Enrollment Policies and Incentives
Enrollment policies play a critical role in retention and degree completion as they set the tone
in how easy or difficult the student will find navigating the system in working toward their
degree. Communication about policies and key graduation requirements is absolutely essential
for students to seamlessly progress toward graduation. In addition, who we recruit and how
we support those students also play critical roles in retention and degree completion. It is
essential we have policies which maintain standards yet don’t unnecessarily burden students in
order to positively impact our retention and degree completion rates.
Current or Recent Strategies:
In recent years EMU has implemented several new policies which have helped us to be more
consistent across departmental and divisional lines. Changes were made to the undergraduate
academic standing policy which aligned it with the financial aid Satisfactory Academic Progress
policy. Students must now meet the same criteria for both - which has helped to eliminate
much confusion and frustration. In addition, changes to the grading practices have been put in
place to require last date of attendance for Failing and Incomplete grades. This allows for
adherence with federal financial aid policies. Forms which document requirements for
completion after an Incomplete grade is submitted are now in use as well.
Recommended Key Actions:
Recruiting strategies: The committee recommends doing an evaluation of current recruiting
practices. After researching this area and reading about some of the best practices related to
recruiting, ideas which sparked the interest of the committee included:
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Possible increases in the recruitment/enrollment of international students as they tend
to have higher (and more timely) graduation rates, and also tend to live on campus
Currently our BOR policy 14.2.1 stipulates that first and second year students must live
on campus if their home address is outside a 50 mile radius of campus. We recommend
removing the second year requirement from this policy and keeping only the first year
requirement. This is a policy which hasn’t been enforced for many years and may be
turning off potential students/parents.
We also feel there is a need to increase services for students with transfer credit as they
apply/enroll at EMU. There are currently plans in place to have a Transfer Center in
McKenny. This center could take the lead on providing clear information about transfer
equivalencies (including those scheduled to occur) and ensure we clearly identify those
transfer courses which meet general education requirements or are direct equivalents
to EMU courses. In addition, this center could assist with the consolidation of
international and domestic tabulation of credit.
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Lastly, we could explore deepening relationships with key community colleges by
allowing shared access to online portals to expedite the admission and advising
processes
Limits for students returning to EMU after dismissal: Our committee recommends putting a
policy in place which would allow EMU the option of limiting the number of credit hours
students may take per semester for those who have been granted permission to return to EMU
after dismissal.
Recommended advising-related policies: There are circumstances which seem to dictate
students meet with an advisor. Many times the circumstances are indicators of a bigger
problem – yet if the student chooses not to speak with a representative of the University, we
aren’t aware of the problem(s) and how we might assist the student. With this in mind, our
committee recommends requiring students meet with an academic advisor in the following
situations:
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When a full time student earns less than 24 hours in a year, or is on academic probation
(before registering for the next semester)
When students who have earned more than 150 credits do not have a degree (before
registering for the next semester)
When a student changes their major two or more times in a single semester (either with
an academic advisor or career coach –before the change of major form is processed)
Graduation clearance: We recommend students only receive graduation clearance from
Records and Registration after registering for their last course(s). It is the opinion of this
committee that all prior contact should be with an academic advisor in terms of what degree
requirements have been satisfied and what they have yet to complete.
Require major declaration: We also believe it would help our time to graduation if students
were required to have a declared major (intent is acceptable) no later than the semester in
which they have earned 55 hours.
Academic programs: Lastly, our committee recommends a curricular review to ensure that all
programs are offered in a way that allows for 4-year graduation (also recommended by the
Curriculum Structure and Service Delivery work group).