I have had a wonderful career in college enrollment, mostly as a Vice President for Enrollment and Dean of Admission at four CIC member institutions — at Furman, Centre, Rhodes, and Gettysburg. In those roles, I was responsible for building the class, shaping merit and need based aid strategy, leading marketing and recruitment initiatives, supervising an additional area or two, and sustaining the revenue that kept the institution healthy.
With that background, I can tell you with confidence: while student recruitment and enrollment work has never been easy, it has become is the defining strategic challenge for most CIC member institutions. It is not a problem to be managed, we’ve been doing that for years — it has become a challenge that, if left unaddressed, threatens the viability of these colleges we love.
The demographic shift is real. The affordability narrative is relentless. Competition from larger institutions with more resources is intensifying. And families are asking, louder than ever: what is the return on investment of an education in the liberal arts and sciences?
That question — that demand for outcomes — is intensifying. Maybe that is in our favor. Because when we answer it well, we are describing exactly what our institutions do better than any place else.
Career Services Is Not a Support Function — It Is a Strategic Asset
Traditionally, career services has been treated as a downstream function — a place students eventually visit in their junior or senior year, housed in a modest office, staffed by a few dedicated professionals who too often lack the institutional authority and resources to do their best work.
That framing must change. That is part of why we are here.
When I think about what moves the needle on enrollment — what convinces a prospective student and their family to choose one of our colleges — I think about outcomes. I think about alumni networks. I think about skill development, internship pipelines, employer relationships, and the confidence that a student will graduate not just educated but ready to launch.
Career services, done well, is one of the most powerful enrollment tools a small college can possess. It is proof — tangible, marketable, verifiable proof — that our institutions deliver on their promise.
That is the strategic insight at the heart of this workshop. We are not here just to improve career programming. We are here to ask whether we can build something together that no single one of our institutions could build alone — and whether that something could become a genuine competitive advantage for member CIC institutions.
Why a National Career Center — and Why Now
The concept of a National Career Center is ambitious. I think we all know that. What we are exploring is the creation of shared infrastructure — that individual CIC members can access but could not afford or sustain on their own.
This is exactly the kind of structural innovation that defines CIC’s mission. We are stronger together. Our students deserve access to the same quality of career support as their peers at larger, better-resourced institutions. And our presidents and boards deserve a story to tell — a compelling, differentiating story about what it means to graduate from a CIC member college.
The timing is right. Employers are rethinking credentials. Students are demanding real-world relevance. Policymakers and families are scrutinizing the value proposition of higher education more than ever before. We have an opportunity to lead — to define what career-connected liberal arts education looks like in the twenty-first century.
What We Are Here to Do
Over these next two days, we are going to use design thinking — a discipline built on empathy, experimentation, and iteration — to work through the hard questions. What would a national career center actually look like? Who does it serve, and how? What would it cost to build, and what would it deliver? Where are the barriers, and where are the opportunities we haven’t yet imagined?
You are in this room because you bring exactly the right mix of experience, credibility, and institutional perspective. I am asking you to think boldly. To challenge assumptions. To be honest about what has not worked as well as what has.
The enrollment challenges facing our institutions are serious. But so is the talent we have in this room. I have no doubt that what we design together over these two days will matter — not just to CIC, but to the thousands of students who will walk across the stages of our member colleges in the years ahead.
Thank you for being here. Let’s get to work.