Strategic Enrollment/Retention Management (SERM) Subcommittee
Meeting of February 24, 2009
The Strategic Enrollment/Retention Management Subcommittee conducted a meeting on Tuesday, February 24, 2009. The meeting was called to order at 9:04 a.m. by Robert Heuermann in NM L-212. Minutes of the January 20, 2009 meeting were reviewed; with no corrections, the minutes were declared approved.
Present: Robert Bode, YeeLeng Hang, John Hendrickson, Robert Heuermann, Daryl Johnson, Rosa Rodríguez, Monir Johnson, Ed Mack, Noel Opoti, Gary Seiler, Jill Wilkie
Absent: Eustolio Benavides
Marketing Plan / R. Heuermann presented an overview of the university’s marketing plan for the remainder of the fiscal year. The plan will apply limited funding of $250,000 toward revenue growth.· Target audiences will be students transferring from 2 year colleges, students transferring from any institution, adult career changers and career climbers.
· Television: doing a small amount of TV ads, using an existing ad scheduled to run at start of summer/fall registration. There will also be some fringe programming in the late evening.
· Radio: to attract 21-34 year old students. Will feature two weeks of radio ads on Cities 97, with a presence every other week all year round. Ads will focus on high quality, affordable education, now is the right time to finish your education.
· Outdoor billboards: strategically placed near our transfer schools, with a message of “Don’t Stop Now.”
· Posters: in transfer shelters, with a theme of “make the transfer.”
· Purchased 500 “don’t stop now” stress balls.
· Internet ads: banner ads on StarTribune.com and TwinCities.com.; and text ads to specific demographics on Minnpost.com, Facebook and Linkedin.
· Print ads: targeted toward cultural diversity.
· The university’s graphic designer has been made a full time position to ensure high quality and a cohesive look to our materials.
· College of Management: looking at business publications with ads in the Downtown Journal. Ads will focus on the master’s level, where competition is intense. Focus will be on the “smart choice.”
Comments from SERM members addressed the need for an inquiry intake form, and to track responses via Right Now. It was also noted that the Asian American Press is more widely read than Asian Pages.
Admissions Funnel Numbers / R. Bode distributed documentation on admissions funnel numbers, covering conversion from prospect pool to inquiry to applicant and enrolled student. Source is MnSCU summary data.
For 2004-09, the data shows a new trend of more applicants. We are not converting our applications to admits as well as previously, but this was attributed to students using the Internet to apply to multiple institutions. Headcount overall is increasing, due to improved retention. It was noted that new students as a percentage of headcount is very consistent, with increases comparable to increases in retention. P. Hesterman advised that the success rate for on-line courses was almost identical to on-campus courses.
The group considered whether the waiving of application fees results in soft admissions applications. M. Johnson agreed to work with the Financial Management Office for a report on the extent to which we waive application fees. She expressed strong disagreement with any move toward a “system” application fee as it would further soften applications.
A report, “Application and Admission Summary, FY2010” was distributed.
Institutional Research Office Data / R. Heuermann reported that SERM has been asked by the Planning and Budget Council to provide them with numbers for a 4 percent enrollment increase, based on previous growth in four areas: undergraduate on ground, undergraduate Internet only, graduate with some or all on ground, and graduate Internet only.
He distributed a document, “2010 Enrollment Projects for Budget Planning.” It was noted that the strongest growth has been in Internet-only courses. This represents both an increase in new Internet-only students as well as a shift from ground to Internet for current students.
R. Heuermann further noted that twice per year, MnSCU asks the institutions for enrollment projections, and the president has asked SERM to calculate a 5 percent growth rate for reporting to MnSCU. A broad discussion ensued on the consideration of growth rates, with the following points:
· How can we manage 4 percent growth with no new resources?
· Current on-line courses are at capacity. It takes 1-2 semesters to bring new on-line instructors to the requisite skill level before they can teach on-line. Are the deans planning for additional on-line offerings?
· SERM needs information from academics, such as capacity based on seats, and amount of potential growth by program.
· There may be a need for the deans to artificially set enrollment caps.
· Demand and supply of seats go together and marketing should be targeted to moving students into programs with capacity.
· Capacity reports can identify where we have growth potential that is bumping against capacity, and so can indicate where investments should be made and where we have capacity within current resources.
· It will be important to track incoming students by major and courses we need to provide. DARS can provide information on transfer students’ missing goal areas.
· We also need to improve communication between recruiters/admissions counselors and advisors
· It will be crucial to sustain retention efforts during periods of enrollment growth.
· Admissions will work with Student Life to hire student ambassadors to increase outreach.
· The allocation framework is set to penalize institutions that increase revenue and at the same time keep expenses down. It was noted we lose allocation on our lower division and graduate programming.
SERM members identified a message for the Planning and Budget Council that priorities must be established. For example, what do we want our on-line program to be? We have an excellent on-line program that could be marketed for its quality.
E. Mack leads the Measuring Effectiveness Team. He expressed a desire to explore a strategic relationship with SERM and it was agreed that this will be on the agenda of the March 17 SERM meeting.
The following reports were distributed by R. Heuermann:
· Fall FY09 Tenth Day Students, Minnesota by County
· Fall FY09 Tenth Day Students, Wisconsin by County
· Students by State (Five Year Timeframe, Tenth Day Numbers)
Comparison of this data with Aslanian projects indicates enrollments will be from the southern and northwestern metro counties.
Members stressed the importance of the university strengthening relationships with the area community colleges. At that point, we could request contact information on their students who are nearing graduation.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 10:38 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Beverly Lacy
Recorder
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