ENROLLMENT MATTERS
Enrollment Matters is an electronic newsletter intended to provide the university community with pertinent information about activities and initiatives that improve and enhance DePaul’s competitive market position and prominence.
DIVISION PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
Division Planning and Management supports divisionwide strategic initiatives and leads projects and communications for the more than 250 employees within the division. As the main support area for the senior vice president, Division Planning and Management serves as a resource for those within the university regarding matters related to the areas within and the strategic planning goals of the Division of EM&M.
Division Planning and Management Staff
EM&M’s Role in Universitywide Strategic Planning
In the past 10 years, under the leadership of David Kalsbeek, EM&M has crafted the marketing and enrollment components of two ambitious universitywide strategic plans, Vision 2006 and the new VISION twenty12.
Vision 2006
DePaul’s Vision 2006 strategic plan, developed in 1997, outlined a model of ambitious enrollment growth from 17,000 to 25,000 students by the year 2006. Vision 2006 was forged around an integrated framework for growth involving financial plans, facilities plans and plans for faculty expansion and new academic programs—all predicated on and contributing to increasing student enrollment.
Significant accomplishments during the era of the Vision 2006 plan included:
- Achieving a 39% increase in undergraduate enrollment from 10,697 in 1997 to 14,893 in 2006, including increasing freshman enrollment from 1,200 to more than 2,500 students, while also improving academic quality, net revenue, diversity and maintaining retention and graduation rates.
- Orchestrating a technological transformation of all enrollment-related services, including implementing:
- PeopleSoft Student Administration systems for all Admission, Financial Aid and Student Records systems.
- Digital document imaging in Admission, Financial Aid and Student Records that has resulted in paperless processes in these critical functions.
- EMAS inquiry management and recruitment systems, enhancing the entire student recruitment and communications process for undergraduate students.
- Developing a nationally-acclaimed research unit (Institutional Research & Market Analytics) to support enrollment and marketing analysis, including research on DePaul’s market position, brand identity, financial accessibility, student profile and enrollment outcomes.
- Developing an award-winning approach to integrated and brand marketing that has been featured as a "best practice" at multiple national conferences, including the American Marketing Association’s national annual Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education.
- Achieving award-winning advertising, publications, media relations and public relations campaigns in support of institutional goals and ambitions.
- Creating the Office of Community Outreach, an innovative program for partnering with Chicago-based agencies and programs working with academically talented but disadvantaged high school students.
- Initiating the development and securing federal funding for two TRIO programs (Student Support Services and McNair Scholars Program) that have become nationally regarded models for integrating such programs with institutional enrollment strategy.
- Introducing a "career networking" orientation to the Career Center, expanding student services, employer relations and alumni volunteer involvement; creating the first University Internship Program; incorporating the Student Employment function within the Career Center in order to better integrate on-campus employment of 3,000 student employees with their career planning.
VISION twenty12
VISION twenty12 outlines an explicit set of goals and challenges that define EM&M’s priorities for the next several years. Like Vision 2006, the VISION twenty12 plan requires the achievement of ambitious enrollment goals. The plan elevates the importance of integrated, brand-focused marketing to reinforce academic quality and build institutional prominence, and it requires enhanced student services and retention strategies to improve graduation rates and overall student satisfaction. In its entirety, VISION twenty12 embraces and affirms the strategic perspective that integrates and envelopes all functions in EM&M to improve and enhance DePaul’s position and prominence.
New initiatives underway within EM&M as part of the VISION twenty12 plan include:
- Development of DePaul Central, an integrated one-stop service center bringing together Student Records, Financial Aid and Student Accounts services.
- Introduction of an innovative student financial planning service—the Financial Fitness Program—as part of the advising support offered through the Career Center.
- Furthering technological advances including the acquisition and university-wide implementation of Collage content management systems for the university website, enabling a consistent look and feel to all facets of the site.
- Creation of online degree audit and degree progress reporting capabilities for all undergraduate and graduate programs.
- Participation as the first Illinois private university in the Course Applicability System (CAS), which enables immediate online evaluation for students within Illinois interested in learning how coursework will transfer to DePaul.
- Implementation of the Graduate Enrollment & Marketing Services model, which maximizes integrated marketing communications and resource allocations.
- Creation of the Transfer Articulation Center (TrAC), which provides a key service for students and university offices by assisting any new, continuing or readmitting student to ensure all credits are processed in a timely and accurate manner.
- Enhancing partnerships with the Chicago Public Schools through initiatives such as the International Baccalaureate program.
