The Recruitment of Graduate and Adult College Students: Issues and Ideas Dr. Robert Longwell-Grice Dr. Jeremy Page School of Education Office of Student Services

Background on UWM & SOE UWM R1 institution with an access mission Institutional knowledge of enrollment management is limited, with key vacancies in leadership SOE Comprehensive school of education providing teacher education and non-certification degree and certificate programs, including counseling, educational psychology, administrative leadership, higher education administration Approximately 2000 students, 2/3 undergraduate, 1/3 graduate Focus on the study, research, and practice of urban education

Period of constraints and limitations Turbulence in UW system and trickle down effects on budget and staff Limited base for student support funding Varied pathways to entry disrupting traditional enrollment funnel Increasing competition with no one

Pillars of Practice Data Expertise Marketing People Knowledge of Product

Data What do we know about our prospective students? Hobsons Radius What do we know about our website usage? Google Analytics What do we know about why students came to us? New enrolled student survey What do we know about the student experience? New enrolled student focus groups What additional data can assist us? Application, Admit, Enrolled, Retention reports from campus colleagues Data

Expertise Consulting relationships Ruffalo Noel Levitz Education Advisory Board Professional development opportunities STAMATS NAGAP, the Association for Graduate Enrollment Management Campus experts Academic advisors Faculty program coordinators Faculty advisors Expertise

Marketing Formulating a plan: Audit of materials/publications Establish program priorities based on ROI Develop strategic marketing budget Key outputs: Website redesign 4 year plans Video production Space redesign Yield events Marketing

People Staffing limitations due to inability to fill vacancies Creative approaches to replacements Centralization of staff Academic advisors Department level administrative support staff Data and student records staff member Co-located student services staff team providing support throughout student lifecycle People

What resources do you need? Pillars of Practice: Data, Expertise, Marketing, People Experience, knowledge, and resource sharing What are you doing? What’s working? What needs work? What resources do you need?

Questions or comments?