Undergraduate Student Recruitment, Retention, Support, Enrollment Management
Student Recruitment
Successful student recruitment is the beginning phase of a successful,
modern enrollment management plan for a university. At UNM, recruiting
strategies are developed for various undergraduate market segments including
freshmen, transfers, and international students. Freshmen recruitment is
coordinated by Recruitment Services and this plan involves the most comprehensive
analysis largely made possible by the extensive amount of data and analysis
available for freshman cohorts. Recent historical trends include a low
matriculate of 1,670 new freshmen in fall 1996 and a pinnacle of 2,764
in 1999. The New Mexico Legislative Lottery Success Scholarship program
went into full effect beginning in fall 1997 and was paramount in the immediate
rise in new freshmen enrollment. Implementation of a number of new enrollment
management and recruitment strategies paralleled the emergence of the lottery
scholarship program. Beginning with fall 2000, the new freshman class size
appears to be leveling off and perhaps slightly decreasing. It appears
the non-resident market is tenuous because of recent tuition increases.
Also, it seems the enticement of the lottery tuition scholarship for the
resident population has diminished slightly amidst speculation of the demise
of funding for the program.
The university has recently adopted recruitment strategies that will support a beginning freshman class of around 2,500 students. The recruitment goals include enrolling a higher academic profile leading to higher retention rates. This strategy involves the enhancement of merit scholarship programs and intensive recruitment of top students. Other primary goals are to increase diversity among all ethnic groups at least to levels representative of the state’s population, increase non-residents to 20% of the class, increase new undergraduate international students, and maintain or increase UNM’s strong market share of New Mexico students.
Transfer recruitment is coordinated from the Office of Admissions and
includes as the natural primary feeder institutions Albuquerque TVI and
UNM branch campuses as well as other 2-year institutions in New Mexico.
Seamless articulation agreements and convenience are the keys to effective
recruitment of the adept transfer population. Branch campus feedback indicates
that scheduled visits by main campus entities including financial aid and
scholarship representatives and summer bridge programs for transfers will
improve the transfer process. Also, 2+2+2 articulation that takes students
from high school to branch campus to main campus would be effective recruitment
for the branches and subsequently the main campus. Immediate transfer recruitment
plans include increasing articulation agreements with out-of-state 2-year
institutions to increase matriculation of that population. Also, UNM will
be prepared to take advantage of the expected increase in transfers from
New Mexico 2-year institutions as more students have chosen that route
after the initial two years of the lottery scholarship.
International recruitment is just beginning to take a coordinated and
planned approach with involvement from many campus entities. A recent change
in the state Competitive Scholarship, UNM’s Amigo award, allowing the university
to offer in-state tuition to a certain number of international students
has had a positive impact on international recruiting. Essential plans
to enhance recruiting efforts in targeted markets include advanced coordination
of efforts among several offices, website upgrades for the international
segment, and recruiting plans that increase UNM’s exposure internationally.
Retention
In the Fall of 1999, the UNM first to third semester retention rate
was about 69%, six year graduation rate 36.4%, and ten year graduation
rate 47% for corresponding cohorts. These benchmarks indicate UNM was at
the bottom of the Carnegie I Research Universities. Long-time culprits
of urban institution retention problems have often been pointed out as
typical commuter issues such as poor preparation in high school, hectic
work and class schedules, and lack of connectivity to the campus and learning
environment. Additional UNM research indicated an inordinate amount of
student academic failure was a major characteristic of departure, relatively
unique to Carnegie I Research institutions. Startling statistics indicated
that 25% of all first year students were failing (<2.0 gpa) at the end
of their first year and 60% of the students who left UNM at the end of
their first year were failing. About fifty “gateway” courses were identified
as “failure” courses. Pre-college academic courses taken in high school
were a clear indicator of student success. Students who had 20 or more
pre-college units were retained at an 87% rate.2 It is clear that UNM is
unique in providing a very diverse population access to a premier research
university and it should be possible to provide these students with a successful
educational experience through improved preparation, advising, curriculum
and instruction, and support.
Preparation includes the pre-college educational experience through
public and private schools as well as experiences the university may be
able to provide to increase chances for student success. Admission standards
at UNM continue to be under ongoing scrutiny. Recent recommendations based
on student success rates include increasing gpa requirements from a 2.25
to a 2.5, requiring four years of college preparatory math instead of three
and increasing the social science requirement from two years to three years.
Also, expanding summer bridge programs will improve the preparation of
incoming first year students from under-represented groups and/or students
who may have two or more skill deficiencies. It is recommended that students
who have three skill deficiencies be required to attend a summer bridge
program. Branch campus and transfer students would also benefit from summer
bridge programs to assist their transition. This type of early outreach
would also be successful in middle schools by providing choice of curriculum
recommendations and college preparatory guidance. Early intervention with
high schools should include providing extensive feedback to administrators
about their students’ performance at the collegiate level to precipitate
possible adjustments in class content.
Advisement for new students is a decentralized process on campus that
involves a plethora of staff and faculty at all levels of responsibility
and job classification. The lack of top-level centralized leadership, organization,
and standards is indicative of the disparity of value, worth, and consequently,
the quality of advisement on campus. For example, centralized leadership
would allow for low-cost improvements such as mandatory training in the
use of the university IDMS Student Information System (SIS) and improved
communication among advisors, the Registrar’s Office, and CIRT. Advisement
should have equal value at the faculty and staff level. Faculty often advise
on course and career issues while staff advisors have access to student
records through the student information system that faculty do not. There
should be some agreement on who advises what to eliminate information gaps
that may hurt a student in the advising process.
The campus appears to be woefully short on advisors. Students who are lost in the sea of other students seeking advisement will often not seek help when needed. The suggested (NACADA) ratio of students to advisors is 200 to 1. The College of Arts and Sciences, for example, currently has a 640 to 1 ratio. This shortage encourages many support entities to take on advising responsibilities and these people need to be trained properly. Also, new and transfer students sometimes reach 60 credit hours before they receive advisement in their major, often being held in UGS until they are forced out. This is particularly problematic in attempting to graduate a student in 5 years because of the hours that end up not counting toward their degree.
The effective advisement of transfer students poses a serious retention problem. Too many faculty and staff advisors do not know how to interpret and use credit evaluations vs. course evaluations. If the course work is not evaluated for content and possible use within their curriculum, they can find themselves in their senior year with a new college advisor who won't certify their course work for graduation. This coursework needs to be evaluated up front so the student can successfully plan out their program. Placing a registration hold on transfer students until they see an advisor would help this situation. In addition, because of the nuances of the transfer process, the need for specialized transfer advisors should be considered.
Curriculum and instruction are closely tied to a large number of UNM students departing due to academic failing. Primary factors that contribute to the vast number of failures in the 50 or so “gateway” courses mentioned previously include very large class size and lack of connectivity. Freshman seminars are the first step to effectively reduce these factors. These seminars and learning communities offer new students an opportunity to study a core class such as English 101 in conjunction with a content class. The students develop a variety of academic skills in a more intimate environment that fosters a collegial connection with other students and professors. Other opportunities recommended to counter large class size include creating more lecture positions to decrease size in the highest failure rate courses and expand supplemental instruction such as that provided by the College Enrichment Program campus-wide.
It is also recommended that the university continue and expand support for the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty Development and the potential that center has to provide resources for faculty and teaching assistants to improve the quality of instruction on campus. Participants will have access to proven faculty development methods and advisors to improve instruction.
Branch campus and other 2-year schools need feedback about curriculum issues such as course content and successful student transition from 2-year school curriculum to UNM main campus curriculum and the effectiveness of student preparation. Articulation agreements should be in place with all branch campuses (and New Mexico 2-year schools). A branch campus liaison that would specifically work with issues such as course and program approvals, instructor approvals, and tenure and promotion matters would greatly assist the branches in moving forward in curriculum and instruction matters.
Support includes programs on campus that typically provide services such as supplemental instruction, tutoring, and mentoring. All are critical elements of successful retention models. At UNM, small, underfunded programs that target specific groups of students provide many of these crucial services. Programs like CEP’s Early Alert System, where faculty are asked to assess academic progress for first-year students should be implemented university-wide by asking faculty members to notify Undergraduate Studies (UGS) about failing students and UGS subsequently intervenes to offer the student assistance. In addition to early warning, El Centro De La Raza has a very successful peer-mentoring program called Amistades that should be expanded to African-American and American Indian Student Services at a minimal funding expense. University-wide implementation of a mentoring program can possibly be accomplished in conjunction with the revival of the One-on-One mentoring program administered by the Student Success Center. The Student Success Center is also valuable in helping students negotiate the bureaucracy at UNM. Continued improvement in customer service and university systems involving financial aid, billing, registration, and other data reporting particularly associated with the Student Information System would also have a large positive impact on student service and the elimination of impeding bureaucracy.
One of the most successful programs for higher achieving students is the University Honors Program. The program provides challenging, interdisciplinary liberal arts education for highly motivated undergraduates. It also provides students from various majors an opportunity for open discourse on a wide range of topics where perspectives from various disciplines can be exchanged and challenged. University Honors is primarily responsible for UNM having one of the best records of success for student awards in the entire country.
Financial aid and scholarship support for students is a critical issue. Need-based funding for UNM students is a particular concern. There are extremely limited institutional grant funds available for need-based funding. With New Mexico’s population being among the neediest in the country, the gap between cost of attendance and need-based grant awards has widened significantly. Borrowing to finance educational expenses is skyrocketing. A concerted university effort to expand grants for need-based awards should be undertaken. It is also critical to continually expand merit scholarships for targeted groups of students to remain competitive. Recent tuition increases mandate special funding for non-residents to compete with UNM’s strongest competitors. Retention scholarships for students who lose a top academic scholarship would assist a number of students who lose their awards and cannot afford to continue at UNM.
Other support improvements may include a “beginning of school” rally
to immediately create a sense of unity, excitement and connectivity to
UNM and a reassessment of the university-wide tutoring system and how it
can be improved.
Enrollment Management
The process of coordinating and directing all of the functions of enrollment
including recruitment, registration, retention, curriculum management,
data reporting etc. is enrollment management. Qualities of effective enrollment
management include central leadership and involvement from a large representation
of campus entities that unites the essential enrollment functions of student
affairs, academic affairs, business and finance, institutional advancement,
and other university divisions. UNM enrollment management should continue
to be directed by the Student Affairs vice president and membership should
continue to represent the functions mentioned above. This has been an effective
structure in moving the university from virtually no enrollment management
to continuous and coordinated enrollment planning. Enrollment management
must incorporate strategies such as annual and long-term planning, continuous
market research, and extensive reporting and database tracking related
to enrollment.
Accurate and comprehensive enrollment data reporting is imperative
for successful enrollment management. The current Student Information System
has many deficiencies that engender reporting problems for several departments
that provide the critical reporting that drives the decisions made pertaining
to enrollment management. The Student Information System must be replaced
or significantly upgraded for UNM to achieve maximum effectiveness in the
enrollment management efforts. A new system can also have a positive impact
on efficient and modern recruitment of prospects, simplified admission
processes, earlier financial aid awarding, maintaining and improving critical
I-TEL-UNM services, better control of student registration and advisement,
advanced e-mail contact with students, and flexible web-based applications.
Conclusion
The Strategic Planning Working Committee for Undergraduate Student
Recruitment, Retention, Support, and Enrollment management membership
represented an excellent group of professionals that work at the core of
the subjects this committee was charged to examine: What are we doing in
these areas? What should we be doing? How does it fit together? How well
are we doing it? What are the gaps in these areas? The committee members
did an excellent job of sharing their expertise and providing comprehensive
answers to these questions with solutions and recommendations derived from
utilizing the university’s strengths in the areas of recruitment, retention,
support, and enrollment management and addressing the weaknesses of these
critical areas. The results are summarized in this document.
It should be noted that extensive thought in each of these areas was given to all university entities outside of the main campus including North Campus, South Campus, Extended University, and particularly, branch campuses. Branch campus issues are mentioned throughout the document and in some instances may not be mentioned specifically as branch campus problems but are applicable as weaknesses and solutions.
Summary Page of Recommendations
Student Recruitment