Missouri State University developed a SEM plan during the 2019-20 academic year. From the beginning the University prioritized faculty involvement in the process. Prior to the start of the plan development, the chief enrollment officer (CEO) met weekly with the University president’s cabinet. There was buy-in from the top. One of the major objectives in the early planning was to make sure the faculty was fully engaged in the process. Members of the cabinet operated under this priority. One member of the cabinet is a rotating academic dean. The current dean representative was effective at taking decisions from each week’s cabinet meeting to the other deans. This helped create early engagement and buy-in from academic administrators.

As the SEM committee structure was developed, the councils that were appointed, leadership, and membership highlighted faculty representation. In addition to the standard recruitment and retention councils, we added an Academic Programs and Deliveries and a Marketing and Communication council. The Academic Programs and Deliveries provided faculty the opportunity to assess programs offered by the university and their delivery formats to help make sure we were meeting workforce and market demands.

The steering committee and four councils were each led by co-chairs, which typically included one academic and one non-academic administrator. They also included a total of 45% faculty representation with equal representation between the academic colleges.

Throughout the SEM process, several effective communication tools and benchmark events were used to keep the campus community engaged and help assess the progress. In September a campus-wide kickoff took place. This included a presentation on the academic marketplace and the importance of involving the academic community in SEM. Approximately 225 members of the campus community attended. And after development of the major SEM goals and before the strategy development phase, the University hosted a SEM townhall meeting in January. A broad representation of campus constituents attended, received a progress update, and provided feedback.

In addition to an inclusive SEM structure and process, the University structure of the CEO position allows for synergy between academic and administrative areas. The CEO reports to the VP for Student Affairs, however, also sits on the Provost’s leadership team, including regular interaction with deans and associate provosts, and reports regularly to the President, President’s cabinet, and Board of Governors regarding enrollment.

This session will cover measures the university took to engage faculty, the council and committee structure that ensured academic representation, a campus-wide kickoff that highlighted the “academic marketplace,” several benchmark events that allowed faculty to assess and help direct the process, and the University structure of the CEO position that helped create synergy between academic and non-academic areas.

Submission ID:

13604

Presenter(s):

Rob Hornberger Missouri State University

Dr. Tammy Jahnke Missouri State University