Retired Action Project - Attract and Retain Qualified Students

1. Description

A university-wide initiative to attract and retain high quality students will ensure the long-term growth of the University and commitment to quality academic programs and student life for both on- and off-campus constituencies. Recruitment and retention are two of the most critical processes in strategic enrollment management.

2. Related AQIP Categories

Primary 2-Accomplishing Other Distinctive Objectives
Related 1-Helping Students Learn
Related 3-Understanding Students' and Other Stakeholders' Needs
Related 4-Valuing People
Related 6-Supporting Institutional Operations

3. Related AQIP Principles

Principle A - A mission and vision that focus on serving students and other stakeholders
Principle B - Broad-based faculty, staff and administrative involvement
Principle F - Collaboration and a shared institutional focus
Principle I - Fact-based information-gathering and thinking to support analysis and decision-making

4. Rationale for Action

Unfavorable demographics in mission/service area require emphasis on strategic enrollment management.

5. Areas Affected

Admissions, Multicultural Affairs, Kelly Center (Counseling, Tutorial Services, Programs), Student Affairs, Career Services, Institutional Assessment

6. Processes Affected

Extracurricular activities, Kelly Center, Greek Council, Job Placement and Career Services - attract more and a wider variety of student involvement, redesigned, integrated, one-stop services model for higher retention

7. Process Measures

Web-enabled services: Admissions, Registration, Academic Advising, Financial Assistance, Billing, Career Services, Counseling

8. Outcome Measures

Number of new, first-time, full-time freshmen (Fall only); fiscal year headcount/SCH of all students enrolled in learning experiences delivered by the Virtual College; market share of high school students recruited from the 44-county service area; number of transfer students (from community and technical colleges in service area); number of transfer students (total number of transfer students); retention rate of first year, full-time degree-seeking freshmen students after one academic year; retention rate of full-time, degree-seeking transfer students after one academic year; number of virtual college students who drop courses after the reimbursement deadline; percent of first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen who earn a baccalaureate degree within four, five, and six years; percent of full-time, degree-seeking transfer students who earn a baccalaureate degree within four, five and six years; percent of semester credit hours completed (last day SCH divided by 20th day SCH) for on- and off-campus coursework; entering student survey/reasons for selecting FHSU (brand analysis); graduating senior survey; employer survey (3-year cycle); alumni survey (2 and 4 years after graduation)

9. Keeping Focus

Quality improvement goals tied directly to University mission and college and department-level health. Service units are centrally involved, creating a total University effort.

2004 Annual Update Information

Action Project retired end of 2004.

1. Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.

Within the last year, upgrades to student support services have also been accomplished. In particular, the enrollment process has been refined in order to accommodate the University's increasing enrollment and to continue to provide outstanding customer service to help attract and retain students. More and more services from recruitment, financial assistance, advising and enrollment have been fused together to eventually establish a seamless process. Several new specific initiatives are outlined below: New leadership (New Director and vacant staff positions filled) established within the Kelly Center. Evaluation and adjustment of internal administrative processes and electronic services: Actual admissions process has been streamlined with acceptance letters generated on time; expanded student access to web-based financial assistance eligibility and payment information; Admissions, Financial Assistance and Student Fiscal Services have implemented email communication programs with prospective and current students; increased attractiveness of on-campus living options by remodeling major Residential Life cafeteria and by breaking ground on new student apartment complex; continued collaboration between Academic Affairs Marketing Specialist, University Relations, and academic departments; strong advisement and leadership from the Integrated Marketing Committee (pulling together all functional areas of the University including faculty, administration, student affairs, students, staff, etc). Technology has been used to streamline the admission, financial aid and enrollment processes with significant time savings for students and staff. TRIO Grant has been written to provide support to continuing, and prospective first-generation, low income or handicapped students. Recruitment and Retention of Hispanic students: New Hispanic counselor position added; revitalization of existing Hispanic student organizations.

2. Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.

The Division of Student Affairs has attempted to imbed the concept of "Attracting and Retaining High Quality Students" within the culture of the division and across all university units. Primarily, attracting and retaining high-quality students is a function of the Enrollment Management group within the division. This group is comprised of all recruitment and retention services within the division. The first three years of this action project have experienced some outstanding successes such as building and continually re-evaluating the University's web presence particularly in the areas of recruitment, marketing and student services. Advances have also been made by establishing and strengthening collaborative relationships across all sectors. AQIP has been the precipitating factor to this end.

3. Describe your planned next steps for this Action Project.

Next steps are limited only by our imagination and our ability to prioritize and complete important initiatives. Perhaps the largest challenge at FHSU rests in having the right personnel on the right task at the right time. Given the double-digit enrollment growth that we have experienced, there must be additional attention given to support operations in order to make sure that all students' needs are addressed. This enhancement is slow, but is now on the "radar screen" and continues to have a high ranking in the view of the strategic planning committee. It is widely expected that additional resources will be poured into the service. Once additional personnel are in place, the process of investigating new ideas and implementing them should steadily increase.

4. Describe any "effective practice(s)" that resulted from your work on this Action Project.

Possibly the most effective practice has been in the assembly of the enrollment management team. Their continued focus on building better communications strategies has assisted the recruitment function immensely. Their continued involvement in attracting and retaining high quality students will ensure success long after this action project is retired.

5. What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?

Setbacks in staffing, funding and other technical priorities within the Computing Center have slowed the processes in recent months. Even though the goal has not been reached and there is much more to do, the concept of attracting and retaining high quality students is becoming part of the University culture.

2003 Annual Update Information

1. Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.

We feel very fortunate in the focused effort that has been given to this action project over the past year. Several new initiatives have taken shape, and some of the changes that were implemented two or three years ago are now producing results. The Office of Student Affairs has implemented several significant changes over the past year to improve how the University interfaces with students. Among the most substantial of these changes would be the significant revision in its web presence, a major realignment in its scholarship program to reflect changing student needs, more effort has been given to recruit the higher ACT students, and a major push to collaborate more with academic programs in helping to make recruitment and retention more successful. A few years ago the Office of Student Affairs in cooperation with Financial Aid, the Registrar’s Office, and academic departments, implemented a new freshmen and parent orientation program that each year has been steadily more successful. Likewise, the Office of the Registrar has worked closely in this effort, providing supporting data and strong leadership in implementing policy decisions to help accommodate new students from different markets. Both offices have been highly supportive of the AQIP process and have grasped the concept of continuous improvement, and most importantly, have implemented many of these philosophies into their daily operations. Through their efforts in data collection and reflection, most in the larger university community, believe FHSU has achieved some success, though the Office of Students Affairs suggests there is room for even more improvement! A final accomplishment over the last year has yielded some dramatic success. About two years ago the Provost added a position entitled Academic Marketing Specialist. The intention of this position was to help the institution become “mission centered and market smart” by decreasing the response time needed to take advantage of marketing opportunities. The efforts in this area have been very effective in exploring new market opportunities in southwest Kansas.

2. Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.

The Office of Student Affairs has been consistently accessible by students and faculty alike. Coordination of this goal has occurred at every functional level of the university, from the President’s ongoing commitment to student recruitment, to the College Coordinators and Faculty Senate who deliberated regarding the use of NSSE data, and finally including the students and parents through regular assessment of the process. The Office of Students Affairs and the Registrar’s Office have been pivotal in accumulating data. Much of the data is shared with the University community and the larger publics that FHSU reports to, including legislators and the Kansas Board of Regents, through the creation of our Annual Balanced Scorecard.

3. Describe your planned next steps for this Action Project.

Over the course of the next year several important changes have been targeted for review. First, the data on retention demonstrates that FHSU is performing very well, but there is a sense that more can be done to retain new freshmen. In our more portable higher education environment, the Office of Student Affairs recognizes that retention of those students that are “on the bubble” is important for continued success. To that end there has been a proposal to re-invent the Student Retention Committee and charge it with creation of a long-term retention plan. Second, there seems to be wide agreement that more needs to be done in creating more web-enabled information for students. This information can be in the form of information, but it is thought that students are also seeking more functionality. Over the next year, as FHSU ramps up a second major phase in its re-engineering our student information systems, students and all stakeholders’ opinions will be sought in the process of building the most effective portal for students. We understand this process may not be without project revisions, but we remain optimistic that hurdles can be overcome for a timely rollout in 2005.

4. Describe any "effective practice(s)" that resulted from your work on this Action Project.

In reflecting on the successes of this goal, the Office of Student Affairs feels that perhaps the most useful tool implemented involved the addition of Parent Orientation. This one aspect has allowed more interaction between student needs and parent wishes helping them to align student and parent goals with various university offerings.

5. What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?

The major obstacle that may interfere with the full realization of this goal will come from any lead time in putting together a more solid retention effort. As many would suggest, putting a committee together and charging them does not assure success. We also realize that we must start somewhere. In terms of the second major initiative the most significant challenge is timely deployment. Many of the student information features necessary for a successful portal should be implemented next fall and winter.

2002 Annual Update Information

1. Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.

The past year has been a very exciting one for all directly involved in the implementation and deployment of this AQIP project. Under the leadership of Dr. Diane Pfeifer, assistant vice president for student affairs, and the AQIP college coordinator for the Division of Student Affairs, and Joey Linn, assistant vice president for student affairs/registrar, much has been accomplished. An already substantial amount of assessment information has been reviewed and refined into a much more useful process of information collection. Work groups led by Drs. Pfeifer and Linn have also been given the charge of taking this new and rich information (which includes participation in the National Survey of Student Engagement), and mining it for useful and tangible ways to improve processes and procedures. A balanced scorecard, meant to measure both process and outcome measures has been developed, and the initial year's results (the benchmarks) were reported in July. Work groups, into this academic year, will work to mine this information for ways to improve on the previous year's results, towards the ultimate aim of improving the university wide effort to attract and retain high quality students. This past year has also seen the integration of the balanced scorecard results for this AQIP project, into the university's institutional improvement plan, submitted annually to the Kansas Board of Regents.

2. Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.

Persons from all levels of the institution, and beyond are involved in this project. From the highest levels (the coordination) of the Division of Student Affairs, to the Student Government Association, to admissions staff, registrar's office staff, student fiscal services and financial aid staff, functional units have all been critically involved. Tangentially, many of the work groups configured to study processes, procedures, create and manage the balanced scorecard, and seek methods of deployment involve individuals from all levels of the campus community, including the student body and the alumni association. Maximum involvement and maximum openness are the goals in pursuit of doing this project well.

3. Describe your planned next steps for this Action Project.

Fully implementing the full battery of integrated, web-enabled anytime, any place student services to improve recruitment and retention is a key goal for next year. It is the first major deployment of an initiative which is a direct, tangible result of this project. This goal is also consistent with the university-wide effort to implement the paperless office philosophy.

4. Describe any "effective practice(s)" that resulted from your work on this Action Project.

The initial results of the balanced scorecard (the benchmarking year), taught us the need to extend the maximum effort placed on the satisfaction and customer service levels relative to our on-campus stakeholders, to the distance education stakeholder. A growing number of Fort Hays State University students are of the distance education variety (many in the military). Processes revolving around academic advising, financial aid, admissions, and the like need to be made more accommodating and useful from the standpoint of the distance learner. Additionally, this group must work with persons in the Division of Academic Affairs and study alternative ways to measure student learning outcomes of the distance education learner versus the traditional on-campus student.

5. What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?

Looking toward this year, the greatest challenge is the deployment of system changes gleaned from the previous year's balanced scorecard results. This is true because the environment in which this project operates is anything but static. In short, things change so quickly that what seems like a prudent or necessary effort today may be a dinosaur by tomorrow. Having people embrace the concept of fast-paced change, in an environment more conducive to a static bureaucracy will be a challenge.