Episode 56: Cedric Howard on Enrollment Management through Niche Recruitment and Retention
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What are the big shifts enrollment management and student affairs professionals need to make for the future? How can you strike the balance between big tents and niche communities? How can you link recruitment with retention? We discuss these great questions with Cedric Howard, Vice Chancellor of Strategic Enrollment Management at Seattle Colleges District
In the high-stakes world, the landscape of higher education is undergoing a seismic shift. For decades, institutions treated recruitment and retention as separate gears in a machine, often working in isolation. However, according to Cedric Howard, Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Services at the University of Northern Colorado, the future of higher education lies in a unified "ecosystem" where the student journey is viewed as a single, continuous thread from middle school interest to postgraduate alumni engagement.
Redefining Enrollment Management: More Than Just Headcounts
On many campuses, enrollment is traditionally defined by the number of first-time, first-year students. Howard challenges this narrow view, suggesting that Enrollment Management is actually comprised of two macro areas: recruitment and retention. Crucially, retention is the foundation of the admissions process.
Instead of seeing these functions as mutually exclusive, leaders must view them as an integrated "service-based organization." The goal isn't just to manage a list of names but to provide a centralized service body that interacts with academic planning, facilities, and modality to support the entire enterprise. When an institution manages enrollment effectively, it ensures both the quality and quantity of students necessary to meet its mission and maintain financial solvency.
Moving from College-Ready to Student-Ready
One of the most significant shifts in the post-pandemic era is the realization that institutions can no longer simply expect students to be "college-ready." Instead, colleges must become student-ready.
This generation of students is highly informed but has navigated a fragmented educational journey due to virtual learning and a lack of traditional support systems like high school guidance counselors. They arrive on campus with different needs—ranging from food and housing insecurity to severe requirements for mental stability and social belonging. A "student-ready" college builds the infrastructure to meet students where they are, rather than where the institution wishes they were.
Building Niche Communities: Moving Beyond the "Big Tent"
In the past, institutions relied on "big tent" events—like major athletic games—to do the heavy lifting of building school spirit and affinity. While those still matter, today’s students are socialized to find connection in smaller, thematic-based groups.
Howard emphasizes the importance of "niche-based" engagement. Whether it is a gaming community, a club sports floor in a residence hall, or an "antisocial social club" where students gather to work quietly together, these smaller pockets of belonging are what drive student retention. By acknowledging that a student's major and their social interests may not always align, colleges can create a more inclusive ethos that anchors a student to the campus.
The Team Approach: Integrating Parents and Support Structures
A common hurdle in higher education has been the "FERPA wall"—the idea that once a student arrives, the parents are shut out. However, modern student success requires a "team approach." Parents and parental support structures have led these students' educational interactions for eighteen years; that doesn't stop on move-in day.
Effective enrollment strategies now integrate parents into the communication plan. By proactively sharing information about registration, housing sign-ups, and campus activities with families, institutions create a secondary support layer. When a parent knows what is happening on campus, they can provide the necessary "nudge" to keep the student on track, transforming the family into a partner in the student’s success.
Conclusion: The New Custodians of the Student Journey
Ultimately, the enrollment management operation serves as the primary custodial unit of the student experience. By leveraging data to understand a student’s background long before they arrive and providing "intrusive" support services like case management and peer mentoring, colleges can ensure that the student journey doesn't just end at enrollment—it leads to completion.
Episode 56 Transcript
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Elliot Felix: Welcome to the Connected College Podcast. I'm your host, Elliot Felix. I've helped more than a hundred colleges and universities change what they offer, how they operate, and how they're organized to enable student success. And if you're a leader in higher ed, and you think that the silos and separations get in the way of student success, then this podcast and my upcoming book, The Connected College, are for you. We're here to learn and work together to bust silos, question tradition, and forge partnerships so that students feel connected to their college, their community, their coursework and their careers.
Speaker 2: I can't think of a time I've seen Cedric without a bow tie. I also can't think of a time when I haven't learned something revelatory from a conversation with him. In this interview, he reflects on three decades in student affairs and enrollment management to share some of the key shifts colleges and universities must make to link recruitment and retention and to compliment big tents with communities where students find their niche. I think you'll really appreciate his perspective and advice.
Elliot Felix: Welcome, Cedric. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in Enrollment Management.
Cedric: Thank you, Elliot. Uh, it's truly an honor and pleasure to have the opportunity to discuss, um, Enrollment Management and Student Success. Um, I am in my 30th year of higher education. Um, I've, um, served in a senior capacity role in Enrollment Services and Student Affairs. Probably for 23 of those years at various institutions. Currently, I'm in my second year at University of Northern Colorado as the Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Services. I also serve as peer consultant, uh, with ACRO to help support institutions from various backgrounds, uh, compositions and higher education systems to address and respond to enrollment related topics that they may need to address on their particular, uh, college campus. And so, um, this is something that I enjoy. Um, this is something that I, you know, really appreciate. And, you know, really having a firm understanding of the student journey, uh, pre enrollment, enrollment, and, and preparation for post graduate, uh, involvement as an alum and, or graduate school.
Elliot Felix: That's awesome. What does ACRO stand for?
Cedric: So ACRO is the national organization that oversees admissions, register, financial aid, all of the enrollment related topics.
Elliot Felix: How does that relate to NACAC? Competing or overlapping or what?
Cedric: Well, um, the official organization, uh, is the American Association of Collegiate Registers and Admissions Officers, and it's kind of the governing body that pulls all of the enrollment related topics um, into an organized professional, uh, forum.
Elliot Felix: Gotcha. Backing up a little bit. Could you give us Your definition of enrollment management um, and all it encompasses. Some people might even be wondering how that relates to like admissions, for instance.
Cedric: So, there two primary components of enrollment. Oftentimes the common definition of enrollment on many college campuses is first time, first year students. Um, and they oftentimes establish enrollment bills based upon the new first time students. Uh, but enrollment is really comprised of two primary, what are considered to be macro areas. It is the recruitment and admissions of students and it's the retention of students. Um, and the retention is actually the core, the foundation of the admissions process. And so when you're looking at enrollment, uh, you have to consider the students that are coming in and the students that you're retaining. And oftentimes we see them as mutually exclusive and they're actually, you know, uh, integral to support each other because one of the greatest recruiters that you have at your particular institution are other students. And addressing students from that perspective and really putting as the focus of enrollment management, uh, is extremely important to address the retention side.
Cedric: Oftentimes, in conversations, say that really we're not managing enrollment, Uh, because on many college campuses, the enrollment apparatus is actually a service based organization, um, to serve the organization, uh, to meet its financial goals and, or, uh, goals as it relates to how it identifies and so, um, oftentimes try to flip it around to say, this is enrollment services, uh, because when you look at management, it takes a enterprise approach, the entire organization institution in order to manage enrollment. Um, uh, it may be centrally located for the actions and programs and services and actual activity, but the interaction has to occur with academic planning, facility management, uh, modality. Um, uh, for me, um, serving as a central repository for all those services is enrollment management. But really serving as a, uh centralized service body to the institution itself.
Elliot Felix: So you have the two core functions of Recruitment versus retention. Are those, uh, you know, you gave one example of how they relate in terms of, you know, current students are your best recruiting tool. Um, and I know, like, one of my favorite questions in our survey is around, uh, you know, likelihood to recommend, you know, the network motor score. But, um, like, what are some ways that those two activities relate, you know, are they ever intention or conflict?
Cedric: There should be a lot of integration. I don't often times refer to it as seamless, but there should be a, a, um, intentional interaction and integration between the two operations. I often times say that there should be, um, clear pathways for engaging, uh, a student from the time that a student becomes interested in your institution. Um, to the time they're completing and then moving on to their next destination. And when I mean by interested, uh, that could be as a middle school student, uh, who's coming to your particular campus on a field trip. Uh, how are you engaging them? Um, it could be participation in an athletic event. Uh, what are the expectations they have? That is connected with your particular institution. That's when they become interested because they form images and they form beliefs of can they see themselves at your particular institution. And that's when actually the recruitment process begins. The moment that they become interested or engaged with your particular organization. Um, formally, you know, some would say is the moment they complete an application. I oftentimes say that they have long determined whether or not they're going to tenure your institution you know, prior to completing an application.
Cedric: But having a clear integration, so a great example of, uh, seeing the connective tissue and making sure that you have an infrastructure in place to support and undergird all of enrollment. I call it an ecosystem, um, and the ecosystem has parts. So, at the time of application or time of interest, if you know someone is interested in you, are you communicating with them the appropriate offices, um, and, uh, have you connected them with the appropriate, uh, material to address their potential interest and need? Great example is, Are you asking students at the time of application supplemental questions? Say, what clubs or organization did you participate in in high school or your community college? Or, if for graduate programs, what clubs and organization were you a part of as a part of your undergraduate experience? The reason that is important is because if you don't have those clubs and organizations on your particular campus, then that's a nice way to partner with Um, Affairs side or Student Services side of your organization to introduce those clubs because that connective tissue is going to help build a sense of connection and belonging to your campus which undergird support and support retention, um, as an example.
Cedric: Especially when you're dealing with first gen students or students from marginalized community, do you have a way to have their parents and support structures to get information to them? Because oftentimes they're using their parents and support structures to help them to navigate this new challenge or this new language or this new set of expectation, this new ethos known as a higher education system. And so that is usually not done um, After they have been admitted through the admissions office. So do you have those structures in place as a part of your support services? That's why I say you have to create an ecosystem that really undergirds the enrollment management process so that you're not just recruiting students, but you're also retaining them and helping them to reach their ultimate goal, which is completion, and ultimately, their version of success. Whether it is completion of a degree program, whether it is getting recertified, whether it's participating in your extended campus or, uh, our certificate programs. And so whatever that need is, you need to think about how do I develop, uh, a infrastructure to meet the students where they're at and to get them where we desire for them to be. And that's completion of their intended course of action or course of study with your particular institution.
Elliot Felix: So it sounds like for you. You define student success based on the student's goals, and then, job is to help them achieve those goals, you know, whether it's, uh, the degree, whether it's a career path, whether it's a, uh, uh, grad school.
Cedric: Absolutely. I think there are multiple definitions, but I oftentimes think we define student success based upon the matrix and measures and outcomes. Um, and, um, yes, I think there's academic achievement, uh, that we meet as an institution, meet, uh, your expectations based upon the course Uh, of study or program offering that you have agreed to, uh, give us opportunity to provide to you. Uh, but then I think there's also, uh, some intrinsic measures that, are extremely important, especially for disadvantaged communities or marginalized communities that deals with like self efficacy, you know, really the belief that you can be successful and you have the ability succeed. Um, because , many student populations, the goal is to get to college. We don't oftentimes say, Okay, you're not just enrolling in college. Our goal is to make sure that you're going to be successful and complete your course of study. Um, and that's an important piece based upon your mission of your particular institution and expectations. Whether it is a two year, four year, regional comprehensive, land grant. Research one, trade, uh, institution, whatever your post secondary needs are, you have to think about how are you going to manage that particular, uh, student type, and how are you going to make sure you support that student type as a part of the student journey. Um, that you're meeting, well first identify and then meeting the expectations of that particular uh, student type and student needs at your particular institution. Um, to me that is the fundamental core of managing enrollment and hence the role of enrollment management as an operation and function, um, at your particular institution.
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Elliot Felix: And um, what role do you think enrollment management can play um, in that core function? Like, what are the ways that it can help, uh meet students where they are and help them, you know, You know, sort of like understand their journey and help them along it.
Cedric: I think that enrollment management or your enrollment management operational function serve as the primary custodial unit responsible for the student journey and student experience. Uh, because we have unique opportunity to understand students long before they even show up, uh, and enroll in our classes. We have the ability to understand what high school they came from, what community college they came from, if it's graduate programs, what undergraduate programs they've come from, what is their background as it relates to social economic class, how do they identify do we have systems in place to affirm our core values as a particular institution? We're uniquely centered to address all those needs. And then of course, um, the primary role of Uh, enrollment management is to make sure that we have both the, uh, quality and the quantity of students to meet the mission of our particular institution. So, the financial sustainability and solvency of a particular institution is really governed through enrollment management.
Cedric: So, um, we play a core role. I often times say that, uh, if you're looking at the human body, we're the skeleton system. We're the support of the particular organization. We connect with, you know, if you're looking at student affairs being the heartbeat or sense of belonging, if you're looking at financial, um, sustainability. If you're looking at academic programs or composition, if you're looking at , the course , uh, sequences, uh, the course offerings and the sequential nature of how we offer courses, all that should be informed based upon the students that you intend to enroll. Um, and most of that information is. Um, uh, housed within enrollment management as the custodial steward of the overall student experience. So we play a critical role um, in the operation of any post secondary institution.
Elliot Felix: So it starts off. Where you can understand students, even before they arrive, and then you're creating the, you know, the mix and diversity and quantity and quality of students that makes for you know, the kind of environment, they want to be a part of, um, and that, you know, then the third piece is that, class, uh, that you're kind of putting together, um, you're recruiting, you're retaining, that's also like ensuring the sustainability of the institution so that it can keep helping its students succeed.
Cedric: Absolutely. And meeting the needs of The financial obligation to, uh, operate the institution. Um, you know, we have as an organization and as an operation, we have the ability to really forecast, uh, because remember, keep in mind, and this is important to understand as a part of enrollment operation, almost every enrollment management operation is recruiting three classes at once because the admissions Uh, operation is a 18 to 24 month process that, and if you look at statistics tell you somewhere between 70 to 75 percent of students that would be attending a four year school make up their mind of their first choice. Prior to their senior year of high school. So if you're not interacting with them in their sophomore and junior year, you're waiting until their senior year, you're not going to be on their radar. And so you have to begin that process 18 months before or 24 months before they actually show up on your particular campus and make it through census day, um, as a fully enrolled matriculant.
Cedric: So with that in mind, you're recruiting the junior class, For two years out, you're trying to enroll or admit and enroll the senior class, and you're closing out, um, the enrollment and orientation and orienting the class that you just enrolled, uh, to get them through Sentences Day and making sure they're progressing. Uh, throughout your particular institution. And so with that in mind, you have to kind of be able to, uh, forecast the needs of those particular student populations. And know how to navigate and inform, uh, your institution of the appropriate resources that need to be aligned based upon the student demographics and characteristics that you have actually admitted into your institution. Um, and so that's why I say that. That retention, um, and completion should be a process and not just a end game, because if you can't get them through their, uh, first year and second year, you can't get them to the second year to third year, you can never have the fulfillment of your graduation rates, um, and your, um, Uh, persistence rate and your completion rate that you desire. So it has to be a journey that is aligned, where you have expectations that have been clearly communicated to campus on a fairly routine basis, so they can understand as they're interacting with students. The types of needs that each student population, uh, to have addressed as a part of them first being admitted and enrolling and matriculating through your particular institution.
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Elliot Felix: And what's changing about how institutions are doing that? Like, what are the big things that are reshaping enrollment?
Cedric: I think the, the institutions that are doing this well have come to an understanding. And I think that the firm understanding is that especially students that are enrolling post pandemic, post COVID, that we can't always assume that, uh, these students are going to be college ready. We have to change the paradigm to say we need to be student ready. And what I mean by that is Um I mean, if you look at the literature for decades, if not centuries, you know, uh, we've heard that students are less prepared than the generation before. Um, and so they're not prepared to actually enroll. I would say that this generation is actually more prepared because they've had more information. To prepare for higher education. It's just in a different way than previous generations, in part because of their cell phones and the level of support services that they've had, and the fact that they've had to integrate with it. Um, secondary, um, systems, K 12 systems in a virtual setup. Um, many students may not have had the guidance counselors and career counselors in the high schools than previous generations and so they're coming to us and we have to take time in order to build some of those skills.
Cedric: Um, and if you look at even our college juniors and seniors, remember, our college, uh, senior was in the first term, uh, had just completed the first term their first year. And then during the second term of their first year, we sent them home. And so they've interacted with us in a virtual remote setting for, for many of them. And so the traits that would normally have been communicated about community expectations and standards were not communicated in the same way. And so they're learning how to engage with the various aspects of our organization. Uh, in ways that we haven't considered before. So we're having to look at how we're being very intrusive in our advising, uh, how we're, leveraging uh, peer mentoring , uh, we are, uh, associating You know, early alert systems are not necessarily for negative. It has to also be for kudos for supporting positive behavior. Um, we're having to look at how do we develop services because our students are coming to us, um, and they're expressing food insecurities and housing insecurities and they're coming to us. With more severe, um, requirements as it relates to, uh,, uh, mental stability, um, uh, they're coming to us, asking us to help them to understand, uh, social norms and expectations, um, and those are some things that we have necessarily not articulated. As needs for addressing the academic enterprise and the ecosystem for supporting students in a systemic way before.
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Cedric: And I think for me, it's extremely important for us to identify those things and make sure that we're addressing them from the perspective of developing a sense of Belonging, uh, based upon the student needs. Making sure that they're involved, um, and creating opportunities for them to get involved. Um, uh, not just in academic related, but social related, uh, engagement. Um, uh, how we integrating, uh, our offerings to give them both informal and formal ways that they can gather. Um, I know that one of the, um, largest groups that you see on many campuses that are happening now is, um, you know, this concept of how do we create environments where there are collaboratories and, you know, how do we create environments where there's intentional interaction in groups, um, um, just by them gathering how we establish, uh, set up buildings and offices and make sure students have access. So those are things that we may not have considered before as a industry or as a profession, but there's definitely things we have to address as a higher education system in ways that were very different Pre pandemic.
Cedric: And so how we establish offices, the level of services that we offer, how they have access to those services through chat box and websites, and how do we give them in time, I should say real time information, you know, not just thinking that orientation is an event, but really the verb of orienting, you know, This time of year, students are suffering from, uh, adjustment issues or loneliness. Um, and so do we have the right resources? Do we have programs in place to address the fact that they're, you know, for many of them, they've been away from home , uh, and we need to make sure that they understand that, you know, their resources developed for them. Do we do programs? Do we do communication? Do we reach out to the parents and say, hey, have you considered just sending a care package or, uh, or writing them an email or note or sending them, uh, a letter in U. S. mail just to say we're proud of you, um, and that you're doing well to affirm that they're making those type of Right decisions. Those are things that we may not have thought about before in an intentional, systemic, coordinated manner, but we have to be very strategic to incorporate those as a part of our normal operations, especially with the current student populations that we have.
Elliot Felix: That was an awesome overview. And I think chock full of advice for your enrollment management colleagues, whether it's the. Communicating the Community Standards and Expectations, or the Intrusive Advising, or the Peer Mentoring, or the Early Alerts that are both positive and negative, and formal and informal ways to gather, uh, and the kind of the nudges for parents, uh, about the care package, or the letter, or the, you know, the communication, um I want to go into some of those, like what's an example of a community standard or expectation that might've been implicit before or better communicated that now you, you have to be explicit about, or you've kind of seen a gap and you're trying to bridge that gap.
Cedric: I think a community standard is just social interaction and engagement. So, uh, I give you a great example. Um, I know many of my colleagues across the country, uh, have developed, um, student organizations that have the moniker Antisocial Social Clubs. You know, people just want to be in the same space. They don't want to have a lot of, you know, interaction, or they want to be in the same space and communicate you know, with each other, uh, via social media apps and or their cell phones, uh, through texting. And so that's a way that we hadn't necessarily thought about, you know, that they want to be together, but they don't necessarily want to talk to each other. Uh, as an adjustment. Another thing that I know that my particular institution has done, and I think many others are considering, is the stigma associated with, uh, psychological services, uh, as a response to mental health and student well being. My particular campus has, um, gone away, uh, from just, uh, having psychological services to hiring social work, um, and developing a center uh, for student well being, and using a case management approach, um, to remove the stigma associated with saying I need help with Support services associated with food insecurities. Uh, do I, you know, need help, um, completing an application for, because I live off campus, um, getting, um, assistance? Do I know where to go, uh, because I have childcare needs, uh, even though I may be a traditional age student, I'm responsible for raising my siblings, um, or I may be a returning student and I have childcare needs, which affects my ability to, um, attend class.
Cedric: And so for us, we're having to be very, uh, intentional in looking at. From an enrollment perspective, what are the students needs? And they're not necessarily academically driven. They could just be quality of life driven, which affects their academic experience. And then making sure that we coordinate these in a strategic way, those services across our particular institution. And so, you know, just looking at some creative ways of leveraging, um, as I was mentioning pertaining to our social work. Social Workers as a part of our Center for Student Well Being. Um, they're only in the center once a week. The other four days of the week, and afternoons and weekends, they're in the library, or they're in the residence hall, or they're in our cultural centers. And the reason that we've done that is because we want to make sure that we're going to where the students are gathering and providing that support service for them. And it's not just a traditional Monday through Friday, eight to five, it is That we may need to have a group or you may need to meet with the group at 8 p. m. So we're so we're very flexible in their schedules or we may need to run a virtual group For our students that are participating in a virtual setting and so just really being flexible in how we're looking at the enrollment apparatus Um, think it's going to be critical for any enrollment Uh, official and especially any effective enrollment operation moving forward.
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Elliot Felix: That's great. Um, and I feel like that's, you know, the example of the social workers within the Center for Student Well Being is such a great one and like the idea of outreach and meeting students where they are versus being in center and doing it virtually and being flexible. Earlier you mentioned that that center and those social workers are taking a case management approach. Um, tell me a little bit more about that? What do you mean by that approach? How does that differ? Is that just not being reactive? What is a case management approach entail?
Cedric: Yeah, great question. So I think when you think of a case management approach, it is really in response to a lot of our marginalized students and underrepresented populations. Uh, it is not innate for them and their communities to go to a psychologist. Or psychiatrists. I mean, it is, it is, it is frowned upon, uh, but many of them have had interactions with social workers, uh, or people from a case management background. And so, um, in our case, if we're running groups, uh, thematic based groups, um, they can come to a group setting and get their needs met. Um, and, um, receive the services that they're frowned upon if they were to go to the counseling center, uh, because it is much more acceptable in their communities and how they've been raised and their, uh, ethos and values as a person to go to a social worker than to go to a therapist. Really providing the same mental well being. And notice what we're saying is we want to focus on not just. Mental health, uh, or mental wellness. We want to focus on the entire being, uh, and so using the social worker, uh, social well being, um, ethos and working with students allows us to actually address the entire student. Um, and provide the support services and wraparound services that they need. It also provides a apparatus that they can gather and they create their own formal and informal support groups where they're sharing information with those that are in attendance and not in attendance, which is, um, I guess in an adaptation of peer mentoring, um, in a way, um, but it provides uh, a community you know, uh, in an intentional way and an informal way that really benefits and undergirds the, um, the overall experience of students and it has had very positive Um, very positive rewards for our student experience, so they know that they have a built in community that they can identify and they can engage with on their own terms, but have cascading effects, uh, with them and those that they interact with, um, that is really an acceptable manner. And so using the case management approach allows us to deal with the overall case and the overall students in groups. Um, provide services and resources that are not just academically driven, co curricular driven, socially driven, emotionally driven, um, in order to address the student as a whole.
Elliot Felix: That's great. Um, what are two more examples of, uh, , enrollment services strategies that are enabling, um, student success either at your institution or things you've seen across the country that are really like moving the needle on recruitment and retention.
Cedric: I think one of the things that, , we're doing here at my particular institution and I've seen is to involve Um, or be very intentional in involving students based upon their affinity group. And oftentimes we have live and learning communities and housing, and or we may have an honor society associated um, with a particular academic program, or we may have some degree of interest, but we have not thought about. Okay, if I'm a student who, um, say is interested in music or whether I'm a music major or not, do you have a curriculum or do you have a set of experiences that you have identified, um, not just where I live, but where I can kind of gather and I can connect based upon that interest? Um, and that's where I think looking at space design, course offering programs, uh, based upon student interests really bode well for us. Um, and we have a number of those on our particular campus that are, outlined and have been, uh, shared with our students based upon a student's interests. Um, whether it is participating in athletic related events, not necessarily NCAA, but we have, you know, those that are interested in club sports. They can live together. They can, um, have the involvement. Um, together for its activity. Um, they can socialize, they can connect. Those that are interested in gaming. Uh, what are some ways we're able to integrate a gaming experience as a part of that culture? We've been very intentional from that perspective. And I see a number of institutions that are considering some of those thematic based as a curriculum approach to the student experience.
Elliot Felix: Do you think part of that is just kind of evolving with the times to be more, niche based? I feel like generation ago, it might be that the football game or the basketball game is doing the heavy lifting, right? And it was all about the kind of like big tents, big tent event to like, create that affinity. And now it's more like acknowledging um, Um, you know, you need a bunch of smaller tense that people feel more comfortable under.
Cedric: Yeah, and I think just acknowledging that, many students are coming socialized to receive information and to have their social interaction integrated into how they identify based upon smaller thematic base groups. Thanks. It is how they consume social media. It is how they develop a sense of self. It is how they look for integration within the ethos of a particular college campus. And I think for us, it's just acknowledging that's the way students think. Not just based upon their major, because their major and interest may not be aligned with each other. and so we, we want to offer opportunities to say if this is your interest, irregardless of what you're majoring in, you can, we have live and learning communities that are based upon academic programs, but based upon your interests, here are a set of people that you're going to naturally be socialized with, you're going to naturally interact with, that you're going to have, Um, um, social experiences, and really just leaning into that as a core of developing a sense of belonging. Um, and integration into the overall ethos uh, of the, uh, student experience and student journey. And so just leaning into that is what we've decided to do. And I think many other institutions are acknowledging that's just the right thing to do. And I think third thing that I would add is we've been very intentional to talk about and look at how we're communicating with our students. not just assuming that. Email or text is going to be appropriate with them. We have been very intentional to say who are the people you would like for us to share this information with and what are the information types you would like for us to share with them, such as, Um, um, um, or their parents, their, um, support structure, grandparents, or Others that we may need to share information with that are not necessarily germane to you or derived from you directly as a student, but are related to your overall student experience.
Cedric: Um, because we want to make sure that you're not having to serve as a conduit, uh, for this information Which can be hit or miss, but we have integrated the parents and support structures into the student communication process. So they're getting information, um, oftentimes on the same day or shortly after the students are receiving information about registration, um, um, sign ups, um, general information about involvement activities, and that has really resonated with building. community of supporters for us, institutions that do it well have created an ecosystem based upon student success. And I think just communicating that is an important piece of the overall student experience.
Elliot Felix: And , why do you think Why is it necessary to, communicate with parents more and differently? Is it just that, like, students relate differently or depend on their parents in different ways than previously? And therefore, like, parents need to be part of a kind of team approach, part of this ecosystem? , what's prompting that shift?
Cedric: Yeah, I think that it is fair to say that parents and parental structures have really led, uh, a student's interaction with educational, uh, experiences. Um, that began at a very young age. So, you know, From the time that we're having to leverage. Okay, here's um, a child. Activity. They get out of school, they have a snack, and then they go to their activities, and we plan their activities, and then sometimes their activities are related back to school. And we're making sure that we're involved, so give us the information, um, that is happening at schools so we can know what is occurring as it relates to , a normal part of the institution's, Or the school's operation for K 12. Well, they interact with colleges very much in the same way. So, they're not coming and saying, okay, these are adults, I don't have the right because of FERPA and other things, or just expectations and norms to have right, you know, , to my child's Uh, educational experience. And so just acknowledging that there may be, um, some protected information they don't have access to, but engaging them as it relates to communicating with them as a part of the expectations and activities. It's just a normal thing. Um, and we just have to acknowledge it from that perspective. There's not a of it. A wall between now they're part of us. We got to communicate directly with the student or the child, and they can share the information with you at their leisure. No, the parents are calling. And they're saying, Okay, I haven't received information on. Uh, registration for next term. I didn't know that there was a housing sign up. I didn't know that my child needed to declare a major. I didn't know that, uh, uh, what I need to do. That's like a whole other job now. That's like a whole think that's why you have to integrate this as a part of the normal communication plan and strategy as a part of enrollment because You know, you have parents that will call a child and say, Hey, where are you at this? Well, I don't know. Or this is what I know. And then parents will call you and says, well, this is what my child told me. They don't know what's going on. So it's just better just to integrate as a part of your communication strategy, assuming that you need to communicate and talk to parents and Uh, what we consider to be parental support structures, the relevant information to the activity that is occurring on your particular campus.
Elliot Felix: Well, Cedric, this is a fascinating conversation and, uh, It seems like the job of enrollment management, uh, is ever evolving and ever expanding. Uh, and, um, uh, I, I appreciate your, uh, advice and insights. Thank you very much.
Cedric: Oh, thank you for the opportunity. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for listening to the connected college podcast.
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