Kim presents initial enrollment strategy to faculty
University of Idaho Vice Provost of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Jean Kim said increasing enrollment is a high institutional priority and urged frequent communication among UI leaders to make it happen.
Kim took helm of Enrollment Management in January and presented her plan regarding UI’s enrollment future to Faculty Senate members Tuesday.
The Enrolment Management Council (EMC), a team dedicated to formulating a strategic plan, met three times since its formation in January, and Kim said the group aims to have a strategic enrollment plan completed by May. The council is comprised of UI’s eight undergraduate deans, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Jeanne Stevenson, Faulty Senate Chair Marty Ytreberg and Kim.
“We really want the group to be able to move and make important decisions, but we’ve also have made arrangements to hear from various campus groups,” Kim said.
Although the group is small, Kim said bringing in outside perspectives helps EMC make informed decisions.
She said the goal, which aligns with UI President Chuck Staben’s, is to increase enrollment by 50 percent over the next 10 years. Kim said the council is looking at both long and short-term strategies to do so.
“We’ve identified sort of generally eight various objectives that we want to accomplish,” Kim said.
Kim said one of the objectives is to increase the population of students of color as enrollment grows.
Yvonne Nyavor, Faculty Senate member and graduate student, said she knows many minority students have trouble finding a place at UI.
“Making people feel at home here will make them want to stay,” Nyavor said.
Kim said retention is a crucial part of increasing enrollment and agrees EMC needs to focus on retention, particularly as a long-term goal to make an enrollment increase sustainable.
Kim said the EMC is looking at UI data, as well as data from five peer institutions on what does and does not work for increasing enrollment.
“There’s really not a whole lot new under the sun,” Kim said after looking at the five peer institution’s strategies.
Allan Caplan, Faculty Senate member from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences said he thinks EMC should look beyond the five institutions already identified as peer universities.
“If you’re only looking at universities on their geographic basis or their size basis, you may be missing the universities that are succeeding,” he said.
Wendy Couture, Faculty Senate member from the College of Law in Boise, said a struggle she faced is convincing students to move from an urban setting, like Boise, to Moscow’s rural campus.
“We also know that once we get students on campus and they get some experience as to what it’s like to be in Moscow, it often helps,” Kim said.
Kim said the EMC is focusing on increasing enrollment in Moscow as well as the other extension campus locations. She said the team is also looking closing at distance education opportunities and how it may affect enrollment.
A strategy in conversation is to strengthen community college relations by guaranteeing admission to Idaho community college graduates with associate degrees, Kim said.
Additionally, Kim said more relationship building should be done with high school counselors so students feel there is a more direct path to UI.
Cody Earl, Faculty Senate member and law student, said collaboration should be done with UI’s current students to accurately assess UI’s environment and encourage an enrollment increase.
“It seems to me there’s a morale that’s lacking on campus,” Earl said. “I think that a lot of valuable resources are right here, going to classes everyday.”
Kim said UI should make better use of current students through listening and engaging with them and the relationship should continue with alumni.
Senators expressed concerns about enrollment strategies and their specificity.
Stephan Flores, Faculty Senate member from the College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences, said he’s worried about full-time undergraduate student enrollment decreasing substantially over the past five years.
Flores asked Kim how the strategic plan would address specific colleges and program needs.
“The downward trend of enrollment for CLASS is not unique, almost every college — every undergraduate college — has had the same experience over five years,” Kim said.
Although the enrollment trends are not unique, Kim said the recruitment and retention strategies for each college would need to be.
Kim said the EMC is addressing concerns of bottlenecks, or enrollment hurdles, including lab, classroom and dormitory space.
“At least, in the near term, for most places there’s capacity in terms of classrooms,” Kim said. “We believe that in the near term, we’re going to have capacity curricular and co-curricular interests.”
Katelyn Hilsenbeck can be reached at [email protected]