On this Episode of the Enrollment Edge I talk to William Monts, Associate Vice President, Dean of Traditional Admission at Anderson University, in South Carolina. In a recent Octane article, William describes how coaching basketball was a perfect lead in to his life in Admissions and Enrollment. We'll talk about the valuable lessons he's taken from the court to the office over the past several years. As a professional that is considered a rising star, his insights into developing a bonded team while building a competitive winning attitude will be worth adopting for your admissions teams as well.

About Our Guest
William serves as the associate vice president, dean of traditional admission at Anderson University in South Carolina.  Originally from Columbia, South Carolina, he earned his bachelors at Clemson University and his masters from Anderson University, SC.  He is currently working on his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Liberty University.  Prior to working in enrollment management, he coached collegiate men’s basketball at Anderson University (SC) for 5 years as an assistant coach, Georgia Southwestern State University (GA) for 1 year as an assistant coach, Warren Wilson College (NC) for 2 years as the head coach, and Western Kentucky University (KY) for 2 years in administrative roles.

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On this Episode of the Enrollment Edge I talk to Dr. Dustin York, Associate Professor, Strategic Communication and Leadership at Maryville University in St Louis MO. Dustin is a Marketing Strategist and Marketing Big Thinker! We talk through some of the challenges college marketers face today in the era of extreme competition, the race to capture brand loyalty, and an environment that sees a college degree as a luxury item. And yet, through all of the challenges colleges still have options and opportunities to actually live up to their core essence of being a public service to communities. So, if you’re a college marketer or are an enrollment leader, this is a game changing conversation you’ll want to pay attention to. Get out a pen and notebook, here we go!

About Our Guest
Dr. Dustin York is an Associate Professor at Maryville University in St. Louis. Prior to entering academia, Dr. York worked in public relations for the 2008 Obama Presidential campaign,  and clients like Pepsi Co., and Nike. Dr. York’s specialties are two sided: interpersonal leadership communication and digital transformation in social media, which he now brings to life in the classroom. Beyond his primary passion for teaching, Dr. York is a subject matter expert for CNN, Entrepreneur.com, and Forbes, a contributor for Harvard Business Review, and serves as a national keynote speaker. Dr. York was awarded the St. Louis Business Journal 30 Under 30 Award, President’s Award for Strategic Leadership and Transformation Innovation, American Marketing Association 4 Under 40, and an Apple Distinguished Educator.

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On this Episode of the Enrollment Edge I talk to Kimberley Buster-Williams,  Vice President for Enrollment Management at Northeastern Illinois University. Kimberley is conducting research exploring the state of retention and succession within higher education. Her findings are shocking but not all that surprising. Professionals throughout the industry have become more aware of the fragile nature of careers within higher ed. Whether it’s career burnout, greener pastures, the stress and anxiety tied to the nature of the business, or the “you only live once” mentality – higher ed professionals are leaving their careers without a succession plan for their position.

For those of you who are making plans for your retirement or are thinking about moving out of the business of higher education, I hope this episode is encouraging and motivating to you.

If you’re interested in participating in Kimberley’s doctoral dissertation research on succession planning, see the links we provided in the show notes. I know she would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Below is a survey link with some information. If you think I should create something different let me know. 

Succession Planning Research Survey Information:

Click Here

Kimberley Buster-Williams contact information:

semmiddlemanagers@gmail.com


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On this Episode of the Enrollment Edge, I talk to Mike Wesner, the Founder, Owner, and Chief Imagination Office at enrollmentFUEL. Mike calls himself an Inversely Paranoid person. In other words, he’s always seen opportunity in the face of adversity. And if there is one word that describes college enrollment during these days, it’s adversity. Maybe Mike found his positive attitude as a Navy Officer. Or maybe it’s because he’s a born entrepreneur – where a glass half-full mindset is crucial for startup companies to survive.

I ask Mike to think about what he’s seeing on the higher ed horizon and apply his contagious opportunistic mindset to what he’s seeing. If you need a shot in the arm or a one of Mike’s famous “goose honks”, you’ll want to listen in to this special episode of the Enrollment EDGE – and ask yourself – Who’s got my back?

About Our Guest
Mike is the company’s founder and the creator of the big ideas that FUEL our company. He brings his entrepreneurial energy to every project and has led growth in fortune 500 companies, non-profits, and more than 100 higher education campuses. He has crafted the solutions strategy for more than 1,000 Student Search campaigns and has reengineered the communications ecosystem on several college campuses.

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On this Episode of the Enrollment Edge, I talk to Zana Berisha, Digital Marketing Specialist at enrollmentFUEL. Zana is a self-proclaimed Social Media-Guru – meaning she’s a consistent content user and coach for all things Social Media and her specialty is Tik Tok! College marketers need to communicate with their prospects through multiple channels including these envelope pushing platforms. If you want to successfully reach your prospective students – you need to be where their attention is – and it’s on Tik Tok.

About Our Guest
Zana is a graduate from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. She enjoys using her skills to improve our client-partners’ digital marketing experience. She specializes in TikTok and has a passion to learn all things social media. That specialization has led to helping clients amount to 2.3 million followers! During her time in college, Zana gained a lot of experience and had great success in sales that led to marketing. 

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On this Episode of the Enrollment Edge, Jay is joined be Robert Gould, Vice President for Enrollment Management & Stephanie Ruckel, Director of Admissions Operations at Augsburg University. For decades many colleges have taken on the challenge of real college access. More recently, Direct Admissions has moved from a regionalized experimental policy to a policy movement. Every student is “college material.” This core belief is the driving idea behind the Office of Higher Education's new program called Direct Admissions. This pilot program will notify graduating high school seniors from selected Minnesota high schools that there are multiple partner colleges and universities that are eager to admit them based on their academic records and their projected Spring 2023 graduation date. This program will allow students to apply with confidence, knowing that the "will I get in?" question has already been answered with a "YES!"

For Enrollment Leaders across the country who are interested in breaking down college access barriers and supporting students to achieve the dream of a college education, this is an Edge Episode you can't miss!! 

About Our Guests

Stephanie has been part of the Augsburg University community since 2010.  She began her career at Augsburg helping students pay for college, holding various roles within financial aid and student account teams. There she embraced the framework of design thinking to transform numerous aspects of student service.

Robert currently serves as vice president for strategic enrollment management at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has a proven record of consistent enrollment leadership success. He has led four years of progressive results at Augsburg, welcoming the largest and most diverse entering classes in its 153-year history. 

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By popular demand we're re-airing this highly downloaded episode!

Enrollment Edge is digging into yet another digital strategy that Enrollment Leaders must be paying attention to—E.A.T. or Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. In this episode, Jay will unpack the E.A.T. concept and why it's so important to SEO development. The concept comes from Google’s search quality rater guidelines, and it became well known after the infamous Medic Update in August 2018. E.A.T. is an important, and often overlooked, evaluation that Google uses to evaluate the overall quality of a web page. While enrollment marketing and enrollment professionals are focusing on the mechanics of SEO, what they should be developing is broader and significantly more important.

 
About Our Guest

Our Guest today is a lead and web development specialist and consultant, Rory Green. Rory has more than 20 years of design and strategic web development experience. Along the way he has seen the rules of effective web site  development and search engine optimization change dramatically and without notice to the public. We will talk through quality raters, black and white hatters, Google algorithms, and provide listeners with six key takeaways that will make an immediate impact on their web site effectiveness.

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On this Episode of the Enrollment Edge Jay talks to Dr. John Borum, Head of Engagement at Degree Sight. John has spent much of his career in Student Services and has built a specialty in building predictive models to predict student retention at his university. While Predictive Modeling looks at who among prospective student’s is most and least likely to apply and enroll, John’s model goes beyond that and into the student’s college career – predicting year to year retention. And he believes schools can also do this kind of retention modeling at the prospective student’s application stage. As Enrollment Managers search for effective enrollment strategies to support their colleges and universities, this is one strategy that is worth the time to investigate!

About Our Guest

Dr. John Borum serves as Head of Engagement for DegreeSight, an Educational Technology company that offers online solutions for transcript evaluations and degree planning. Dr. Borum has 20 years of Higher Education experience in Enrollment and Student Affairs. He has served in leadership positions in admissions, student life, and retention/student success.

John Borum's Info

john.borum@degreesight.com

https://www.degreesight.com

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