Section: Technology
eMERGE Phase Three: The Recruitment and Student Retention Enrollment Management Modules – Our final goal
May 28, 2008

Editor’s Note: In the April 9 and 30 editions of @Metro, the Metro State community was introduced to the eMERGE initiative, a collaborative information system that will change how the College shares and uses information. To read the articles, go to
http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/emerge_twv5040908.shtml
and
http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/emerge_twv5043008.shtml

When Associate Vice President of Enrollment Services Judi Diaz Bonacquisti came to Metro State two years ago, one of the first things she knew she wanted to do was to acquire a constituent relationship management (CRM) system. She’s now just a few months away from getting the first half of her wish.

By this fall, the eMERGE collaborative information system will have the recruitment module of the CRM in place. The retention module will follow at a later date. The modules are a product of Sungard, which produces the Banner software.

Tailored to higher education, the recruitment module was only recently completed but was worth the wait, according to Diaz Bonacquisti. “It was a no-brainer to wait for Sungard to have recruitment and retention modules so that everything would be synced with Banner.”

Rick Beck, director of applications services in Information Technology and eMERGE project manager, says that he hopes to start the recruitment module in the fall in an early adopter program with the vendor.

The advantage
The recruitment module will allow the tracking of potential students: staff members’ first and subsequent contacts and all communications with them.

“Long term, it’s a means for gathering data that will help us refine our recruiting skills,” Diaz Bonacquisti says.

Beck adds that Banner does this to a certain extent already, but is much more rudimentary. “We’ll now be able to track trends and target communications,” he explains.

And the recruitment module is just the first of what will become a pipeline, from recruitment to retention to alumni.

For Diaz Bonacquisti, recruitment and retention are both essential to strategic enrollment management. “You cannot separate the two. You don’t have a student success-focused program if you do,” she says.

The retention module, which is being designed with the input of staff from Metro State, is the second half of the CRM that Diaz Bonacquisti eagerly awaits. According to Larry Worster, director of student services technology and assessment, that faculty and staff input “will be critical in ensuring that features that will enhance our ability to work with our unique students at Metro State will be incorporated.”

When both modules are up and running, the system will be complete, allowing tracking and assessment from prospective student to graduate. “In the end, we will be able to use the performance indicators from CRM data to understand which of our programs most positively affect persistence toward graduation and to emphasize and prioritize those that are effective,” Worster explains.

For Diaz Bonacquisti and the other team members, it is important that faculty and staff understand that eMERGE will not just be an enrollment or IT issue. “It’s a comprehensive way to communicate across all areas of the college for the benefit of our students,” she says.

Watch @Metro for additional information about the eMERGE system as it becomes operable.