Freshman are welcomed to their dorm during move in.
This is the second in a series on the Division of Student Affairs at Ole Miss, which was reorganized July 1 to include four branches: the University Police Department, Wellness and Student Success, Enrollment Management and the Office of the Dean of Students. Read the first story here.
The new structure of Enrollment Management was put to the test this summer, when the recently combined units from across campus collaborated to admit, enroll and house the largest freshman class in state history.
Enrollment Management was one of four main branches identified as part of the recent restructuring of Student Affairs, which went into effect July 1. The new branch brings together admissions, financial aid, housing and the Luckyday Program under the leadership of Lionel Maten, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment management and housing.
“The four areas under enrollment management are critical to students as they decide what institution they want to attend,” said Maten, who was formerly director of student housing. “They want to be admitted, they want to know what financial aid options are available to them, and they want to make sure they have a place to live.”
Previously, the four entities under Enrollment Management operated separately. Combining Admissions and Enrollment Services just made sense, Maten said.
“This allowed direct, meaningful conversations and partnerships between the staff who are processing applications and the staff who are out recruiting,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of positive energy come from collaboration between staff now that they’re combined together as a team.”
Combining Luckyday into Enrollment Management was also a natural fit because the scholarship and student-success program encompasses all areas from financial support to housing, said Merrill Magruder, who served as project coordinator for Luckyday before moving into her position as coordinator of division operations and special programs for Student Affairs. Post-reorganization she now serves as a point of contact for parents and aids the leadership team.
Both Maten and Brandi Hephner LaBanc, UM vice chancellor for student affairs, said they saw a valuable increase in communication and information sharing during the spring and summer as the units under Enrollment Management worked to provide services to the incoming freshman class.
“When students enroll, we have their applications and then they’re admitted,” Hephner LaBanc explained. “A lot of campuses at that point will say, ‘If you want to come here, we need an enrollment deposit.’ That monetary measurement is significant enough to know if they’re serious about coming. We don’t have that. What we do have are other indicators, like when they sign up for housing and then orientation and when they select their beds in the residence halls.”
Previously, this information was collected by separate units that handled different steps in the process. Now, regular meetings among Enrollment Management leaders allow each area to share data that otherwise might not have been relayed.
“In the past, that type of partnership may not have existed, not because they didn’t want to but because they wouldn’t have known what the other was doing,” Maten said. “We’ve combined efforts, and it seems to be working fairly well. I think the numbers speak to that.”