Enrollment Management Plan
Eighteen months ago ASU retained a professional firm to provide assistance in the development of an enrollment management plan for the Jonesboro campus. This effort was conducted in response to an observation made by the Higher Learning Commission as part of an accreditation review in 2003.

The response to satisfy accreditation concerns and a methodology to stem declining enrollments at Jonesboro are among the most significant institutional initiatives undertaken in several years.

Dr. Jim Black, our consultant, came to campus this week to conclude the enrollment management planning activity, and to start us on the path to change our enrollment outlook for the future.

They rewrote the book on our enrollment plans, and have focused on several areas that are critical to enrollment success.

In the area of undergraduate student recruitment and enrollment, we have plans to raise admission standards over the next several years. We have directed attention toward students who have an expectation for success at the university level.

We have identified a priority for recruitment of students in our local markets, and those who are successful in the two-year colleges. We have developed means to address these and other students through targeted marketing, especially incorporating e-mail contact and tracking systems.

Our last First Friday report cited the greatest graduate level enrollment in history. We plan to develop additional graduate student participation through graduate assistant stipends and graduate fellowship support. Graduate program directors will participate in recruiting workshops to sharpen their skills.

New graduate programs at the master's and doctoral levels will provide additional capacity for students, while we also seek diversity within that number through McNair scholar and international student recruitment.

More scholarship funds will be offered to more students and performance-based scholarship support will be increased. Incentive scholarship awards for two-year college students will be at an all-time high. We will continue to address the special needs of first-generation college students, before and after enrollment.

After the enrollment of all entering students, we face the challenge of retention and timely progress through to graduation. Next year we will see the development of new residential requirements and an array of First-Year Experience initiatives.

Student participation in these initiatives will take on new significance because of the dedication of faculty members who will concentrate on the goal of retention and support in the crucial first year. These efforts will make ASU distinctive among universities in the region.

Special and increased attention will be directed to advising and learning assistance initiatives. New on-line interactive support will augment the work of highly trained professionals in these areas.

The student services component of enrollment management will focus on the growing population of non-traditional students. New service support amenities for this population will, hopefully, be added next year.

An attempt will be made to develop a unique ASU experience for all constituents, and to monitor the campus climate, or morale, of students, faculty, and staff.

We already have had many positive responses to the "Powering Minds" brand. This development was a goal announced at the beginning of the year, and is also in response to the strategic plan initiatives related to image and institutional definition. The new image is a good visual statement with a strong message about what we do here every day.

Thanks to all who had a hand in or contributed thoughts to the enrollment management plan. Our consultant commends the collective effort as one of the best he has seen in many years of experience on many campuses.

But he also cautions that our effort must be maintained, modified, and improved continuously in the face of stiff competition for students. The data in the previous First Friday amplify his observation and make us more aware of our challenges.

Chancellor Search
The chancellor search process is another effort that secured the services of a professional consulting company, and identified a specialist to assist the campus committee of faculty, staff, and students. Like the enrollment study, details of the search process have been reported in several previous First Friday issues.

In the chancellor search, confidentiality of the process used to identify prospective candidates came to be a contentious issue. The search firm, which uses a proprietary system of candidate recruitment, has withdrawn from the process citing conflict with Arkansas Freedom of Information laws that may affect confidential searches. The firm, understandably, does not wish to publicize its proprietary process.

Also at issue is whether or not individuals would care to have publicity regarding their attention to and interest in the chancellor search. Many persons will decide about entering a search based upon assurances of confidentiality until the late stages of the process.

We are additionally concerned about whether each and every meeting of the Search Advisory Committee, whose members are identified in the last First Friday report, would be considered as a meeting open to the public. We question whether materials generated by the committee would be public records, including notes, correspondence, minutes, and notations of telephone calls.

We now have concerns about the ability to conduct frank and often critical conversations in such meetings and especially about people who may be total strangers. Candor, which we value, may be limited because of openness.

We are on the search schedule projected earlier. Only now, the search will be conducted internally without the assistance of a professional consultant. This will add challenges of effort, participation, and perhaps, issues of interest among those we would have hoped to attract as our new chancellor and next campus leader.

We will know more about the search process and its direction by the next issue of First Friday and will bring that news to the campus.

This has been a report of progress, great progress on one front, and a setback, a minor setback, on another. Our future remains bright and our present is strong.

Thank you for reading First Friday. If you have questions about this or any other aspect of Arkansas State University, please contact me at president@astate.edu.