSU in 2001.

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Institutional Research Recommendations

Add staff resources to institutional research, either by reassigning an existing staff member or adding a position.

Ensure that accountability measures are part of every recruitment and retention program.

Augment the recently formed reporting committee by establishing a data-centric subcommittee (include: database architects, database administrators, data power users, data end-users, data analysts) that can address specific data management issues that will facilitate or hinder efficient and effective reporting.

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Institutional Research Recommendations BSU should identify targeted audiences (e.g. executive,

senior and operational staff) for various reports, and determine desired formats and delivery methods.

Detailed Data ReportsSummary ReportsTrend ReportsPerformance Reports – e.g. balanced scorecards,

dashboardsOn-demand and Interactive Analytics - drill down, filter, and

sort functionality

Conduct a formal student satisfaction survey as soon as possible, and establish a regular survey cycle of every 3 years.

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RetentionObservations BSU is taking a “shotgun” approach to retention programming,

implementing a series of loosely connected activities that lack alignment, and therefore are less effective than they could be. As enrollment goals are set and additional information is compiled, it will be as important to determine what retention activities will not be done as those that will be.

The new Advising Success Center is a positive step toward organizing BSU’s retention efforts. Note: it is important that undue responsibility for retention is not placed on Mary Ward!

From 2001 data from the Student Satisfaction Inventory, students rank BSU: Exceptionally high on student centeredness and academic advising.

Continued attention provided by the Advising Task force is very positive. Exceptionally low on safety and security.

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RetentionObservations, continued

A study of retention programs that achieved measureable positive results at multiple institutions highlighted these programs: Supported instruction targeted at courses in which many

students evidenced poor levels of academic performance. Transition/orientation/university 101 programs. Programs to enhance student-faculty interaction.

(Patton, Morelon, Whitehead, and Hossler, 2006)

Learning communities are emerging as a successful strategy at many institutions.

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RetentionRecommendations As the Advising Success Center comes on-line, develop

a 5-year retention plan with activities identified in alignment with research on successful retention programs, BSU enrollment goals, and BSU student data. Prioritize and determine what current activities you will stop doing.

As formal student satisfaction data is gathered (see Institutional Research section of this report), conduct an analysis of outcomes of efforts to address students’ safety concerns. Evaluate and adjust ongoing safety efforts accordingly.

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RetentionRecommendations

Consistent with research on effective retention programs, expand learning communities, the cohort aspects of the FYRE program, and the FYE Seminar class.

Link 1-2 additional courses to the FYE Seminar class, creating an expanded cohort opportunity for incoming students.

Make this “FYE learning community” a requirement for all students.

RecruitmentObservations

Efforts in recent years to improve admissions processing have been effective.

Consolidating disparate admissions processes distributed among many campus departments is a very positive step.

Streamlining the process through the use of technology.

In order for BSU to meet its enrollment goals will require continued improvement.

Use of technology lags behind other schools that have been successful in meeting enrollment goals.

Additional opportunities exist to consolidate campus admissions efforts, e.g., CEL, International.

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RecruitmentObservations There are opportunities to increase the involvement

of academic units in recruitment.Academic units express a desire for increased interaction

and information from Admissions.Faculty express willingness to be more involved in

recruitment activities, but need additional direction on how their involvement will be most effective.

A significant number of BSU’s prospective undergraduates are undecided about their major. BSU may be able to attract more of these students by more effectively promoting the University’s options for undecided students.

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RecruitmentObservations BSU relies heavily on postal mail, hard copy

publications, and telephone calls in its communications with prospective students. While these forms of communication can be effective in many cases, they have two major limitations:

They are resource-intensive both in direct cost and staff time. They fail to respond to students’ growing preference for

communication and self-service opportunities on-line.

The most effective prospect communication plans utilize a variety of media, with e-communications (e-mail, web functionality) representing the largest single component.

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RecruitmentObservations Development of recruitment material would be more

effective if Marketing and Communications were given more lead time.

Prospective students are required to fill out a separate scholarship application, adding an unnecessary step in the enrollment process.

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RecruitmentRecommendations In May/June each year, hold an Admissions planning

retreat to develop a recruitment plan for the coming academic year. Advantages of this approach include:

Enabling more strategic overall planning by seeing the timing and relationship of various recruitment activities over the course of the full year.

Enabling other campus departments to anticipate and plan their Admissions-related work, e.g., Marketing and Communications, technology.

Identifying specific points in the recruiting process where faculty involvement will be most effective, maximum use of their time and effort.

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RecruitmentRecommendations Develop and promote an “exploratory studies” program

for prospective students who are undecided about their major.

Develop learning communities with specific major and career exploration components.

Through the Advising Success Center and the Center for Professional Development, develop an advising program targeted to the needs of undecided students.

Conduct a comprehensive review of BSU’s communication plan for prospective students, and determine strategic opportunities to replace postal mail and telephone calls with e-communications.

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RecruitmentRecommendations Admissions should hold meetings twice each year

with academic chairs for information dissemination and discussion about BSU’s undergraduate recruitment efforts.

Admission staff should meet once each year with every academic department.

Combine information required for scholarship selection into the admission application, thus requiring students to complete a single application.

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Thank you!

Bob Bontragerbontrager@aacrao.org

Monique Snowdenenrollmentmgmt@gmail.com

consulting.aacrao.org