Last year, Cal Poly Humboldt adopted a new Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan. The 2023-24 Academic Year saw significant progress on that work, as well as the development of the tracking and assessment structures for the plan. As promised, the SEM Implementation Team is providing our campus community with a progress report on that work.

The report includes both highlights and a detailed report that looks at each plan outcome in detail for recruitment and retention. The report notes progress to date, any barriers to that progress, and a status that indicates the rate of progress, from Complete to No progress. Many of the outcomes with the earliest deadlines are dedicated to building a much-needed enrollment management infrastructure that is sustainable, which Cal Poly Humboldt has lacked in recent years. That is why some of the outcomes (such as modernizing admissions practices, implementing organizational changes, etc.) are very different from what may appear in SEM plans at other universities. Laying the foundation for our future enrollment work is essential to our ultimate success, and the report indicates that significant progress has been made in this area.

The report also includes items that have yet to see much progress to date, but that is expected with such a comprehensive plan, especially considering the basic infrastructure needs shared previously. The SEM Implementation Team will continue to drive progress on all outcomes, and Vice President for Enrollment Management & Student Success Chrissy Holliday will work to ensure the appropriate departments remain engaged in the daily work required to support these strategies.

It is important to note that the Team also includes three subgroups that do additional work to drive action related to plan outcomes:

• The Recruitment/Retention Plan Coordination group is led by Associate Vice President of Academic Programs Carmen Bustos-Works and Director of Admissions Aolany Navas, and will begin work this fall assisting a pilot group of academic programs with the development of recruitment or retention plans specific to their needs.
• The SEM Plan Tracking and Scorecard Development group is led by Associate Director of Academic Assessment Mark Wicklund and tracks progress on the plan, coordinating with the many units throughout campus whose work impacts that completion, and collecting the data needed to complete the annual report.
• The SEM Plan Updating/Refinement group is led by Peggy Metzger, Executive Director of Enrollment Management and Financial Aid, and it is responsible for preparing the annual report, as well as determining what adjustments need to be made to the report annually, in order to ensure the SEM Plan remains attuned with the current enrollment landscape and aligned with state or system requirements, or SEM strategy shifts.

Questions about the plan can be directed to Vice President Holliday at ceh118@humboldt.edu or to any member of the SEM Implementation Team, a cross-functional team of campus stakeholders invested in our enrollment success.