Lessons Learned Post-Pandemic

Rakin Hall, Vice President, Enrollment Management, Arcadia University

When massive open online courses (MOOCs) began to encroach higher education, it was like a living library of sorts. The ability to scale, replicate, and share knowledge within a digital landscape created a level of engagement not seen in higher education at the time. We, in higher education, got a glimpse of what was possible with technology, but no one pushed the envelope. We dabbled. But when COVID-19 hit, it forced us to essentially truncate our learning curve. We had to make it work. It was one of those rare times in education when we really had to put the cart before the horse. And this approach makes strategists very comfortable – said no strategist, ever.

We used this period of disruption at Arcadia University to identify existing gaps within our strategic enrollment plan, in the hopes of creating greater fidelity. Creating greater synergies was necessary to mitigate the myriad impacts of the pandemic. We identified our capacity and shrank our recruitment footprint. This was done intentionally to saturate and reintroduce Arcadia to local geo-markets. Enrollment Management and Marketing and Communications created segmented marketing campaigns that acutely address the diverse rich student population within the mid-Atlantic region. This helped us create student engagement spaces that were intentional at directing prospects toward Arcadia within a virtual landscape.

Challenges are opportunities that have yet to be defined. We continue to learn in real-time as we scale up post-pandemic.

Identifying the Gaps and Maximizing Outcomes

One of the biggest gaps we identified was the lack of brand awareness, i.e., identity. Arcadia has a storied history within a region inhabited by the highest number of colleges, per capita, in the United States. It is easy for a midsize university, like Arcadia, to get lost in the shuffle.

Our team is small but mighty. From a quantitative lens, we averaged north of 400 physical visits per year, pre-pandemic. Zoom technologies allowed us the ability to double our touch points and create greater engagement with a smaller staff. Our takeaway was that we could reach more students by leveraging technology to cut down our relay time considerably. The idea was to be omnipresent utilizing both human talent and chatbots. Students and families heard from us quicker within an asynchronous hybrid workspace. We were able to build rapport with students while being physically apart, and away from the main campus.   

The sheer volume of electronic communications required us to be quicker and more accurate, on each reply. Think about taxicabs versus Uber. If you call a taxicab operator, you might have to wait an hour to be picked up after the switchboard contacts two or three different drivers. When Uber launched, you had half a dozen cars around you responding in five minutes after tapping a button on an app.

I explained to my team that reply time would help us win. It wasn’t necessary to be bigger, but we could punch up and be better. So when a student reached out to us, that student received a response by the end of the day. We also ramped up our use of chatbots; they helped us a great deal. And our team was able to keep pace with bigger schools on the social media platforms where our prospects live. As a result, we were able to create much more fidelity within student engagement spaces.

" We must stay nimble and open to constant shifts within enrollment management, simply because we have no choice."

Qualitatively speaking, we looked at how to keep prospective students engaged throughout the annual recruitment campaign. The hope is to crowd raise and maximize attendance in different programs and online events. There is no real-time rubric for effective crowd engagement online aside from counting to see who keeps their cameras on or off. We continually evolve and learn new tactics to keep the interest of high school students who are surrounded by emerging technologies. Admission reps have the advantage of traditional, brick-and-mortar engagement. The use of eye contact, body language, and wordplay echoes well to a captive audience within a library or classroom space. In the meta-age of Roblox and Fortnight, the idea of digital communication becomes fractured at best. In 2001, Marc Prensky coined the term “digital native” to describe a generation acutely adaptive and aware of technology’s ubiquitous nature. We are in a time where the digital divide is closing between students and parents and greater expectation is placed on universities to engage both. Families are being bombarded with communications from schools within the mid-Atlantic, including Arcadia and elsewhere. We created a campaign of being first and being authentic as we recruited students and courted families.

Creative Engagement

We are considered a midsize institution that offers a singular experience for students looking for the traditional liberal arts experience. Arcadia is boutique compared to larger schools within the mid-Atlantic region. We don’t have the appeal of an R1 or a large athletics following, like the SEC. Our bread and butter is our faculty and their ability to engage within small settings. Arcadia is an urban-suburban university within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The beauty of our campus and our ability to mentor and help develop future leaders is the anvil we forge our reputation on.  

Yield season arrived in the spring of 2021, and we anticipated low engagement post-pandemic, as many mask and vaccination measures were still in place. The campus was physically shut down for a full calendar year. We had to better understand how to create a narrative that would appeal to students and families – that would build trust and confidence to have them want to visit campus. 

Our work culminated in the planning and execution of a drive-through open house. This first step toward normalcy was a creative way to reintroduce the Arcadia campus to students, families, and counselors. This hybrid posture allowed us to remain visible while other schools were 100 percent online. I believe the spring 2021 open house demonstrated our commitment to our prospective students and academic community.

Passing the Test

Necessity is the mother of invention. The pandemic necessitated that we move everything online and reimagine our approach to student engagement. We were all tested beyond our comfort zones and boundaries. There were not enough people, money, or time. But our president, Dr. Ajay Nair, told us we had to adopt an entrepreneurial stance if we wanted to succeed. Looking back on it, I believe we did.

Ultimately, technology is like any Pandora's Box – once you open it, you cannot repack it. We will never take Zoom off the table. We will continue to learn, grow, and adapt to the best ways to use emerging technologies to engage with students. The next enrollment cliff is suggested to encroach by 2026. It will be a turbulent four years working to mitigate the impact of that phenomenon. We must stay nimble and open to constant shifts within enrollment management simply because we have no choice.

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