The Chief Enrollment Officers’ Forum (CHIEF) delves into the varied demands on admission and enrollment leaders for developing and maintaining innovative and sustainable strategies that achieve institutional goals.
The workshop engages participants with pressing current and future considerations impacting enrollment and the demands facing the profession: fostering access, maintaining focus and commitment to diversity and inclusion, managing up, strategic planning, and best practices for managing in the role in an ever-changing political and legal climate.
Forum sessions and discussions are designed engage to participants with other professionals on issues impacting CEMOs now, such as: responding to a changing legal and political environment, understanding and effective planning to meet the challenges of changing demographics and student behaviors; and best practices for fostering trust and building strong relationships with university leaders and key partners.
Incorporated into the workshop are research analyses, best practices and lessons learned, as well as dialogue among peers to foster a rigorous professional learning community.
About this workshop
The role of CEMO is changing, expanding, and the stakes are high for leaders in the field working to navigate today’s enrollment and higher education landscape. The CEMO Forum “Navigating the Now” will provide you with an opportunity to engage directly with leaders across the field, learn best practices and key strategies to enhance your work and ability to achieve your institutional and professional outcomes. The workshop focuses on the everyday realities of our current legal and political landscape and the changing student, staff, alumni, and institutional leadership outcomes expectations. Sessions will cover leadership, decision making, adapting to senior leadership transitions, best practices for developing and leading strategic enrollment efforts, and managing up and out to develop strong relationships and enhance stakeholder confidence, all while building your knowledge and expertise to “navigate the now.”
agenda
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. (PT)
Check-In & Breakfast
8:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. (PT)
Welcome and Introductions
Program Directors:
Rachelle Hernandez, Vice Provost for Student Affairs, Johns Hopkins University
Derek Kindle, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, University of Wisconsin-Madison
8:30 a.m. – 8:50 a.m. (PT)
Sponsor Presentation
8:55 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (PT)
The CEMO Role – Leaning into Leadership
Although the CEMO role and portfolio may vary from campus to campus, there are key aspects of the role that every CEMO role has in common. Learn from experienced VPEMs what it means to be the Chief Enrollment Officer, how to work with your board, how to develop and set your goals to help you frame and focus your university’s enrollment management work, and what experienced VPs know now that they wish someone had told them.
Facilitators
Maggie Hinojosa, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Femi Ogundele, University of California Berkeley
10:15 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. (PT)
Break
10:30 a.m. – 11:45 p.m. (PT)
Wait, What? Strategic Enrollment Leadership in the Midst of the Unknown
How do you lead your teams to achieve university outcomes in the midst of shifting landscapes, uncertainty around financial aid, uncertainty around student choice and enrollment behavior, and questions about the value of higher education. How to CEMOs lead not just their teams, but their institutions to success? And, what do you do when your longstanding practices don’t work as effectively and you need to chart a path that your institution hasn’t traveled before. A panel of enrollment experts will share how to approach the challenges with we face without feeling like you’re playing a game of Whack-a-Mole, and share strategies that will help you and your teams be best positioned to identify opportunities to turn what feels like an ever-growing list of “can’ts” into a strategic and focused list of “cans.”
Facilitators
Rachelle Feldman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Joseph Montgomery, North Carolina A&T State University
Matt Ward, California Lutheran University
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. (PT)
Lunch Session – Working with a Search Firm
Facilitated by Witt Kieffer
1:10 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. (PT)
Recruiting and Enrolling a Diverse Student Body in 2024
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are foundational to the work of enrollment managers. Learn from experienced CEMOs about navigating the challenges of this current landscape and the ways schools are learning building a diverse community of students—and have a real conversation about the practices institutions whose states had previously barred the consideration of race in the admissions review process have used to support their recruitment and enrollment efforts and how colleges and universities are looking at recruitment, admission and enrollment into the future. Participants will learn how schools are navigating the SCOTUS decision and changes in state laws impacting DEI on our campuses.
Facilitators
Patty Morales, University of California- Irvine
Joffrey Gaymon, Auburn University
Ashley Pallie, Caltech
2:15 p.m. — 3:30 p.m. (PT)
What University Leadership Needs to Know from the CEMO
The role of CEMO requires constant education of your campus and requires a strong and positive working relationship with key leaders across campus, your Provost, President, and the Deans. Other stakeholders affect your work and outcomes—making campus relationships partnerships key to success in your role. In this session, learn key practices and strategies used by experienced CEMOs to support campus outcomes so that your impact and your desired messages are well-received, understood, and remembered. This session will provide key strategies for developing and maintaining the support of your campus leadership.
Facilitators
Rob Alexander, University of Rochester
James Orr, The Ohio State University
Nathan Fuerst, University of Connecticut
Victoria Romero, Scripps College
3:30 p.m. — 3:45 p.m. (PT)
Break
3:45 p.m. — 4:45 p.m. (PT)
Creating and Seizing Opportunities During Times of Transition
Many campuses are creating or changing their CEMO roles. With new changes and opportunities, it is hard to know what one should consider and what resources one can (and should) request in anticipation of, or during transitions (whether your own or with leadership transitions).
What key information or questions should one ask of themselves and their institution when making a significant career change to, or in the CEMO role? This session features colleagues who recently transitioned into a CEMO role or moved to new campus communities. Attendees should expect to learn what proved most important when transitioning successfully; what panelists wish they would have known before making the transition; and how to make a successful shift from director to AVP/VP.
Facilitators
Tani Casteneda, Teacher’s College- Columbia University
Cornell LeSane, College of the Holy Cross
4:45 p.m. — 5:15 p.m. (PT)
Roundtable Discussions
Facilitators
Rachelle Hernandez and Derek Kindle
5:15 – 6:15 p.m. (PT)
Happy Hour
Thursday, September 26, 2024
7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m. (PT)
Breakfast
8:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. (PT)
Day 1 Recap
Facilitators
Derek Kindle and Rachelle Hernandez
8:30 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. (PT)
What I Wish I Knew Then
Hear from experienced CEMOs about their experiences and lessons learned. Find out the best advice they’ve been given, the opinions they wish they would have ignored, and how to continue to thrive in this challenging field.
Facilitators
Stacey Kostell, Northwestern University
Adrienne Amador Oddi, Queens University of Charlotte
Adele Brumfield, University of Michigan
9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (PT)
Workshop Closing
Facilitators
Derek Kindle, Rachelle Hernandez
Thank you to our sponsor
