Strategic Enrollment Management
What is Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM)?
Strategic enrollment management is a concept and process that enables the fulfillment of institutional mission and students’ educational goals. Through strategic enrollment management we center the student experience to learn ways to care for our students and create a culturally and community-informed approach to student participation.
Participating Tribal Colleges & Universities
- Red Lake Nation College
- Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College
- Salish Kootenai College*
- Sinte Gleska University
- Sisseton Wahpeton College
- Sitting Bull College
- Stone Child College*
- Tohono O’odham Community College
- Turtle Mountain Community College
- United Tribes Technical College*
- White Earth Tribal and Community College
TCU Key Enrollment Indicators
Key Enrollment Indicators (KEIs) are a set of factors that help an institution understand its enrollment patterns in the context of the unique culture and enrollment profile (AACRAO, 2022). Understanding the institutions’ KEIs helps college teams and communities make informed choices and decisions about their SEM plans that impact the student journey and institutions enrollment health.
Learn more about how TCUs are engaging with this work on their campuses and view their TCU Diagrams.
Annual Conferences
The TCU Capacity for Student Success Conference is an annual convening hosted by the American Indian College Fund that brings together Tribal College and University (TCU) faculty, staff, and partners to present and share strategies that support Native student success across the entire student journey. Each year, the conference is co-hosted at a different tribal college campus, centering place-based learning, cultural knowledge, and community strengths.
Continue reading and learn about the conferences we’ve hosted over the years!
2025 Conference | Okmulgee, Oklahoma
June 10-12
Cokv Hecvlke En Yekcetv, Etvlwv Oh Hayetv
“Empowering Students, Building Nations”
Nearly
200
Participants
30
TCUs Gathered
Communities of Practice (CoPs)
American Indian College Fund CoPs
TCU Career Consortium
Feb. 17 | Mar. 17 | Apr. 21
Share strategies and opportunities for student career & employment pathway success, link students to employment opportunities and workforce resources, build sustainable, multi-person campus career teams, and offer TCU staff professional development opportunities & continuing education.
Enrollment Managers, Registrars & Admissions
Mar. 13 | Apr. 30 | May 29
Professional development sessions, facilitated group discussions on topics core to the responsibilities of members, hosting continuous learning session applying SEM theory into practice, identifying enrollment trends and student success practices specific to Indian Country and tribal communities and supporting the annual June convening.
First Year Experience & Mentoring
(includes a $25 meal card)
Strengthen first year experience & mentoring programs across TCUs,provide peer learning opportunities and sharing across TCUs, collaborate with one another and create resources to share with TCUs and engage in Professional Development opportunities.
Dual Enrollment
Strengthen dual enrollment programs across TCUs, gain insights on best practices for expanding dual enrollment opportunities, collaborate on a resource guide toward enhanced program development, common challenges and successes, outreach strategies to share with other TCUs at the annual June Convening.
American Indian Higher Education Consortium CoPs
Institutional Policy
Share meaningful, culturally relevant approaches to TCU institutional policy, develop effective strategies, policies, and models, foster sustainable transformative change through data-informed, community-led action, build capacity among faculty and staff through ongoing professional learning, and elevate the voices of TCUs by contributing to scholarly articles and research created by us, for us.
Advising
Share culturally-relevant approaches to advising practices, identify barriers and strengths in current advising models and creating a TCU Advising framework project to define “advising success.” NACADA will provide registration to NACADA 2026 for two reps from each TCU to attend.
Digital Learning
Connect with peers across TCUs to share strategies, address challenges, and strengthen student success through culturally responsive, student-centered digital learning. Together, we will shape the future of online learning modalities at TCUs—rooted in relationships, led by community, and driven by student success.
Developmental Education
We will share developmental education models and strategies and facilitate connections among developmental education faculty, advisors, and staff across TCUs. This community focuses on sharing best practices, aligning supports, and promoting equitable student progression and completion in gateway and foundational courses.
SEM Work at TCU Campuses
An Indigenous Approach to Strategic Enrollment Management: The Native Student Journey at Tribal College and Universities
By Lisa Silverstein, Tiffany Gusbeth, and Jonathan Breaker
The Native student journey at tribal colleges and universities is imperative to impacting Native student success nationally. Through the Cultivating Native Student Success initiative, an Indigenous approach to strategic enrollment management (SEM) is considered in this publication by TCUs to broaden SEM practices across higher education. By Indigenizing SEM and building capacity centered on the unique cultural values inherent in tribal colleges and universities, we can increase American Indian and Alaska Natives visibility, representation, and degree attainment in higher education.
Meet the Team
Tiffany Gusbeth
(Northern Cheyenne)
Vice President,
Student Success Services
Lisa Silverstein, Ph.D
Senior Program Officer,
TCU Capacity for Student Success
Jonathan Breaker
(Blackfoot and Cree)
Program Officer,
TCU Capacity for Student Success
Delphina Thomas
(Diné)
Program Officer,
TCU Capacity for Student Success
Autumn White Eyes, EdM
Oglala, Lakota, and Ojibwe (Turtle Mountain)
Program Officer,
TCU Capacity for Student Success
Taylor Keplin
(Three Affiliated Tribes)
Program Coordinator,
TCU Student Success
Ilisagvik College
Barrow, Alaska
Dine College
Tsaile, Arizona
Tohono Oodham Community College
Sells, Arizona
Haskell Indian Nations University
Lawrence, Kansas
Bay Mills Community College
Brimley, Michigan
Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College
L’Anse, Michigan
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College
Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College
Cloquet, MN
Leech Lake Tribal College
Cass Lake, Minnesota
Red Lake Nation College
Red Lake, Minnesota
White Earth Tribal and Community College
Mahnomen, Minnesota
Aaniiih Nakoda College
Harlem, Montana
Blackfeet Community College
Browning, Montana
Chief Dull Knife College
Lame Deer, Montana
Fort Peck Community College
Poplar, Montana Little Big Horn College
Crow Agency, Montana
Salish Kootenai College
Pablo, Montana Stone Child College
Box Elder, Montana
Little Priest Tribal College
Winnebago, Nebraska
Nebraska Indian Community College
Macy, Nebraska Institute of American Indian Arts
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Navajo Technical University
Crownpoint, New Mexico Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Cankdeska Cikana Community College
Fort Totten, North Dakota
Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College
New Town, North Dakota
Sitting Bull College
Fort Yates, North Dakota
Turtle Mountain Community College
Belcourt, North Dakota
United Tribes Technical College
Bismarck, North Dakota College of the Muscogee Nation
Okmulgee, Oklahoma
Oglala Lakota College
Kyle, South Dakota
Sinte Gleska University
Mission, South Dakota
Sisseton Wahpeton College
Sisseton, South Dakota
Northwest Indian College, Bellingham
Bellingham, Washington
College of Menominee Nation
Keshena, Wisconsin
