As part of the strategic plan launched in 2018, the enrollment management team supports student success by recruiting and enrolling students with the motivation, disposition and ability to succeed, and facilitating their retention and graduation in collaboration with others. Enrollment management focuses on the following:
The Admissions team functions in overdrive during the fall, traveling to college fairs, hundreds of high schools and other recruitment events; reviewing and managing the applicant pool and thousands of on-campus visitors. Tikiya Henry, M.S.Ed., campus experience recruitment coordinator, and a team of more than 25 admissions ambassadors is phenomenal as they manage campus tours and traffic of college counselors, prospective students and their families.
More than 1,300 visitors attended the University’s fall open house alone. Utilizing the RECRUIT software platform, Nikoia Forde, MBA ’11 director of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, has been instrumental in streamlining the process and the University’s ability to — among other things — communicate, evaluate and manage prospective students and the thousands of forms and data. Experiencing an upward trend in applicants by 12 percent as of January, Lincoln is on target to meet its fall 2019 enrollment goals.
Led by director Kim Anderson, the financial aid team increased the number of students completing the FAFSA application prior to the end of the fall semester through a series of fall initiatives. The goal was to ensure that students received the support they needed to complete FAFSA applications. These efforts included conducting daily FAFSA workshops, visiting students in the residence halls and hosting the first annual food-FAFSAfootball event on a Sunday afternoon in the Student Union Building. Additional initiatives on the horizon include creation of videos to help students gain invaluable information about financial aid processes and the development of a financial literacy program that will educate students about credit, borrowing, budgeting and other money matters.
The Registrar’s Office is working to improve technology that will streamline registration, grading and transfer processes. Catherine Rutledge, MBA, registrar, plans to work with IT to introduce an imaging system and explore the potential of the current Ellucian Colleague Student Planning system to create academic plans that help students stay on track toward academic program completion and graduation.
Sgt. Tamarkius Roby ’18, veterans affairs coordinator, in November was appointed to the Board of the Association of Veterans Education Certifying Officials. Since his arrival in July, Roby has collaborated with admissions to increase and improve veteran students’ campus experience.
With the support of campus partners, enrollment management will create an online virtual one-stop portal to support enrollment, retention and persistence. It will serve as an information source for new and returning students about admissions, financial aid, bursar, advising, residence life, health services and registration. The goal is to streamline frequently asked questions posed by students during their onboarding process and providing information to returning students and parents to eliminate enrollment barriers.
Enrollment management believes that the virtual one-stop will be a huge asset as we continue to think strategically about the campus experience of existing, new and returning students. The goal is to have the virtual one-stop functional by late April. Enrollment management also plans to support student success by implementing a centralized call center staffed only by students. The center will support the University’s co-curricular initiatives by hiring and training students to respond to inbound calls and emails from students and families. Stay tuned.
