Strategic Enrollment Management Faculty Working Group
Completed Initiative 2018
Introduction
The core purpose of UT Austin, to transform lives for the benefit of society, depends upon enrolling an excellent, high-potential undergraduate student body that is racially, ethnically, geographically, and economically diverse. The University of Texas at Austin scholarly community provides a strong educational foundation and learning environment that unlocks students’ potential by preparing them as citizens and leaders, and empowering them to improve their own lives and positively impact their communities.
The university recently created an enrollment management division, with a coordinated and collaborative strategic enrollment management vision in mind. As UT Austin looks toward the development of a strategic enrollment management plan, in the fall of 2017, Provost McInnis assembled the Strategic Enrollment Management Faculty Working Group (SEM Working Group). The SEM Working Group consists of faculty from colleges, schools, and units across campus who will consider principles that should guide a new undergraduate student enrollment management strategy in line with the core purpose and values of the university; and will develop a report and recommendations for the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost.
The charge of the Strategic Enrollment Management Faculty Working Group (SEM Working Group) is to develop and assess options for the Provost’s Office regarding general principles to guide admissions and financial aid at UT Austin, in line with the core purpose and values of the university. The SEM Working Group will also develop recommendations regarding university structures to facilitate ongoing research, innovation, and areas of improvement in admissions and financial aid.
Guiding questions for the SEM Working Group are outlined below:
- Given constraints imposed by state and federal law, what principles should guide undergraduate admissions and financial aid at UT Austin?
- What goals should drive UT Austin’s new undergraduate student enrollment efforts?
- Which undergraduate students should UT Austin position itself to enroll?
- What characteristics distinguish students who have substantial leadership potential—particularly students whose talents might have been undervalued by traditional measures?
- Who are the talented students whose perspectives are missing from UT Austin’s undergraduate classes today?
- What principles should inform the admission of students to colleges, schools, and specific programs?
- What should a modern definition of affordability for UT Austin include? How should our definitions of affordability relate to the value of UT Austin degrees?
- What principles should inform the allocation of financial aid (including scholarships)?
- What kinds of specific, measurable goals related to upward social mobility should UT Austin consider?
- What kinds of structures should the university maintain to facilitate ongoing research, innovation, and improvement in admissions and financial aid, working in partnership with the Office of Enrollment Management? In particular, how should access to data and presentations of findings be managed?
| Name | Department/College/School/Unit |
|---|---|
| Rachelle Hernandez, chair | Senior Vice Provost for Enrollment Management |
| Mark Bernstein | Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Moody College of Communication |
| Ashley Bliss Lima | Office of Strategy and Policy |
| Noel Busch-Armendariz | Steve Hicks School of Social Work Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, College of Liberal Arts |
| Christine Julien | Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Cockrell School of Engineering |
| Prabhudev Konana | Department of Information, Risk, and Operations Management Red McCombs School of Business |
| Chandra Muller | Department of Sociology College of Liberal Arts |
| Rich Reddick | Department of Educational Administration, College of Education Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, College of Liberal Arts |
| Jack Stamps | School of Design and Creative Technologies College of Fine Arts |
| John Traphagan | Department of Religious Studies College of Liberal Arts |
| Uri Treisman | Department of Mathematics College of Natural Sciences |
| David Vandenbout | Department of Chemistry College of Natural Sciences |
The working group has completed its full scope of work, and has submitted its final report.