August 22, 2019
From Interim Vice Provost Emily Lehning: An Enrollment Management Services update
Dear Colleagues,
The summer of 2019 marked the beginning of a new way to imagine the enrollment management activities for the university. The new Office for Enrollment Management unit is actively working to onboard new members of the fall 2019 entering class, finalize summer school academic records, process hundreds of official academic documents, issue financial assistance for the new term, and planning for the next academic and recruiting years.
Thank you to everyone who assisted with orientation and enrollment and Wildcat Warm-up activities in June. We successfully hosted a number of new students and their families because of our collaborative efforts. Evaluation responses are very positive with frequent mention of our welcoming environment, caring students, faculty and staff, and commitment to student success. Aug. 22 and 23 are two additional opportunities to welcome new Wildcats to campus. Thank you for everyone's efforts to create a warm welcome to our new students and their families.
Over the summer, we celebrated a few accomplishments:
Congratulations to Powercat Financial for its contributions to Kansas State University's No. 25 ranking by LendEDU's list of top 50 financial literacy programs at colleges and universities across the United States. Program Director Jodi Kaus and her team do an amazing job of serving students as they build capacity in financial literacy and wellness.
The International Admissions and Recruitment Team completed a relocation as part of phase one of the Strategic Enrollment Management realignment. They are now located in 10 Anderson Hall and their phone number and other contact information remain the same.
We are making great progress in preparing for the next recruiting cycle. Training for our admissions representatives and outreach team is coming to an end as they begin fall travel. We are able to elevate the performance of our professional staff members because of the investment of our campus colleagues. We enjoy spending time learning information that helps students see our academic and student life programs as a match for their interests and goals.
On Aug. 1, we launched our partnership with The Common Application as another means of increasing access for students. First-time, full-time international and domestic students will find us as a member institution available for selection as they complete The Common App. Sara Blankley in the Office of Admissions has performed an extraordinary effort in integrating technology and business practices to meet our goal for this implementation.
We made great progress in the Academic Interest Areas project. Academic colleges provided input on tagging academic programs in 16 interest areas. The goal of this project is to pursue a new way to communicate our academic offerings to students and families and another positive step forward in marketing our academic programs in a way that is more easily understandable to students and families. We have introduced the Interest Areas in our new marketing materials for the fall. The Division of Communications and Marketing is working on the next step — an interactive, digital tool to help with the academic programs search feature on our websites.
The launch of the new scholarship/awards packages for undergraduate international and domestic students is an exciting new development to assist with our marketing efforts. The revised scholarships, and the policies and procedures associated, offer many benefits to students. The scholarship awards are designed to increase access for a greater number of students and moves us closer to actualizing our land-grant mission. Our scholarships for international and out-of-state students provide a mechanism to capture the attention of students who previously would not have considered K-State. The reduction of the renewal GPA from a 3.5 to a 3.0 (beginning fall 2020) for nearly all scholarships and awards makes us more competitive in the marketplace and helps us retain students who are performing well. Further, adjustments to our policies and procedures allow more students to clearly see expectations and options to advance their educational goals. In the end, we hope to serve more students and to enhance the transparency and equity for all students. The Division of Communications and Marketing has been a tremendous partner in helping us clearly communicate our scholarships and awards in an interactive format.
The selection and implementation of Salesforce/TargetX as the universitywide CRM is an important advancement in our progress toward many of our Strategic and Enrollment Management goals. We have long desired a platform that will modernize our ability to communicate with students and provide additional access and benefits to all who are working to advance our enrollment goals. Participation in the Town Halls is essential in providing input to inform the implementation. The next Town Hall is scheduled for Sept. 12. We also have a team of content experts who have agreed to lend their expertise in one of the following areas: Communications, Data, Documents, Events, Forms and Reporting.
These are just a few of the highlights from the Office of Enrollment Management Services. We know that we are experiencing a time of accelerated change. We welcome your feedback, suggestions and questions at vpem@k-state.edu.
Go Cats!
Emily Lehning
Interim Vice Provost for Enrollment Management