Experts Close to Home: How to Work Like a Consultant on Your Own Campus

1. Experts Close to Home: How to Work Like a Consultanton Your Own Campus Michael Hovland, Ph.D. Enrollment Management Services, ACT

2. How many good consultant jokes do you know?

3. Consultant Joke #1 A consultant is an ordinary person 50 miles from home with a briefcase.

4. Consultant Joke #2 A tomcat who was fixed because he'd been bothering so many neighbors at night still continued to go out ... calling himself a consultant.

5. Consultant Joke #3 A consultant is someone who comes in, borrows your watch, and tells you what time it is, keeps the watch, and charges you an exorbitant fee.

6. And My Personal Favorite… Please don't tell my mother I'm a consultant. She thinks I play guitar in a strip joint.

7. It’s Hard to Be a Hometown Expert And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor." (Matthew 13:57)

8. Why Consultants Are Often Successful • They have the “ear” of presidents and academic administrators • They are able to "bridge the silos" and work with individuals and offices across campus • There is a sense of “urgency” to their work.

9. Today’s Goal • Exploring ways you can take principles that make external consultants successful and apply them to your work at your campus

10. A Lot of Truth Behind the Humor A consultant is someone who comes in, borrows your watch, tells you what time it is, keeps the watch, and charges you an exorbitant fee.

11. …borrows your watch to tell you what time it is… • Listening, and putting what you hear in a context that speaks to your audience • Translating institutional values for students and parents • Translating student needs, desires, and characteristics for faculty and academic administrators

12. …keeps the watch… • What does it mean to “keep the watch”? • The best consultants learn from the experience of others and then retain and reuse what they learn • GISEM is on to something positive in expecting participants to spend time on other campuses

13. …and charges you an exorbitant fee … • What’s the positive in that? • The consulting fee is often what generates the sense of urgency • The sense of urgency… • Breaks logjams • Gets objectives met and on time • Breaks down silos and brings diverse people and offices “to the table”

14. Balancing Act: The Big Challenge for Enrollment Managers • Balancing the internal and external: • The characteristics and needs of the marketplace • Institutional characteristics and the vision of faculty and administrators

15. When the Teeter-Totter Tips Too Far to the External… • The admissions office becomes disengaged from the academic side of the campus • You can begin to market a campus that doesn’t really exist • You don’t have broad internal support

16. Opening and Closing Keynotes from 2006 Enrollment Planners Conference • “Enrollment Managers as Key Stakeholders in the Undergraduate Experience”(John Gardner) • “It’s All About the Experience”(Bob Sevier) • Gardner and Sevier both talked about the importance of admissions people engaging the whole institution and being a partner in what the institution offers and how it works.

17. Timely Topic • More admissions directors becoming enrollment managers — recruitment and retention • More chief enrollment officers reporting to chief academic officers • More chief enrollment officers with titles that get them a “seat at the table” with academic leaders

18. Enrollment Officer as Internal Consultant: Three Roles • Professional advisor and counselor • Internal resource • Change agent.

19. Role 1: Professional Advisor and Counselor A consultant is a subject matter expert with an established body of knowledge • Some of the best and most effective enrollment managers I know are beginning to refer to themselves on campus as internal consultants

20. Use and SHARE Data • Become a data expert • Translate the data into a form and with messages attached that engage the interests of faculty and administrators • Train your staff to use data and expect them to use it • Share data and invite others to help you interpret it

21. Role 2: Internal Resource An enrollment consultant is aresource for faculty and academic administrators.  • Promote campuswide recruitment and retention for: • Colleges • Departments • Activity areas

22. Role 3: Change Agent A consultant is a catalyst for internal change • Help your institution become what you’re trying to promote • Promote a sense of urgency by listening for and responding to recruitment and retention hot buttons

23. Who controls the power and the resources on a campus?

24. Meet Faculty on Their Own terms • What are faculty interested in? • What motivates faculty? • Where is there energy and motivation for change? • Who is “hungry”?

25. Gaining the Ear of Academic Administrators… • Be involved in student retention • Be involved in student success • Be visible and show an interest in the academic, intellectual, and artistic life of the campus… and model that behavior for your staff

26. Find Faculty Champions • Every campus has one or more faculty members who are well-respected by other faculty, AND • Who have a reputation for being excellent teachers and very student-centered • Get them involved visibly in enrollment management structures and activities

27. Other Ideas to Stimulate Change • Establish a task force for enrollment, diversity, etc. • Invite academic administrators or key faculty to professional meetings they would not normally attend • Invite in outside consultants