Enrollment Management Conference Talks Retention, Data

BALTIMORE—Strategic enrollment management is 50 years old. 

The practice, by which institutions aim to reach their enrollment goals through a holistic focus on everything from recruitment to graduation, has become a key concept in higher education, especially as institutions navigate a tumultuous landscape rife with threats to their enrollments. Originally known simply as enrollment management, the strategy was first conceived in 1974 by Boston College’s then–executive vice president Frank Campanella in a memo at a perhaps equally difficult time: the post–baby boom enrollment crisis. (The term first appeared in print in 1976, which is why 2026 is considered SEM’s semicentennial.)

At the time, Campanella wrote that enrollment management would “shortly be the ‘name of the game.’” Attendees at this year’s Strategic Enrollment Management Conference would likely agree.

But SEM, as those in the field call it, has changed a lot in half a century. On display at the conference, which is organized each year by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers and was hosted at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, were new ideas about how to use artificial intelligence in enrollment management, fervent discussions of the so-called demographic cliff and deep dives into how institutions use data to inform enrollment decisions.

Melanie Gottlieb, AACRAO’s executive director, noted that of the association’s various convenings, the SEM conference is the one that attracts the most “data nerds.” AI has been exciting for the SEM community, she said, because it can make enrollment analysis more accessible to those without a traditional data background.

“There’s this balance between using AI to understand data or to drive automation on things so that there is more time and space for the human touch, which is really required in an enrollment space,” she said. “Students don’t want to be thought about as numbers.”

Other key themes included institutions’ efforts to attract nontraditional students, making enrollment seamless for students and the importance of retention in strategic enrollment management. Read on to learn more about Inside Higher Ed’s top takeaways from the conference, which wraps up today.

1. Nontraditional students take center stage

Many sessions focused on nontraditional students, from adult learners at large to veterans, as well as dual-enrollment students—high schoolers taking college courses—which is one of the fastest-growing enrollment sectors.

Institutions across the country are increasingly relying on students outside of the traditional secondary school pipeline to bolster enrollment, especially with high school graduation pools shrinking in some states. That means traditional enrollment management practices have to adapt, panelists from Indiana University said at a presentation about online students.

The panel, which highlighted the university’s growing online population, argued that traditional SEM is built on a “predictable student acquisition pathway” that follows the institution’s application and admission timeline. But online students, they argued, often juggle their education with paid work and families and need institutions to be responsive to their schedules. They don’t want to wait months after they apply to hear if they are admitted, said Whitnie Powell, IU Online’s assistant vice president of enrollment management and student services; when they apply, it’s often when they’re ready to get started.

The panelists also said that many online students don’t fit neatly into labels like “new student” or “continuing student.” Internal research at IU Online showed that about 11 percent of students were returning after having stopped out more than two years prior, and 86 percent of those previously stopped-out students had been in-person learners in the past. Those students may have needs that differ from those of their peers who started their degrees online, for instance, or who never took a break from school.

Another session, presented by Thomas Soule, associate director of learning evaluations for the American Council on Education, focused on credit for prior learning—including trainings and military experience—for military members. Soule noted that accepting these credits and ensuring CPL policies are clear and easy for prospective students to find can play a valuable role in attracting military learners.

2. An emphasis on ease

Speakers highlighted their institutions’ efforts to decrease friction for applicants, from simplifying scholarships through tuition promise programs to hiring new staff to help smooth the matriculation process for new students.

Danny Hodorowski, who has served as the new student liaison for the National University of Health Sciences since 2025, has one-on-one meetings with every single admitted student to ensure they don’t experience bumps in the enrollment process. He double-checks all of their files, ensures their background checks are completed, helps them arrange housing and more, with the goal of reducing summer melt.

“It’s a total onboarding experience for them before they get to campus,” he said.

Though he doesn’t yet have data on how the role has impacted yield, Hodorowski said during his presentation, he believes that the melt the university experienced this year mostly had to do with students’ personal circumstances rather than anything the university could have done differently.

In presentations about financial aid, speakers also emphasized the importance of clarity and straightforward language. That’s exemplified by a recent surge in tuition promise programs, in which colleges say they will cover all tuition for families below specific income thresholds. In most cases, that’s not a significant change in how the money is distributed, but more a shift in marketing: advertising “free tuition” makes sense to families, whereas industry jargon does not.

“Families do not know what ‘demonstrated unmet need’ is … it was so unclear and confusing that it really made no sense” to use that language, said Jay Goff, vice president and dean of enrollment management and student success at George Washington University. The institution launched its Revolutionary Promise for students with family incomes under $150,000 this fall.

IU’s presentation on online learners also pointed out places institutions can remove friction from the admissions process for those students, such as by limiting how many different offices they have to interface with. And Chris Foley, associate vice president for IU Online, took issue with the notion that students who want a seamless process are just lazy.

“[Students] are just like us, to tell you the truth. I wouldn’t spend more than five minutes to register for a Netflix account, but I’ll happily watch 16 hours of Stranger Things. I want good content; I don’t want [to be] struggling with friction,” he said.

3. Retention as enrollment management

Multiple speakers noted that recruiting new students is seen as the glitzy, attractive part of enrollment management. But retention—keeping recruits at the university from year to year—also plays a major role.

The importance of retention has sometimes been obscured by its place in the structure of a university. Historically, “everybody is responsible for retention, but no one is accountable” for it, said Stanley Henderson, retired vice chancellor for enrollment management and student life at the University of Michigan–Dearborn and AACRAO consultant emeritus, during a session on the history of SEM.

Kay Eilers, who leads the Division of Strategic Enrollment Management and Student Success at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, echoed that sentiment. Her institution recently launched a strategic enrollment plan featuring retention as one of its two pillars, and that work has involved making strategic enrollment a campuswide initiative that involves everyone from student life administrators to the faculty.

“When we hear about recruitment, there are people who are hired for that to be their primary role,” she said. “But it’s really about the environment that we’re creating … if the student doesn’t have a great experience in the classroom or in regards to student life, they might not stay.”