Mission
The Office of Admissions’ mission is to recruit, admit, and serve a diverse student population by cultivating relationships with prospective students and partners on and off campus. Our goal is to educate, support, and guide students and their families through the admission process, while striving to make their transition to higher education a positive, exciting and successful experience at UA Little Rock.
Summary Narrative
1) Enhance recruitment and retention efforts to increase enrollment
- Created and implemented a transfer admit packet to be mailed to all transfer admits that includes: name, T number, net ID, UA Little Rock email address, missing credentials to be submitted, student type, admit term, and how to log into BOSS.
- Updated freshmen admit packet to complement other recruitment publications in appearance
- Obtained graduation lists from 2-year institutions and used that information for transfer recruiting purposes
- Increased the number of touch points with prospective students via phone, text, and email (personal invites to events, admitted but not enrolled, admitted but not registered for orientation, not admitted because of missing credentials, mailing of inquiry postcards, search pieces, completed requests for information, etc.
- Increased the number of missing credential e-mails coming out of Recruit from 1 to every 4 weeks until received
- Increased number of community events attended
- School Visit numbers:
- 353 High School Visits
58 ArkACRAO High School College Fairs
57 College Fairs
76 Two Year Visits
29 ArkACRAO 2-Year College Fairs
57 High School Award Ceremonies
- Campus Tour Numbers:
471 Registered for individual tours from Sept – July
52 Group Tours currently attended from Sept – July (size ranges from 5 to 400)
- Organized and implemented 9 on-campus prospective student days, high school seniors and juniors, as well as freshmen. (Discover – 2; Experience – 2; Explore – 1; Transfermation – 1; Downtown Events – 3)
- Purchased an additional 24,000 ACT scores for seniors and juniors in Arkansas and Texas; uploaded new leads into the recruitment funnel,mailed search pieces and began e-mail communication.
- Began a partnership with Cappex, a website profile, online marketing and lead generator partner, to gain additional leads in AR and TX.
- Renewed contract with NRCCUA for our digital marketing, lead generation, and geo-fencing strategies. Increased our digital and geo-fencing scope to include entire travel season (fairs and visits). This includes pop ads on Facebook, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and Snapchat, etc.
- Participated and assisted with other areas on-campus events.
- Updated recruitment publications for 2019-2020.
- Created and implemented Campus Partners Liaisons to increase enrollment with key areas across campus such as the Colleges, Campus Living, DSC, Military Student Success Center, Financial Aid, Athletics, TRIO, CWDSA, Donaghey Scholars, CLC, UA Little Rock Online, Student Experience Center, Alumni and Development, Student Orientation and Transitions, TAASC, Benton Campus, Children’s International, and International Student Services.
- Developed and implemented communication for high school concurrent students who apply to UA Little Rock.
2) Strengthen student-friendly operations and customer service
- Updated Standard Operating Procedures.
- Adjustments made to campus tour website to ensure ease of use.
- Implemented event surveys to receive constructive feedback from event attendees.
- Implemented full monthly staff meetings.
- Implemented weekly office manager staff meetings.
3) Improve diversity and inclusion efforts to provide a safe and inclusive environment for students
- Director attended Safe Zone training.
- Director will be encouraging all staff to attend Safe Zone training in the upcoming year.
- Working with staff, OIR, and ITS to determine if we can update prospect cards with a preferred/nickname field and an Other option for gender.
4) Align financial and human resources to operate more effectively and efficiently
- Hired and trained Associate Director of Admissions, Customer Service Representative and Admission Counselor.
- Two staff members participated in the ArkACRAO (Arkansas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) conference in Little Rock for professional development, which covered such topics as Are You Getting the Maximum Value From Your Partnership From the National Student Clearinghouse?, Identifying First Generation and Poverty Students, and Reaching Students in a Diverse World.
- Operations Manager and Admission Counselors did Recruit Overview and Navigation training.
- Understanding Recruit Navigation
- Working with Prospect Records
- Using Views
- New CRM, Recruit, was implemented and all staff trained in various capacities.
- One staff member participated in the NISTS (National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students) conference in Atlanta.
- One staff member participated in SACAC (Southern Association for College Admission Counseling) Summer Seminar; Memphis.
- Worked on streamlining the admission process, which assisted both staff and students.
5) Promote student development, engagement, and leadership
- Hired and trained extra labor and work study students.
- Created a student ambassador program to assist with prospective student recruitment and engage current students in leadership roles within the University.
- Invited and brought current UA Little Rock students on high school and college day visits in their hometown to assist with recruitment.
- Invited current students to participate in recruitment publication photoshoots.
6) Other
- Created a mission, vision, and statement of values for the Office of Admissions
At A Glance
School Visit numbers:
- 353 High School Visits
- 58 ArkACRAO High School College Fairs
- 57 College Fairs
- 76 Two Year Visits
- 29 ArkACRAO 2-Year College Fairs
- 57 High School Award Ceremonies
Campus Tour Numbers:
- 471 Registered for individual tours from Sept – July
- 52 Group Tours currently attended from Sept – July (size ranges from 5 to 400)
- Organized and implemented 9 on-campus prospective student days, high school seniors and juniors, as well as freshmen. (Discover – 2, Experience – 2, Explore, Transfermation, Downtown Events – 3)
- 20,043 phone calls to the Office of Admissions main phone line from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019
- 14,558 emails were received in the Office of Admissions email account, admissions@ualr.edu, from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019
- 2,627 students were assisted face to face in the office from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.
- 8,627 admission applications received and reviewed from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019
Assessment 1 of 1
Type of assessment (learning outcome or operational)
Operational
Activity or experience being assessed
Efficiency of monthly meetings with ALL staff
Assessment artifacts
Quarterly surveys
Time period assessment was done
June 2019
Results
The overall results were positive. Here are a few of the comments.
- It allows me to get updates and see things on a bigger admissions scale.
- I get to see and connect with people I don’t usually sit down with even though we are in the same department. I like knowing what’s going on in all areas of admissions so that I can better see where my role fits in and connects with the big picture.
- It’s a great opportunity to understand the goals of the office as a whole.
- Having all the staff updates helps me serve my students more confidently by being more specific in my responses. It’s nice to put everything out there instead of hearing through the grapevine.
- Vital information that may have slipped through the communication pipeline is typically exchanged during these meetings, particularly updates on application processing and any changes in the way we funnel students.
- Everyone is included and is treated equally.
- Our group has lots of lively personalities, so when we are all together, there are a lot of laughs, but also meaningful statements that are encouraging or at least constructive. And again, we get to come together in a way that we don’t on a daily basis. As for me, that makes me feel like I’m a part of the admissions team.
- Yes! I feel more comfortable with everyone. I wish we had these meetings when I first started–it would have helped me build stronger relationships with the various departments in Admissions.
Few things to work on:
- Sometimes they feel a bit rushed.
- Updates from other departments: Financial Aid, Advising, Orientation. What are they currently working on, processing times, etc. These departments directly impact the students we are pushing through the funnel. Knowing this information will help us better serve our students.
- Encourage everyone to share something at the meetings, even if it’s just how they helped a student recently.
- We need snacks.
Continuous improvement process
Incorporate feedback from surveys to make changes to monthly meetings, to include:
- Allotting more time for the meetings to ease the feeling of being rushed
- Work on coordinating with other key offices to join us periodically to provide information, updates, and answer questions from their areas
- Encourage and support staff to participate in the meetings, and not just attend
- Bring occasional snacks
WHEN: July 2019
Stakeholder involvement / Communication plan
- Admissions staff, Student Affairs leadership group
- Communication to staff during July staff meeting
Additional assessments were not done due to turnover in the department, including the Director.
Priorities for Next Year
- Educate TRIO/Mexican Consulate students on college readiness.
- Increase inclusion and equality in daily operations.
- Increase UA Little Rock’s visibility and involvement in the community (community events, churches, businesses, etc.) as it relates to recruitment.
