Diné College Professionals Attend Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Conference
13th November 2024
Shiprock, NM – Diné College and the American Indian College Fund (AICF) are partnering to create a new approach to strategic enrollment planning. Recently, a team of Diné College employees attended the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Conference. The team engaged in professional development sessions to establish tools and resources to create a comprehensive enrollment management plan. The focal point is to develop a culture of student success through innovative recruitment and retention strategies in higher education.
During the conference, Malcolm Bob, Interim Director of Student Enrollment & Student Access served on a panel entitled, “Indigenizing SEM: How Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) Use Culture for Native Student Success” hosted by the AICF. He stated, “the conference provided our team with the opportunity to understand how strategic planning plays a role in a student’s journey at Diné College.”
Additionally, Winifred Jumbo, Director of External Campuses and PI for Cultivating Native Student Success (CNSS) Grant served on a panel entitled, “HBCUs, TCUs, & SEM: The Dual Mission Connection.” HBCUs and TCUs learned from each other and enhanced their SEM toolkit through this session.
The sessions were diverse and informative. “The TCU convening exercises in process evaluation brought different departments together to have a simple conversation on registration processes. This brought light to how important evaluating and fixing processes is essential to our students’ success. Each department has a responsibility to ensure the enrollment and registration processes are clear and can easily be navigated by our students. For academics, the scheduling process has to become “student friendly” for our undergraduate population,” explained Patrick Blackwater, Dean of Business and Social Sciences.
Session topics were cross-functional. “We had a unique opportunity to connect with a network of professionals who are dedicated to advancing enrollment strategies within TCU communities across the U.S. This offered invaluable insights, resources, and best practices tailored to the needs of our Native American student population,” stated Velveena Davis, Executive Director of OIPR.
Velveena continued, “we can enhance our own enrollment strategies and support services, better address the specific cultural and academic needs of our students using data and student feedback. Implementing these innovative approaches will allow Diné College to create a more supportive environment, help increase student engagement and retention, and ultimately empowering our community to become aware that obtaining higher education is possible at Diné College.”
Our College thanks the AICF for providing a professional development opportunity through the CNSS Grant. The next step is to develop a SEM Plan Committee with our internal experts in the field of higher education.
