Action Project Annual Update: Increase quality, quantity and diversity
of students through strategic enrollment management (6/1/20069/1/2008)
Question One:
Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.
While DSU’s Action Projects One and Two focus on initiatives related to retention,
Action Project Three focuses on recruitment, with the primary goal of substantially
increasing the on-campus student population. In addition to a comprehensive strategic
enrollment plan for overall enrollment increases, DSU will also focus additional
resources on recruiting and retaining high ability students (as measured by composite
ACT scores) and special populations that are currently underrepresented (e.g. women in
selected technology fields, and the Native American population).
DSU contracted with Noel-Levitz, Inc. to develop a comprehensive strategic enrollment
plan. The contract with Noel-Levitz included the following components related to
recruitment: consulting services for inquiry pool development, targeted relationship
building via publications and systematic communications management for students and
parents (print, web, email, and phone), institutional aid awarding strategies, installation of
a territory management recruitment model and other market penetration and development
strategies. Noel-Levitz conducted market research to determine how to effectively
position the institution and provided quality customer service training.
Noel-Levitz also assisted DSU in analyzing data from previously enrolled freshmen
classes in order to develop a custom predictive model to statistically rate, by likelihood to
enroll, each student inquiry. DSU then developed a follow-up plan based on inquiry
model scores to concentrate recruitment efforts.
The University’s 2008 strategic enrollment goal is to have 1600 on-campus
undergraduate students enrolled. Preliminary fall 2006 numbers indicate 1275
undergraduate main campus students. The average ACT for incoming traditional
freshmen was 21.0 for Fall 2005; the preliminary average ACT for Fall 2006 freshmen
will be available in September.
Additional Key Accomplishments:
1) Online weekly admissions reports: DSU’s Admission and Computing Services staff
developed weekly admissions reports to track critical information on prospective
students. The reports are available to administrators, faculty and staff on a passwordprotected website.
2) Communications Center: Admission and Computing Services staff developed a
student communications center (telecounseling). The comprehensive communication
plan now includes regularly scheduled phone calls and email messages from current
students to prospective students. Various reports and tracking mechanisms were
developed within the current student information system.
3) Scholarships: The Champion Scholarship program, a guaranteed academic scholarship
implemented initially for Fall 2003 freshmen, was revamped and made available earlier
in the recruiting cycle. This allowed the admission staff the opportunity to effectively
market the program. Two additional changes were made to the Champion Scholarship
program for 2006-2007: 1) a transfer student Champion Scholarship was created. 2)
added a minimum High School GPA requirement for freshmen eligibility.
4) Living and Learning Community: The Retention Specialist, faculty from College of
Business and Information Systems and the Registrar developed DSU’s first Living and
Learning Community to support recruitment and retention of women in technology.
Freshmen women in selected technology majors were invited to participate in the
community, assigned to live in the same dorm, and were registered in the same section of
GS 100: University Experience. Six freshmen are participating in the program for Fall
2006.
5) Publications and marketing: To enhance recruitment, DSU developed new recruitment
publications following the recommendations of the market research that was conducted.
The series of publications was awarded “Best in Show” by the Admission and Marketing
Report in 2006. DSU also published student, faculty, staff and university successes on
the DSU webpage and DSU Alumni magazine.
6) Enhanced web presence: DSU invested resources in the creation of a new overall web
presence to coordinate with the newly updated recruitment publications. Admission
Genie was purchased to enhance the admission website providing targeted message
delivery and community building tools for prospective students.
7) Other new recruitment activities: DSU implemented a direct email campaign targeting
high school juniors and seniors using a predictive model aimed at prospective students
prior to the name buy. The DSU Alumni hosted gatherings of secondary school
administrators, teachers and alumni in key recruitment areas. For the 2006-2007
recruitment cycle, admission staff registered for college fairs in western Wisconsin,
signed a 3-year agreement with Student Paths Minnesota edition, enhanced on-campus
events such as Discover DSU Day and New Student Registration and Orientation and
strengthened relationships with on-campus conference participants which included
teachers, administrators and athletic camp participants. We have also had preliminary
discussions with staff from the Alumni office to develop an alumni recruiting network.
8) Training: Enrollment Services staff had various training opportunities, including best
practices in recruitment and enrollment planning, financial aid and quality customer
service. DSU’s Diversity Services also provided additional diversity training for the
enrollment services staff.
9) Technology: Computing Services implemented data management services based on
best practices identified by the Noel-Levitz consulting firm.
Question Two:
Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.
Several campus committees played an active role in the development and implementation
of this AQIP Action Project. During Fall 2005 and Spring 2006, as part of the
university’s institutional effectiveness activities, functional units on campus identified
their plans to support the implementation of this action plan. A total of 26 plans were
submitted and the Institutional Effectiveness Committee and the Director of Admissions
were identified as the champions for the action project. These individual action plans
were loaded on the university’s internal AQIP website.
To implement the Noel-Levitz financial aid impact research results including scholarship
program modifications, the financial aid and admission staff worked with the President,
the DSU Foundation, and the Noel-Levitz consultant to determine scholarship funding
and levels of awards.
Admission staff and production center staff developed the first ad for Student Paths and
requested feedback from university relations to be implemented into future ads.
Computing Services staff provided support to ensure the response rates are tracked within
the student information system.
Computing Services also developed web-based reporting of weekly admission data and
provided the necessary programming in Colleague to implement the student
communication center initiatives.
The President, VP for Business & Administrative Services, VP for Student Affairs,
Resident Directors and students worked to update DSU’s facilities to stay competitive
and to provide the best environment for students.
The website revisions involved discussions with VP of Student Affairs, marketing
director, webmaster, Computing Services staff and students.
Enrollment Services works in cooperation with University Relations to schedule the
events, invite selected populations, schedule presentations, determine menu and
coordinate transportation. Faculty members present information to attendees at several of
the events.
Question Three
Describe your planned next steps for this Action Project.
The university will continue to monitor the strategic enrollment efforts through the use of
the weekly admission reports. The University purchased an online data system,
Dashboard, which will serve as a link between the student information systems and the
enrollment data to track progress toward the strategic enrollment initiatives.
Future activities:
1) Communications: Information will be added to the transfer student communication
track to make them aware of the new orientation program. Post-card announcements will
be sent with a follow-up phone call to Wisconsin area students for the college fairs
scheduled for early October. The two remaining ads for Student Paths for this year are
due December 1st and March 1st. An alumni recruiting network plan will be developed
with implementation scheduled yet for this year.
2) On-campus activities: To support recruitment, the conferencing program will have a
web presence with pictures from previous years’ activities. The DSU Bookstore will
track percentage of Discover Days coupons redeemed to provide a baseline rate to be
improved upon the following year and track online orders of clothing and gift items per
semester to increase awareness of the products the Bookstore offers. Campus staff will
continue to give presentations to students and parents during on-campus events (e.g.
Discover Day) and continue to work with diversity staff to attract and retain diverse
students.
3) Evaluations: Develop tracking strategies to evaluate the marketing efforts.
4) Marketing successes: The Career Services staff will solicit input from alumni director
and new Career Advisory Council to identify additional opportunities to publicize DSU
placement rates.
5) Recruitment: Diversity Services will increase the number of visits and promote more
active involvement with the Native American two-year colleges.
Question Four:
Describe any "effective practice(s)" that resulted from your work on this Action Project.
There were several new processes developed that may be beneficial to other universities:
1) The financial aid impact research project was developed to determine scholarship
amounts across various ACT ranges for new freshmen.
2) The online weekly admission reports was developed to track number of inquiries,
applicants, accepted and enrolled students as a whole and within specific populations.
3) DSU developed an automated process to streamline the scholarship awards in a
timely, “no hassle’ format.
Question Five:
What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?
DSU is faced with several challenges: declining high school graduates in South Dakota,
increased competition from peers in-state and from surrounding states and limited
availability of funds to effectively market the institution.
DSU will be challenged to identify marketing strategies that are effective for diverse
student populations and to evaluate the types of data that are essential in determining
effectiveness of the program.