How do you stay fresh in a profession that's no longer new? 

Enrollment management has been developing for at least 25 years. It's kept fresh by approaching problems in new ways.  It's kept fresh by people who think beyond their functional responsibilities.  It's kept fresh by people who can learn by analogy, especially when those analogies originate in other industries or specialties. 

 

What is a key attribute of "the new world of higher education?" 
I co-authored a recent book titled EM=C²: A New Formula for Enrollment Management and that question is answered there in depth.  So I'll try to give an answer here in bullets.  First, forget the traditional enrollment funnel.  Second, realize that prospective students and their parents receive varying amounts of information about you from sources other than you.  Third, they become members of multiple communities before, during and after you and they are involved with each other.  

 

Give an example or two. 

Prospective students may find out about you from peers on Facebook or from rankings like US News well before they ever visit your web site or your campus.  It even continues during enrollment.  Is it difficult to imagine a student transferring from a liberal arts school to a music campus as a result of a side job with a band?

 

How might enrollment management change as a result of that?
When you acknowledge the existence of those multiple communities, you can begin to look for leverage.  You might harness your alumni/ae in your recruitment efforts.  You may look for ways for faculty and students to help develop donor relationships.  Good management of communities, or more appropriately, managing your relationships with those communities is C-Squared - a community of communities.

 

What related changes are on the horizon in enrollment management?
It should be apparent how far we've come from a Newtonian funnel-like model. The seemingly chaotic non-linear recursive array of virtual and physical communities appear to be ever-changing and outside your institutional control.  Fortunately there are highly sophisticated information tools that can help us understand and shape these communities.

 

Give some examples of such tools. 

Transactional databases enable an institution to track and analyze touch points and lifecycles.  ERP vendors are developing and marketing them in higher education today.  EDUCAUSE is a great source of information on them.  Powerful predictive modeling tools are also available today.  They can analyze behaviors of individuals and groups of individuals for the purpose of refining enrollment strategies. 

 

Who or what are 'dark matter populations'?
Scientists have detected dark matter in the cosmos, and by mass it far exceeds the visible matter.  In enrollment management, we're talking about the prospects who are never identified; the identified prospects who never inquire; inquirers who never apply; applicants who are never admitted; and admits who never enroll.  You can easily extend the dark matter chain to include alumni/ae who don't contribute.  Meanwhile, if you view the world through the traditional funnel, they remain dark, because you'll never detect them. 

 

First, he or she will want to bring them to light.  For example, might a fan of one of your athletic teams perhaps become a recommender or influencer?  Might an undergraduate applicant who was not admitted become a future adult learner?  Might a student who never graduated become a substantial donor?