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The Enrollment Management Continuum:
Recruitment, Retention, & Re-Recruitment
Joe Cuseo
jcuseo@earthlink.net
Recruitment may be viewed as the first segment in the retention process and may be
conceptualized as occurring in the following six sequential stages: (1) students who
make inquiries about the college, (2) students who submit applications to be admitted to the
college, (3) students who are accepted for admission, (4) accepted students who act on their
acceptance and indicate they will enroll at the college, (5) accepted students who register for
classes, and (6) registered students who show-up at the start of the term to begin classes. It
could be said that an effective enrollment management plan would involve strategies to "retain"
students through all six of these stages in the recruitment process, and then to retain from term-
to-term, beginning with matriculation and ending with graduation (degree completion).
The term "recruit back" programs is emerging as a term in higher education to refer to re-
contacting students who have withdrawn from your college with the intent encouraging them to
re-enroll. An informal illustration of this practice is poignantly portrayed in an old movie titled,
"Stand and Deliver." In the movie, a high school math teacher accidentally runs into a
former female student who had dropped out of high school and was waitressing at a Mexican
restaurant. The teacher (Jaime Escalante) persuaded the student to return to school and
complete her degree--which she eventually did. While viewing this movie, I thought to myself: If
this accidental re-contact and encouragement led this student to return to school, why couldn't we
make this re-contact intentional, rather than accidental?
Also, I thought that the girl in the movie returned to school because the invitation to return came
from someone with whom she had a positive prior relationship. To replicate this at the college
level, I'd argue that the person who re-contacts the withdrawn student be someone that the
student had a good relationship with, or at least knew and respected, during the student's first
experience at the college.
"Recruit-back" programs might be particularly timely given the current economy, because former
students may have lost jobs or are working at reduced hours, which may render them more
inclined to return to school.
Re-recruitment strategies may be built into the exit-interview process (see the appendix at the
end of this document). For students who withdrawing from the college and say that they might
eventually return, they could be contacted by a representative of the college with whom they
student had a good relationship during their initial enrollment. (An email might be sent across
campus to ask if there was anyone who knew the student well and a good relationship with the
student—including advisors, faculty, student development professionals, and peer leaders). If the
student expressed interest in returning, registration materials may be sent to the student just prior
to the registration period for the upcoming term. The materials sent should make it clear and easy
for the student to set up an appointment with an advisor to re-enroll without having to go through
a formal process of applying for re-admission. The student might also be allowed to register
earlier than currently-enrolled students who have accrued fewer credit hours.
≉
Appendix
Exit Interview Form & Process
Please help us assess the quality of your experience here. If you would take a few
moments to respond to the following items, the information you provide may help us
improve the (name of college) experience for future students. Your written comments, in
particular, would be especially helpful. Thanks.
Note: To receive the most honest answers during the withdrawal process, ideally, this form should be
administered by someone with whom the student feels comfortable—e.g., a trusted teacher, advisor, or peer
—such as a peer leader who may be trained for this purpose; in other words, someone with whom the
withdrawing students has developed a relationship, or at very least, someone with whom the exiting student
has had some contact.
For which reason(s) are you leaving _________?
Please read the options below and circle the appropriate answer(s).
Academic reasons Yes No
If yes, please explain:
Financial reasons Yes No
If yes, please explain:
Concerns about student life at Marymount Yes No
If yes, please comment:
Personal reasons other than those listed above. Yes No
If yes, please comment:
Are you transferring to another institution? Yes No
If yes, which institution?
Is there anything else about your experience at __________ (positive or negative) that
you think we should know about, which might improve the experience of future students?
Is there anything we can do to help your transition to what you will be doing next (e.g.,
transfer to another school; obtain a job)?
Note: This question is suggested, not only because it is the altruistic thing to do, but also because it allows
one question that asks what the college could for the student—in midst of an interview that is otherwise
flooded with institution-centered questions designed to obtain information that will benefit the college.
Perhaps, inclusion of a question such as this may also serve to increase the cooperation and self-disclosure
of the respondent.
Do you think there is a possibility that you might re-enroll at __________in the future?
Yes No Maybe
Note: A yes or maybe answer to this questions would allow the exit interview to function
not only as a reactive mechanism vehicle for determining the student’s reason for
withdrawal, but also as a proactive strategy for re-recruiting a withdrawn student,
converting that student from a “dropout” to a “stop-out”—i.e., from a student who was
temporarily unable to persist to a student who is eventually retained to graduation.
Information should be collected about how best to contact the student. Ideally, the college
representative making the contact should be someone the student knew and had a positive
relationship while on campus.
If yes, or maybe, would you like us to send you registration information in the future?
Yes No
(Note to Student: You may return without reapplying for admission, if you miss only one
semester.)
Address we should keep in our records as your permanent address:
Thanks for enrolling at our college and for the feedback you’ve provided us.