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.

“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

1

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

2

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

Applicant is notified of reason for decision and advcised of options.

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

Candidacy Status is Updated in Jenzabar.
  • 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
Fall 2022 to Fall 2023

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:

Recruitment
Onboarding
Retention
Completion
  1. Continue the student enrollment lifecycle visual graphic to focus on systems supporting onboarding and completion.
  2. Align Retention Coordinator (onboarding) and Transfer Specialist (completion) duties with the lifecycle processes, as needed.
  3. Develop a set of enrollment management dashboard indicators for progress monitoring for onboarding and completion by the end of June 2024.
  4. Convene a quarterly meeting to assess progress with the strategic enrollment management plan.
  5. Identify and make necessary adjustments to onboarding processes and practices before the 2024 registration cycle begins.
“THE SEM PLANNING EFFORTS HAVE PROVIDED THE COLLEGE WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO INTENTIONALLY LOOK AT OUR DATA, POLICIES, AND PROCESSES. THE SEM PLANNING PROCESS ALSO ALLOWED THE COLLEGE TO SET INSTITUTIONAL BENCHMARKS AND GOALS FOR ENROLLMENT, PERSISTENCE, RETENTION, AND COMPLETION.”

Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic

The pandemic forced everybody in this country to adapt to circumstances that were unlike anything any of us had experienced in the past. Students left the campus on spring break in March 2020 with the assumption they would be returning to campus the next week. Some of the students had stayed on campus for spring break so had been relocated so they could socially distance. Other students returned to campus because they were experiencing homelessness or did not have a safe place to live in their home communities. Yet others were dealing with trying to find food for their families in remote areas of the country where food supplies were scarce. One student reported spending all day driving around to different towns, trying to find food for his grandparents and relatives who lived with them and then running out of gas money. The students with children were trying to navigate home schooling with their children. Most of them did not have the technology for online learning, they did not know how to participate in online learning if they did have a computer and were dealing with trying to care for themselves and their families. Continuing their education was still important to them, but adjusting to a new way of living and securing basic needs took precedence.
“OTHER STUDENTS RETURNED TO CAMPUS BECAUSE THEY WERE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS OR DID NOT HAVE A SAFE PLACE TO LIVE IN THEIR HOME COMMUNITIES. YET OTHERS WERE DEALING WITH TRYING TO FIND FOOD FOR THEIR FAMILIES IN REMOTE AREAS OF THE COUNTRY WHERE FOOD SUPPLIES WERE SCARCE”
At the same time, faculty and staff were faced with many of these same challenges with themselves and their own families. Some of them had never taught an online course before and were now teaching their courses online. All of us found ourselves in a situation where our attention needed to be focused on getting ourselves and our students through this time the best we could. We were fortunate that 59 out of 60 of the students who had expected to graduate in May 2020 were able to graduate. Our first- and second-year students did not fare as well and only 20% completed the semester. By spring 2022, a sense of normalcy returned. Students returned to campus with safety precautions in place, but everybody adapted. By fall 2022, enrollment increased, and students were no longer using Zoom or Teams to access their courses, excited about returning to the classrooms.