Transcript Institutional Research Observations

Strategic Enrollment
Management Consultation
for Bemidji State
University
Bob Bontrager
Monique Snowden
April 9, 2008
Final Report
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:
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Consulting Project Team
President's Cabinet
Directors of academic support units
Student leaders
Academic Directors
Academic Department Chairs
BSU Faculty Association Executive Committee
BSU Student Senate
Residential Life staff
Financial Aid staff
Student Development staff
University Foundation
Alumni Association
Athletics
Center for Extended Learning
Visit 2
 Meetings were held with:
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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
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Students
Marketing and Communications
Center for Extended Learning
Graduate Studies
International program center
American Indian Resource Center
Enrollment Planning Model
Meeting
Goals
Tactics
Strategies
Data
Enrollment Infrastructure
Structure, Staffing, Skills, Systems, Service
Clear Mission and Goals
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Clarity of Mission and Goals
Observations
 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 Goals
Recommendation
 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 goalsetting 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.
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Technology
Observations
 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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Technology
Observations
 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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Technology
Observations
 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.
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Technology
Observations
 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 drilldown 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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Technology
Observations
 The functions are marketed as “three key functions
for any business”:
 GoldMine Reporting
 GoldMine Business Analysis and Business Management
 GoldMine 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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Technology
Observations
 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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Technology
Observations
 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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Technology
Recommendations
 Develop and raise the awareness of value-based IT to
support enrollment
 Further 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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Technology
Recommendations
 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 valueadded services and information, 3) facilitate resource
optimization, 4) minimize/mitigate risk factors and 5) enhance
performance capacity.
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Technology
Recommendations
 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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Technology
Recommendations
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 Research
Observations
 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 Research
Observations
 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 Reports
 Summary Reports
 Trend Reports
 Performance Reports – e.g. balanced scorecards,
dashboards
 On-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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Retention
Observations
 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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Retention
Observations, 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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Retention
Recommendations
 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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Retention
Recommendations
 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.
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Recruitment
Observations
 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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Recruitment
Observations
 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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Recruitment
Observations
 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 (email, web functionality) representing the largest single
component.
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Recruitment
Observations
 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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Recruitment
Recommendations
 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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Recruitment
Recommendations
 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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Recruitment
Recommendations
 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 Bontrager
[email protected]
Monique Snowden
[email protected]
consulting.aacrao.org