United Tribes Technical College
Strategic Enrollment Management
“Progress was made to strengthen and streamline the processes that constitute the SEM plan to ensure its successful implementation.”
United Tribes Technical College Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan
United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) has completed more than three years of the College Fund’s Cultivating Native Student Success project. UTTC’s project focus was two-fold:
1. To develop a SEM plan to bring cohesion and clarity to the initiatives and efforts that were occurring, but were somewhat fragmented; and
2. To focus on implementing best practices with advising, which included academic advising, first-year advising, career advising, and wellness. Data analysis and data-informed decision making was implemented throughout this work and will continue to be fully integrated to guide the work going forward.
View the SEM Plan
“The college has become increasingly sophisticated with using institutional data to inform decision making.”
Considerable progress has been made on the SEM plan. Most important, progress was made to strengthen and streamline the processes that constitute the SEM plan to ensure its successful implementation. A SEM plan document has been drafted that is fully aligned with the UTTC institutional strategic plan and that reflects the college’s mission and vision. A visual graphic was created that outlines the processes, or steps in the student’s journey, in the recruitment phase of the student enrollment lifecycle. In addition, and key to the seamless flow of these steps, processes were refined at each step in the journey as it was developed to ensure student success as they progressed through this initial phase.
UTTC SEM COMMITTEE MEMBERS
- President
- Vice President Academic Affairs
- Dean of Enrollment Services
- Student Services and Retention Coordinator
- Career Services Director
- Institutional Research Analyst
Best Practices
Retention
Learnings
- UTTC has made considerable progress with the Thunder Alert system using the Jenzabar Retention Module. The system was started almost five years ago but has been refined in the past three years based on input from faculty and staff and through focus groups with students to get their input.
UTTC’s use of the Jenzabar Retention System was also featured in an article in the forbes magazine that was submitted by Jenzabar but highlighted the work happening here on campus.
Data/Evidence
- The refinement of the early alert system resulted in increases in retention and persistence rates. We believe this was the direct result of full buy-in across campus from faculty advisors, the first- year advisors, career services, wellness counselors, housing staff and safety and security. The Dean of Instruction monitored activity and encouraged full participation of all involved that resulted in the alerts, referred to as Thunder Alerts, providing a chronological reporting of alerts and concerns, interventions, student responses, and outcomes. A team presented a session about UTTC’s early alert system at the national American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers (AACRAO) conference in Toronto, Ontario, and UTTC was presented with an award from the National Student Clearinghouse for contributing to the research on retention best practices.
- See Jenzabar Article: https://jenzabar.com/blog/improving-student-retention-rates-by-200-percent-heres-how-one-college-did-it
- See Forbes Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/marybethgasman/2023/03/06/how-united-tribes-technical-college-meets-student-and-community-needs/?sh=15fa7147572e
SHARING OF DATA IN A VARIETY OF WAYS ACROSS ALL STAKEHOLDERS.
Learnings
- The SEM Planning efforts have provided the college with an opportunity to intentionally look at our data, policies, and processes. The process also allowed the college to set institutional benchmarks and goals for enrollment, persistence, retention, and completion. The goals for persistence, retention, and completion have been incorporated into other initiatives and projects across campus to ensure that there is consistency and alignment of these goals across all initiatives on campus.
Data/Evidence
- One of the first initiatives of the SEM Plan at the college was to evaluate the application and registration process to identify barriers and roadblocks in the enrollment process. Issues with areas such as Information Technology (IT) and the bookstore were identified and policies and processes were changed to remove these unnecessary barriers to the enrollment process. The college also began to look closely at the application data and found that internal processes that involved a review of the applications were creating unnecessary delays in the application approval processes. These issues were corrected.
UTTC Application to Registration
Application Submitted
New, Transfer, and Returning Submissions
Follow Up Communications
Admissions Office sends letters & emails to applicant regarding admission requirements, general information, and MyUTTC login information.
Security Background Check
Applications that disclose criminal convictions are approved or denied. ✨
NO
Missing Requirements / Documents?
YES
Application Stage Ends
Addmissions Office notifies applicant if application was accepted, denied, or waitlisted.
NO
Accepted?
YES ✨
Committee Review
Accepted application moves through Committee Review for additional requirements required prior to registration.
Student Housing
Applicants should secure off-campus housing or submit an application for on-campus housings.
Financial Aid ✨
Verifies FAFSA and identifies amount due for self-pay students.
Student Accounts ✨
Accepts payment in full or proof of payments for self-pay students.
new & transfer students ✨ complete virtual orientation and accuplacer testing (if applicable)
Ready to Register✨
Registrar determines student is “ready to register”
Registrars Office
Notifies students and academic advisors of student’s readiness to register Registrar informs IT of students needing email addresses.
IT Department
Sets up student’s UTTC email account.
student meets with academic advisor to register for classes
student picks up student id at safety & security
student orders books from the online book store
- The College’s Office of Institutional Research has initiated data sharing across all campus stakeholders utilizing data walks with students, faculty, and staff. Regularly scheduled data discussions with faculty have been held once a month during the fall and spring of the 2022-23 academic year. Students were also engaged with Early Alert and Early Alert messaging data. As a result of these data engagement strategies, the college has revised the wording of Early Alerts based on student feedback, changes to advising and course scheduling have been discussed. In addition, the Early Alerts have been rebranded to Thunder Alerts and the communication and work ows for Thunder Alerts have been revised. Although the college has become increasingly effective at leveraging institutional data, one of the challenges that we have encountered with our SEM Plan has been the documentation of the revisions and process updates that have been made during our SEM Plan implementation. We are now in the process of ensuring that our SEM Plan and processes are fully documented.
- Although the college has become increasingly effective at leveraging institutional data, one of the challenges that we have encountered with our SEM Plan has been the documentation of the revisions and process updates that have been made during our SEM Plan implementation. We are now in the process of ensuring that our SEM Plan and processes are fully documented.
Strategic Enrollment Management dashboard
Key Indicator | Baseline | Performance Target | Y2: 2020-2021 | Y2: 2021-2022 | Y2: 2022-2023 |
| College Applications |  602 Applications |  770 Applications Fall 2022 |  534 Applications Fall 2021 |  596 Applications Fall 2021 |  931 Applications Fall 2022 |
| Student Enrollment |  435 Students |  496 Students by Fall 2022 |  326 Students Fall 2020 |  474 Students Fall 2022 |  506 Students Fall 2022 |
| Fall-to-Spring Term Student Persistence | 3-yr AIMS AKIS average | Spring 2022 | Spring 2021 | Spring 2022 | Spring 2023 |
| First-Year Student Retention | 3-yr AIMS AKIS average | Fall 2022 | Fall 2020 to Fall 2021 | Fall 2021 to Fall 2022 | Not Yet Available |
| Student Completion (3-YR Graduation Rate for associate degree-seekers) | 3-yr AIMS AKIS average | Fall 2020 Cohort |
|
| Fall 2020 Cohort |
Future SEM PLANNING GOALS
To continue the development of the UTTC Strategic Enrollment Management plan, focusing on processes in the remaining two of four major phases of the student enrollment lifecycle:
- Continue the student enrollment lifecycle visual graphic to focus on systems supporting onboarding and completion.
- Align Retention Coordinator (onboarding) and Transfer Specialist (completion) duties with the lifecycle processes, as needed.
- Develop a set of enrollment management dashboard indicators for progress monitoring for onboarding and completion by the end of June 2024.
- Convene a quarterly meeting to assess progress with the strategic enrollment management plan.
- Identify and make necessary adjustments to onboarding processes and practices before the 2024 registration cycle begins.
Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic
