There’s so much going on at Missouri State University, it’s hard to keep up. But at the same time, it’s exciting to see!

We’ve had several ongoing searches for leadership positions that have recently been filled. Just last week, we announced Jamie Birch as our new chief of staff and assistant to the president for legislative affairs. She’ll start on June 24. We also announced Dr. Johannes Strobel as our new Graduate College dean. He’ll begin on Aug 18. Our new provost, Dr. Clarenda Phillips, will join us on July 1. I look forward to welcoming them over the next couple of months. It takes a lot of time and effort to recruit, interview and select a new colleague. I want to thank all those involved in helping with these processes.

We’ll be saying goodbye to Dr. Julie Masterson, our current Graduate College dean on June 30 as she begins her retirement. She made great strides in the office since becoming dean in 2015. Thank you, Dr. Masterson, for your hard work and innovative spirit.

Evaluating enrollment management

As I’ve discussed in many venues, enrollment growth is critical to the success of Missouri State.  It’s a combination of two key areas: expanding our enrollment of prospective students and retaining our existing students. Increased tuition revenue will enable the university to accomplish many goals outlined in the new strategic plan.

The importance of enrollment led us to conduct a strategic evaluation of enrollment management. We engaged JM Partner Solutions (JMPS) in March to review our practices and provide insights for improvement so we can more effectively grow enrollment.

The JMPS report is 140 pages, so I’m covering key highlights here. Their conclusions with regard to enrollment management were as follows:

Enrollment observations:

• Missouri State appears to be aspiring toward growth without a defined roadmap, performance metrics or alignment across divisions.
• We have strong people, but fragmented systems.
• There appears to be an absence of strategic coordination.
• Technology and data are underutilized.
• There is a misalignment of resource allocation with institutional priorities: marketing, recruitment, systems management and infrastructure are under-resourced.

Recommendations:

• Treat 30,000 student enrollment by 2030 as a working hypothesis and begin building a data-informed, population-specific model with measurable milestones and institutional ownership.
• Invest in a comprehensive and sustained marketing strategy that supports brand awareness.
• Strengthen data structures for goal setting and progress monitoring.
• Implement strategic budgeting to align resources with institutional priorities.
• Develop a retention and completion strategy for enrolled students.
• Re-establish a strategic enrollment plan.
• Review staffing and structure considerations.

There’s a lot of detail behind the observations and recommendations – all very useful information that we’re currently synthesizing. As with the marketing research carried out by SimpsonScarborough, the observations and recommendations from JMPS have been integrated into the new strategic plan. Thanks to everyone who worked with JMPS on the assessment.

As I’ve mentioned in an earlier Words of Williams, we have elevated the existing leadership position within enrollment management to a vice president position that will have a seat in Administrative Council, which was another recommendation identified within the study. We’re conducting a search now. The new VP will be charged with implementing enrollment management strategies presented in the strategic plan.

We have Board of Governors meetings on Thursday and Friday in West Plains. In addition to the meetings where we’re seeking approval of the fiscal year 2026 budget and the strategic plan, we’ll celebrate West Plains Chancellor Dr. Dennis Lancaster’s retirement on Thursday evening. Join us if you can.

Thanks for checking in.  It’s a great day to be a Bear!

Biff