Improve the marketing and recruitment for the 60+ master's degrees and 8 doctoral degrees currently offered at SHSU and be able to support new and emerging programs.
Objective
Program Advisor Training
Streamline the process of onboarding new graduate admissions program advisors and develop a plan to maintain support for each advisor, department and related staff.
KPI
Graduate Program Advisor Meetings
Meet with each graduate program advisor.
Result
Program Advisor Meetings
Meetings were scheduled with either individual programs or individual departments throughout the year.
Objective
Addition Of New Graduate Programs
Streamline the process of adding new programs to the catalog of available graduate degree programs offered at SHSU.
KPI
New Programs
Develop and communicate the process by which new programs are created. These are multifaceted implementations that delve across units. Programs are crated by the Registrar, added to BANNER checklist rules, added to ApplyTexas, and added to Hobson's Connect for request for information pages and digital marketing. Additionally SHSU online must develop the new program landing, pages and a blurb about the new program must be captured for subsequent inclusion in print materials. Finally, the program advisor must be trained on graduate admissions processing and Graduate Admissions staff retraining must occur.
Result
OneNote
An onboarding process that includes a meeting with Director of Graduate Admissions was documented in OneNote and is implemented.
We need to work on better communicating the process by which new programs are created starting with Graduate Studies and THECB approval.
Action
New Program Advisor Training
Hands-on training using system tools available to program advisors to assist with graduate admissions application processing.
Objective
Miller Cook & Associates
Work with incomplete applicants, identify where accepted not enrolled students are going, set-up focus groups with students in programs to learn more about a typical SHSU graduate students.
KPI
Accepted Not Enrolled
Accepted not enrolled students are pulled and sent to ClearingHouse each fall and this task was completed in 2014 and is slated for 2015.
KPI
Focus Groups
Hold focus groups with students who are in programs to determine what a typical student is like.
Result
Focus Groups
Focus groups were held for Kinesiology and Counseling. Student attendance was less than 2 each and discussion centered around issues specific to the academic college and department. These were ceased.
KPI
Waitlist
Develop a waitlist in BANNER for programs for those that could be accepted but didn't make the initial cut.
KPI
Reactivate Applications
Communicate with incomplete applications that stalled through the cycle and promote to a future term.
Result
SWAAPCO
Graduate Admissions is using the copy application to promote applicants to a future semester.
Action
SWAAPCO
Graduate Admissions director worked with ITS to test and implement a copy application script for Graduate Admissions. Previously applicants were asked to submit a new application, now the office can promote applications for students.
Goal
Marketing Strategy
Develop a marketing strategy to increase applicant pools for those programs indentifited to have growth potentional and capacity.
Objective
Marketing Strategy And Plan Development
Identify graduate programs that have growth and capacity. Develop a program specific strategic marketing plan that includes online and print communications to increase quality of prospective students and in some cases quantity of applicants. Funding will be needed to include printing on-demand, working with external vendors like Zinch and CollegeWeek Live to improve online footprint, and purchase of print advertisements. We will need to provide additional tracking and reporting to measure return on investment.
KPI
Prospective Student And Applicant Communication Plans
Continue to monitor read-rate and open-rate on all Hobson's emails. Adjust plans accordingly. Fully utilize Hobson's Telecenter and Instant Chat functionality.
Result
Hobson's Connect Instant Chat
Instant Chat is used to communicate with individuals who visit the shsu.edu/grad web page.
Result
Mobile Friendly
Hobson's Connect email formats were updated to be easily read on mobile devices to improve read rate. Content for all emails and the timing and campaign were updated.
Result
Telecenter
Comprehensive call jobs with associated scripts were developed in Hobson's Connect filtering by prospective student or application status. Calls were scheduled and queued and associated with required job duties of the Grad Admissions Recruiter role.
Result
Recruitment Piece
A professional designed and comprehensive recruitment piece focusing on each academic college was developed for use by campus to recruit graduate students.
Result
Marketing Campaigns
Marketing campaigns to organize recruitment tasks into broad catagories were developed.
Goal
Graduate Admissions Process
Improve and streamline gradaute admissions process.
Objective
Streamline Admission Decision Processing
Utilize BANNER workflow and PerfectForms to improve the turnaround time of admission decision from graduate programs into BANNER.
KPI
Perfect Forms
Utilize PerfectForms to create an online admission decision form with workflow to route from program advisor to chair to academic dean for each program by college and department.
Result
Admission Decision Form In PerfectForms
This project was canceled by the ITS Director due to Recruiter implementation and time/scope constraints of developing appropriate routing logic on form.
KPI
GRE Scores
Improve GRE score loading into BANNER. Better identify students seeking GRE waivers to move incomplete applications to a status of complete more quickly.
Result
GRE Score Loading
Implementation of Ellucian Recruiter resulted in ITS suspending GRE score loading for one year. This was revisited June of 2015 and is in-process to be completed.
Objective
Implement A New CRM For Graduate Admissions
Implement a CRM and application processing software program for Graduate Admissions.
KPI
Upload Capability For Graduate Applications
Provide a method whereby graduate applicants can upload materials supporting their application for admission rather than emailing, mailing or faxing documents.
Result
Upload Capability
Project software did not deliver on promised features and after a six-month investment, CRM Recruiter Implementation was put on pause by implementation team and VP of EM until a future release was available.