To provide affordable, quality education to a diverse population by recruiting and enrolling qualified freshman, transfer, adult learners and graduate students for admission.
Objective
Administrative Support
To assist with admissions applications and reduce processing times. Management of travel documents, departmental budget and student staff supervision.
KPI
Hiring Of Additional Staff
UG Admissions will hire additional support staff. Administrative staff will divide responsibilities and one will provide customer service support while a second staff member will provided processing assistance to anaylst and the third staff member will assist with admissions counselors, management of travel and budgeting.
Result
Achieving Office Efficiency
3 additional Administrative positions were added to UG Admissions. A Customer Service Specialist will be assisting the student staff to greet customers, answer phones and help faciliate new parents and students. A new Administrative Assistant has been hired to assist with processing applications, scanning documents, indexing and evaluating residency as well as transcripts. A third Administrative Assistant was hired to help manage the Admissions Counselors, providing day-to-day clerical duties as well as managing travel schedules, counseling sessions for students and following up with students and high school counselors.
Action
Additional Support Staff & Action Plan
UG Admissions hired 3 additional support staff and the Assistant Director as well as the Director of Admissions created a customer service plan and schedule to best accomodate staff, student staff and admissions analyst more efficiently. To offset the cost of the additional FTE support staff and to better utilize the current budget UG admissions cut the number of student staff as full time support staff could offset the work responsibiliities and result in less student turnover which resulted in less efforts to train new student staff.
Goal
Admissions Processing & Communication
To better provide admissions decisions and the best customer service to our students and families while also meeting enrollment and university goals, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions will need to restructure to work more cohesive admissions office.
Objective
Reorganization
As Enrollment Managment has reorganized upon hiring new AVP Dr. Leah Mulligan. UG and Grad Admissions has combined into one office and a new Assistant Director of Operations has been appointed. Now that UG Admissions has three new administrative staff members for FY15 as well as Admin Assistant Robin Pierson, the four staff members will work together to provide efficency throughout the reorganization process and continue to provide support as needed to both offices.
KPI
MillerCook And Associates Audit
In collaboration with the Office of Enrollment Managment, the Office of Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions underwent an audit of office process, staff, and work responsibility. Third party vendor MillerCook and Associates was brought on staff and reviewed the admissions processes, processing times and overall office deficiencies. They scheduled one-on-one interviews with all full time staff members including UG Admission, Graduate Admissions and Enrollment Managment Communications.
Result
Reorganization
As a result of the MillerCook Audit that took several months of evaluation, it was reported that alot of efficiences were a result of the cylo-or lack of communication between the Undergraduate and Graduate offices. It was reported that several tasks were being duplicated across both offices and errors were being made as the task was being completed differently by both offices and that it was inefficient for the offices to overlap and fulfill the responsibility twice. Additionally, it was found that there was a lack of supervision and leadership amongst the in house support staff and analyst staff and therefore a position that remained on campus at all times with leadership qualities and prior admissions experience was necessary.
Action
New Office Of Admissions And Staff Changes
As a result of the audit findings Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions became a single Office of Admissions. The Office of Admissions is currently in the process of a search for the position of Director of Admissions and Recruitment. Per the audit, the office have been reorganized and a new position of Assistant Director of Operations has been put in place to supervise and lead the support staff, students and analyst. There has also been a move of the Anaylst Manager to Banner and Recruiter Team Lead as this individual will travel often and will be the key person for handling any admissions or enrollment management IT issues. Last, the Asst. Director of Admissions has a new outlined list of responsibilities for manageing the Admissions Counselors for both UG and Grad.
Goal
Transfer And High School Counselors
To provide an open and clear link from the University Admissions Office to Transfer and High School Counselors across the state of Texas.
Objective
Improve Relationships With Counselors
The intent of hosting such conferences, both on-campus and potentially off-campus, is to inform key stakeholders on the changes happening at Sam Houston State University. This information is relayed in a series of information sessions, meet-and-greets, social activities, and standard group presentations.
KPI
Anual Counselor Conference
Every year, Undergraduate Admissions hosts a Counselor Conference. In years past, we have hosted two conference. One conference was aimed at transfer counselors, and the other was aimed at high school counselors. In 2015, we changed the format of the conference and hosted a combined conference for both transfer and high school counselors.
Topics covered are often admission requirements, legislative changes that may affect admissions or financial aid, scholarships, student success initiatives, money management skills, and career/internship placement. A tour of the Sam Houston campus and other facilities is also included as part of this conference.
Result
Improved Relationships Resulting In Improved Application Numbers
The goal of the conference is to build stronger relationships with the high school and community college counselors that we work with on a regular basis, and to attract the attention of counselors that we have not had a chance to work with in the past. By doing this, it is possible to raise the profile of the university as a whole and to attract higher quality students based on counselor referrals. Hosting this conference also helps make Sam Houston one of the go-to universities in the state where legislative clarification is concerned.
Action
Future Counselor Conference Goals
In the future, Undergraduate Admissions would like to rotate between hosting the on-campus conference and area updates. An area update is where a group of counselors travel together to a region and host an abbreviated informational session with high school and community college counselors that may not have the ability to visit Sam Houston. The general idea would be to host areas updates on even years in the spring and to host a conference on odd years in the summer. This may help spark more interest in actually visiting our campus for the conference.