Institutions that achieve remarkable enrollment success share a common characteristic: boards, presidents, enrollment leaders, and faculty operate from shared understanding. When these four groups align, they create unstoppable momentum. When they’re misaligned, even the best individual efforts fall short.
Faculty are especially critical to this equation. They deliver the academic experience students seek, shape retention, and serve as the most credible program ambassadors. Yet faculty are often left out of enrollment conversations (or actively avoid them) until there’s a crisis. The most successful institutions bring faculty into enrollment planning early and meaningfully and have faculty that will eagerly and thoughtfully engage.
Here are five critical insights that, when embraced together, unlock strategic advantage:
1. Net tuition revenue matters more than headcount.
The best leadership teams focus on the right enrollment at the right price. They understand that 450 students at 40% discount creates stronger foundation than 500 students at 60% discount. They ask: “What’s our net revenue per student? How does enrollment quality affect long-term financial health?”
Faculty need to be part of this conversation. When discount rates climb unsustainably, faculty positions and academic resources suffer. The most productive discussions happen when all four groups explore together: How do we balance financial sustainability with mission? When boards and presidents include faculty in the dialogue, they build both financial strength and community buy-in.
2. Marketing, recruitment, and admission are distinct disciplines—and faculty play a unique role.
Forward-thinking boards recognize that enrollment requires three different kinds of expertise. Marketing builds awareness. Recruitment is relationship work. Admission involves evaluation and class shaping.
But engaged faculty transform good enrollment into great enrollment. Faculty bring credibility no marketing can replicate. When prospective students meet engaging faculty, when admitted students receive personal notes from professors in their intended major—these moments matter enormously. The most successful institutions create structures for meaningful faculty engagement: yield events, academic showcases, personal outreach. Faculty understand that their participation is essential and welcome the involvement.
3. Demographics create context, not destiny—but adaptation requires faculty leadership.
Institutions in declining markets can thrive by reimagining who they serve: working adults, transfer students, international learners. The most successful boards view demographic change as invitation to innovate.
But here’s the crucial insight: enrollment leaders can identify opportunities, but only faculty can create the programs to serve them. When institutions successfully pivot, it’s because faculty engaged in curriculum innovation—designing credentials for working adults, creating transfer pathways, adapting pedagogy for online delivery. This requires boards to create space for faculty innovation, enrollment leaders to bring market intelligence, and faculty to exercise curricular authority creatively without worrying about which fiefdom might be affected. All of this requires an institutional view rather than a programmatic view.
4. Enrollment success requires patience and strategic persistence.
The students enrolling this fall started their journey 18-24 months ago. Strategies implemented today show results in future cycles. This understanding creates space for strategic persistence rather than reactive pivots. The best boards ask: “What are our three-year goals? What investments do we need now? How will we measure progress?” This patience, paired with clear metrics, enables sustained effort.
5. Enrollment is an institutional responsibility—and faculty are at the heart of it.
Students choose institutions based on academic quality, faculty engagement, campus culture, career outcomes, and value. The enrollment office communicates these strengths but cannot create them.
Faculty are absolutely central. They shape classroom experience determining retention. They design curricula that make programs market-relevant. They provide mentorship transforming outcomes. When enrollment struggles, harder questions are often more productive: Are our programs compelling? Is our teaching excellent? Are we advising effectively?
The most successful institutions create opportunities for faculty to engage with enrollment data. Faculty need to understand application trends and yield challenges—not to become marketers, but to inform academic decision-making. When retention challenges signal advising gaps or recruitment struggles reflect needed program innovation, solutions require faculty leadership.
The Path Forward
What distinguishes institutions achieving enrollment excellence? It’s the quality of understanding and collaboration among all four groups. When boards govern strategically, presidents champion enrollment institutionally, enrollment professionals bring expertise, and faculty engage as partners—magic happens.
This alignment requires ongoing dialogue and mutual respect. Faculty governance traditions and curricular authority are institutional strengths, not obstacles. The key is creating structures where everyone is on the same team: program committees include enrollment leaders, regular market data is routinely shared, yield events allow faculty to shine, retention initiatives honor faculty insights.
Enrollment success isn’t about any single group getting it right. It’s about boards, presidents, enrollment leaders, and faculty developing common language, building mutual trust, and working toward shared goals. That four-way alignment—more than any strategy or tactic—is the foundation for everything else.
J. Carey Thompson is the founder of CVET Enrollment Strategies, bringing 35+ years of senior enrollment leadership experience across admission, financial aid, career services, communications, athletics, and institutional research. CVET partners with private colleges and universities to develop comprehensive, evidence-based enrollment strategies. Learn more at cvetconsulting.com.