When financial pressures and shifting demand collide, what actually moves the needle? Blending financial clarity with student-centered marketing helps institutions stabilize today and grow tomorrow.

Chester Moyer of RubinBrown and Dave Black of Paskill explore how smaller, enrollment-dependent institutions can face budget stress with clear-eyed strategies that connect finance and enrollment. From pausing capital projects and managing hiring to improving marketing yield and campus culture, they share what works now and what takes time.

What you’ll learn

• The financial reality. Tuition revenue alone isn’t covering costs for many smaller colleges.
• Tough talks lead to change. Leaders need honest plans that reduce expenses or increase revenue.
• Smart cost control. Pause big projects, review hiring, and consolidate where possible.
• Quality over quantity. Focus marketing and admissions on fit and yield, not inflated applicant pools.
• Holistic marketing. Align paid media, content, and CRM to generate strong leads and conversions.
• Culture builds confidence. Every visit, message, and staff interaction shapes yield.
• Collaboration wins. Finance, enrollment, and academics must share data and direction

What happens when higher education reclaims its civic purpose at a time when the public questions its value? By engaging deeply with their communities, institutions can rebuild trust, demonstrate relevance, and strengthen student belonging in ways that go beyond enrollment numbers.

In this episode of Innovating Enrollment Success, Andrew Seligsohn, president of Public Agenda, a nonpartisan research and engagement organization focused on strengthening democracy and expanding opportunities for civic participation, shares how institutions can align civic purpose with student success.

From building community partnerships to modeling institutional values, Seligsohn shares what it takes to make engagement central to both learning and leadership.

What you’ll learn

· Civic engagement builds learning and belonging. When students connect coursework to real communities, they form deeper ties to their institution.

· Partnerships make institutions trusted and relevant. Collaborating locally shows your brand’s value beyond campus walls.

· Leaders must live their values. Authentic action from leadership reinforces mission and builds audience trust.

· Listening creates connection and understanding. Dialogue across differences strengthens both campus culture and brand perception.

· Every voice strengthens the institution. Inclusion fuels belonging, engagement, and advocacy among students and staff.

· Meaning drives student success and loyalty. When students see purpose in their education, they stay, succeed, and champion your story.

What’s really behind your web traffic? How can you tell if the clicks you’re counting are from future students or from bots inflating your metrics? And what does it take to turn raw numbers into insights you can actually act on?

In this episode of Innovating Enrollment Success, Digital Analytics Manager Sam Hofman and Ad Ops Engineer Nathan Huff talk about how to separate real insights from digital noise, and why trustworthy data is essential for student recruitment and retention.

What you’ll learn:

• Good data is trusted and actionable, not just clean spreadsheets.
• Set metrics early with a measurement brief that defines success and allows for pivots.
• Compare platform and CRM data to avoid inflated conversion counts.
• Identify bot traffic—40–60% of hits could be non-human.
• Block invalid traffic with honeypots, IP filters, and ad verification.
• Assign a data steward to own your data strategy and guide smarter decisions.

When your data is done right, it doesn’t just track activity, it tells the real story of your audience. And in today’s enrollment climate, those insights can make all the difference.