Improve Communication and Planning Related to Recruitment and Retention

Priority for Current Fiscal Health Review: High
Savings/Revenue: $$
Time to Achieve: Actions related to this recommendation are in progress. The heightened quality of communication can begin immediately with little cost; however, effective use of the CRM will require strategic investment and 1-3 years.

1. Create and publicize operational plans and processes to clearly assist various student niches (such as transfer students, part-way home, military veterans, international, non-traditional, in-state, out-of-state, etc.) to efficiently and effectively enter and graduate from the university (retention).
2. Use Salesforce™ CRM to effectively share communication plans among the individuals/groups interacting with students and evaluate ROI on recruitment and retention efforts. Examples are offered below.
   1. Internal efforts such as the communication being sent form Admissions/the Graduate School being shared/coordinated with the communications and recruitment efforts engaged in by colleges (e.g. emails, texts, recruitment events, high school counselor engagement)
3. The use of consultants across the university was noted by group members to be perceived to lack a return on investment generally, but especially in relation to recruitment and retention efforts. The internal expertise being leveraged seems to work well but capacity is of course an issue. Overall, the Working Group recommends better communication/transparency of the ROI for consultant-provided work if it is to continue.