Portland State University AssociateVice President for Enrollment Management

Portland, Oregon
Associate Vice President
for Enrollment Management

LEADERSHIP PROFILE
Fall 2011
Witt / Kieffer

The Opportunity

Portland State University, one of the nation’s premier urban regional public universities, seeks an experienced enrollment professional to serve as Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management. Nationally recognized as a leader in community engagement, PSU is the largest and most diverse university in Oregon with approximately 30,000 students. Located in one of the nation’s most livable cities, the university’s innovative approach to education combines academic rigor with extensive internships and projects with community partners. PSU’s Division of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs strives to achieve social justice and social diversity. We are looking for candidates who will enhance our diverse and multiculturally-competent staff.

PSU’s new Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management will provide the leadership and coordination for a comprehensive enrollment management strategy that is aggressive, innovative and opportunistic and is consistent with the goals, mission and resources of the university. This newly created executive role will join a leadership team and a reconfigured division of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs that is forward thinking, highly strategic and extremely productive. Reporting to and working closely with Vice President Jacqueline Balzer, the Associate Vice President provides overall leadership for undergraduate and graduate admission to the university including international admission, domestic and international enrollment partnerships, records and registration, new student recruitment, student orientation programs, financial aid and scholarships, and enrollment management technology.

A key senior administrator, PSU’s first Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management will be a proven leader with great entrepreneurial and technological skills and finesse as a manager and collaborator. Able to galvanize a university-wide enrollment effort that is, at its heart, student-centered, the Associate Vice President joins a team that is as devoted as it is talented, and enjoys the full support of the President and other members of the university’s senior leadership team. PSU seeks candidates who are eager to join a new, inclusive, collegial and transparent senior team. The new AVPEM must understand shared governance and enjoy working collaboratively with PSU’s diverse faculty, staff and students to foster partnerships and proactively promote shared agendas. The ideal candidate will have at least five to seven years of director-level experience in higher education enrollment services administration that includes leading change in a complex and dynamic university environment, a consultative style and superior communication, as well as strategic and analytical skills. A master’s degree is required.

Portland State University’s 49-acre urban campus exhibits PSU’s commitment to sustainability through green buildings and transit-oriented development, while many of its 200 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs incorporate sustainability into the curriculum. PSU’s motto, “Let Knowledge Serve the City,” inspires the teaching and research of an accomplished faculty. Five themes guide PSU’s work: provide civic leadership through partnerships, improve student success, achieve global excellence, enhance educational opportunity, and expand resources and improve effectiveness.

Information about how to nominate a candidate or to apply for this opportunity may be found later in this document in the section entitled “Procedure for Candidacy.”

Enrollment Management at Portland State University

The mission of Portland State University is to enhance the intellectual, social, cultural and economic qualities of urban life by providing access throughout the life span to a high quality liberal education for undergraduates and an appropriate array of professional and graduate programs especially relevant to metropolitan areas. The university conducts research and community service that support a high quality educational environment and reflect issues important to the region. It actively promotes the development of a network of educational institutions to serve the community.

Enrollment management is among the highest priorities of Portland State University’s administration and senior leadership team. The university seeks to enroll a talented and diverse group of students who will become leaders across the country and around the world: men and women who will shape the 21st century as scholars, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, public servants, and influential members of the professions.

A Brief History

Portland State has been fortunate in that it has enjoyed high demand without devoting significant attention or resources to recruiting. Its efforts at strategic outreach are fledgling. A few recent highlights:

  • 1997: PSU Admissions and Records (ARR) initiates limited outreach to prospective students, and develops campus visit programs
  • 1998: ARR begins targeted in-state and out-of-state college fair recruitment travel and follow-up high school visits. ARR also begins recording student contact information for follow up.
  • 2000: Professional copywriters and design services are used to create recruitment publications.
  • 2000 – 2003: Continued advancements in publications, visit programs, tours and outreach programs.
  • 2003: PSU changes its freshman admission requirements from a 2.5 to 3.0 grade point average for domestic students and from 2.75 to 3.0 for international students. The university also adds a comprehensive faculty review to the conditional admissions process.
  • 2004 to present: Investments are made in enrollment personnel and technology to enhance document imaging, processing, international recruitment, orientation, and communications.

Enrollment Management Today

The university’s recruitment efforts are relatively new, and its efforts related to strategic enrollment management (SEM) is even newer. It only recently instituted an enrollment deposit (2010); and this fall’s entering class is the first to enroll with financial aid used in part as a discount against net tuition revenue, a result of urging from President Wim Wiewel.

It was with the arrival of President Wim Wiewel, in fact, that an increasingly strategic eye has been applied to opportunities to serve students best, and as the university has studied itself more and more to see where its greatest opportunities lie, a number of issues have come to the fore:

  • The undergraduate students who persist at PSU to return a second year and ultimately graduate are disproportionately those who enter the university with a 3.0 or higher, either at their secondary school or – if transferring – their college of origin. Freshman retention of students entering with a 3.0 or higher is 70%, and 60% for students who enter with a grade point average that is under 3.0.
  • PSU’s current enrollment program is both young and sparsely resourced; a number of policies and programs considered best practice have yet to be employed. There exists tremendous potential to make enormous headway in service of offering students the best possible educational experience.
  • For the university to maximize its ability to serve its students well by graduating more of those who enter its doors, greater efforts must be made to attract and enroll more first-year and transfer students who excelled in their prior institutions (defined here as achieving a 3.0 or higher); however, these students are under-represented in PSU’s applicant pool, and also yield at a much lower rate than do other admits. To accomplish this, then, a significant and sustained strategic enrollment management effort will be required.

In Spring 2011, President Wiewel determined that the time had come for the university to take the next step and reorganize to support an aggressive and opportunistic strategic enrollment management effort. As a result, the following reconfigurations have been initiated:

  • A new position of chief institutional enrollment manager has been created. This position, which will be a senior campus leadership post with the title of Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management, will be charged with broad oversight for a student-centered and strategic enrollment effort that reinforces the university’s access mission and its mission to serve its students at the highest possible level so that they have a positive experience, continue on at the university and graduate from it.
  • Student financial aid and scholarships have been brought together under the Director of Financial Aid, and financial aid has been moved from reporting to the Chief Financial Officer to the new Associate Vice President.
  • Further resources have been identified to aid the new AVP in building a more optimal infrastructure for enrollment management at PSU.
  • The university is gearing up for the quiet phase of an ambitious capital campaign in which scholarship funding will be a top priority.
  • Enrollment Management has been moved to a new division of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs led by Vice President Jacqueline Balzer, whose leadership integrates enrollment imperatives throughout the division and who ensures the highest level of university attention and support for the enrollment management unit.

The new unit of Enrollment Management will be asked to support the university by continuously building and enhancing the strongest possible enrollment future and includes:

  • Undergraduate and graduate admission
  • International admission
  • Domestic and international enrollment partnerships
  • Records and registration
  • New student recruitment
  • Student orientation programs
  • Student financial aid and scholarships
  • Enrollment management communication technology

The Associate Vice President will oversee close to 90 staff overall and an operating budget of approximately $7 million. The unit oversees the distribution of over $253 million in state, federal, and institutional aid and scholarship dollars to more than 20,000 students annually. The university has also just recently completed the purchase and installation of Talisma an integrated customer relationship management (CRM) program.

Please view the Appendices for Organizational Charts.

Opportunities and Expectations for Leadership

The new Associate Vice President will provide the vision, leadership, direction, and coordination for the university’s first integrated, comprehensive and strategic enrollment plan that is aggressive, cutting edge and consistent with the goals, mission, and resources of Portland State. Working closely with other campus leaders and administrators, the associate vice president will lead an enrollment effort focused on all areas of student recruitment, retention, admissions, registration and financial aid that builds academic excellence while ensuring student access and promoting student success. The university’s commitment to leading globally as well as regionally offers a special opportunity to the bold and analytical enrollment leader who seeks a broad platform from which to promote PSU’s mission of excellence, access and opportunity.

The university leadership seeks to be dynamic, innovative, and nimble in every phase of the enrollment process. As the new associate vice president joins the university, he or she will have the opportunity to address the following leadership challenges:

Construct and implement the university’s first comprehensive strategic enrollment plan

The new Associate Vice President will be expected to develop and implement the university’s first comprehensive strategic enrollment plan, focusing on recruitment and retention as a fiscal opportunity. While preliminary work on this plan is underway, it is anticipated that the new Associate Vice President will bring a level of insight and expertise that will be essential to constructing the optimal plan for the university. Once the framework for this plan is set, it will be up to the AVPEM to flesh out how enrollment can best meet the plan’s targets and objectives through both existing and new programs, building on and extending PSU’s ability to attract, enroll and graduate a strong and diverse student body. In addition, the Associate Vice President will work with resources and individuals across the university to assemble a strategic recruitment and marketing plan that incorporates both standard and innovative tools including technology, financial aid, electronic and print communications and other effective techniques for enhancing the quality and size of the applicant pool and enrolling class.

Chief objectives of the plan will be to increase the portion of PSU students who are non-resident, bringing the domestic non-resident student population from roughly 13 to 20 percent of the student body, and the international student population from roughly 6.5 to 10 percent of the student body.

Capitalize on this moment of tremendous institutional support for and interest in enrollment

There is great interest at the university about all matters related to enrollment, now viewed as a central aspect of the university’s present and future success. More than half the budget in support of undergraduate education comes from tuition. There is great interest in matters of tuition, recruiting, makeup of the class, admissions standards, retention, graduation rates and student success. The university has set a path of “controlled strategic growth,” holding constant admissions standards – particularly relative to high school grade point averages – while growing the size of the student body by one to two percent per year.

It is imperative that the new Associate Vice President build and maintain strong, collaborative and facilitative relationships with leadership across the university, working collegially with faculty and deans, and providing strong leadership while engendering trust and exhibiting excellence. The Associate Vice President is expected to convey the vision for enrollment and promote a commitment to open conversation and shared goals, so as to galvanize as many students, staff, faculty, parents and alumni as possible to join together in achieving the enrollment vision.

The AVPEM in particular will be asked to work closely and inclusively with the colleges – the college deans, associate deans, department chairs and faculty – in ensuring that the colleges have a strong voice in setting enrollment goals, determining the optimal nature of their student bodies and partnering with enrollment to recruit and bring to the university the students they most want to attract. This imperative will become increasingly critical as the university moves to responsibility-based budgeting in the coming years.

Further, the Associate Vice President will be expected to provide collaborative leadership in an environment of shared governance, advancing the needs of Enrollment Management, the unit, and the university as a whole. The new Associate Vice President must have outstanding communication skills and be able both to listen and persuade. Within a university that has limited resources, the Associate Vice President will need to employ strong negotiating skills and be able to act as a team player in support of the university as a whole.

Bring strategic and tactical leadership and integration to all elements of the enrollment function

The Associate Vice President provides leadership to the enrollment offices, elevating the visibility of the team and scope of its work, and facilitating and supporting the development of a unit that is cohesive, integrated, analytical, technologically advanced, facilitative, nimble, imaginative and results-oriented. The Associate Vice President will continuously evaluate enrollment processes, ensuring that they are used strategically and creatively, and to maximum benefit. The new Associate Vice President will be expected to evaluate the structure and infrastructure of the enrollment unit and to affirm or move to a configuration of offices, infrastructure and staff deployment that aligns structure and objectives.

Structure and systematize statistical reporting

There is a growing need for ongoing, thoughtful analysis of data to shape strategic direction and assess effectiveness of enrollment activities, progress and possibilities. Competitive positioning and institutional goals can only benefit from this approach.

In assuming leadership of this area, the new Associate Vice President will need to engage administrators from multiple areas within academic and student affairs to join together and contribute to crafting a tracking system that incorporates multiple variables and data points so as to yield the most helpful possible information.

Complete a successful transition of the enrollment offices into the new Division of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs

Just as expectations of the Enrollment Management area are high, so too are expectations throughout the division. The new Associate Vice President will be asked to further integrate the staff of the enrollment offices into the new division, its core values and its culture of planning and assessment.

The AVPEM joins a leadership team within EMSA that is highly collaborative and valued across the university for its high-functioning performance and institutional outlook in which students are at the forefront. The successful candidate for this position will be capable of tending to multiple problems and pulls simultaneously, with grace, great judgment, and intelligence.

THE ROLE OF THE Associate vice President for ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT

The new Associate Vice President will be expected to bring expertise, clarity and the willingness to engage collaboratively with senior leadership to discuss and define admission and retention plans as well as measure incremental progress toward goals. In addition to the imperatives described above, the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management will also be asked to:

  • In concert with the university’s administration and the Office of Institutional Research and Planning prepare enrollment plans and reports and interpret statistical data, including current trends and the forecasting of future trends. Coordinate the Enrollment Management Cabinet for the University.
  • Provide overall leadership and management for PSU Admissions, Records, and Registration, Financial Aid and Scholarships, and Enrollment Management Communication Technology services. (See Appendix for synopses of these units).
  • Oversee and implement related academic policies and procedures, including advising the Vice President in formulation of policy as well as strategic enrollment and financial aid planning.
  • Lead a transparent and forward-looking budgeting process for the enrollment area that aims high, projects clear outcomes for expenditures, and evaluates achievements in a context of cost effectiveness.
  • Provide senior leadership for operations that promotes a positive enrollment experience including application processing, prospective and new student communication, student transitions, financial aid and scholarship processing, registering and enrolling students, veteran certification, classroom scheduling, creating and maintaining student records and certifying graduates.
  • Create and maintain collaborative relationships with local and national high school, community college and university personnel. Provide leadership and vision for plans regarding co-admission MOUs, partnerships and EM agreements.
  • Ensure compliance with federal, state and university regulations. Comply with Portland State University, Oregon University System, Big Sky Conference, NW Accreditation, and NCAA rules and regulations related to rules compliance issues.
  • Oversee plans and evaluate student recruitment strategies directed at meeting the university’s student enrollment goals. Maintain collaborative relationships with vice presidents, assistant and associate vice presidents, deans, department chairs, Office of Institutional Research and Planning staff and the faculty in recruitment and enrollment activities.
  • Coordinate Enrollment Management technology in concert with the Office of Information Technologies, effectively using emerging technologies to enhance services to students and faculty.
  • Collaborate with the Vice President for Advancement and Assistant Vice President for University Communications regarding the institution’s marketing and image making strategies related to its regional and national positioning as a competitive urban research university. Duties include serving as liaison with the offices of University Communication, Advancement, Alumni and Foundation.
  • Work closely with faculty and Enrollment personnel by contributing to a team environment, ensuring that student services are provided in an efficient manner and support student learning and success.
  • Serve on the Senior Student Affairs Leadership team along with the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Dean of Student Life, Executive Director for Diversity and Multicultural Student Services, and Executive Director for Student Health and Counseling; play a key role in leading student life across the university.
  • Other duties as assigned.