Academic Senate Policy

#S09-222

Enrollment Management

(formerly policy # F02-222)

(n.b.: This policy incorporates revisions approved by the Academic Senate on 14Apr2009)

The Constitution of the Faculty of San Francisco State University, in Article III, Section 1, assigns the Academic Senate responsibility to formulate policies and procedures regarding, among other things, student admissions and retention. The likelihood that applications will increase faster than capacity in the near future makes it necessary to consider enrollment strategies.

I. Definitions

Enrollment Management

“Enrollment management” includes all university policies and procedures having to do with the recruitment, application, selection, enrollment, retention and graduation of students, whether as first-time freshmen or as transfer students or as graduate students.

SFSU's Historical Service Area

SFSU’s “historical service area” means those San Francisco Bay area high schools and community colleges that have historically provided significant numbers of students to SFSU.

II. Principles

1. SFSU is committed to providing qualified students with the greatest possible access to excellent higher education and lifelong learning. Accordingly, SFSU shall continue to search for innovative ways to provide access within the constraints of available funding.
2. Enrollment management should allow the University to enhance, not compromise, the diversity reflected by our enrollment and by our community. Diversity shall remain an important concern of the University.
3. Enrollment management strategies shall evolve with the consultation of various constituencies, so that the use of selection criteria or other techniques shall not distort the current array and balance of programs.
4. Changes in the proportions among lower-division, upper-division, and graduate division students as well as among majors and professional programs shall be deliberate, consultative policy decisions.
5. In managing enrollment, SFSU shall maintain its commitment to students coming from SFSU's historical service area.
6. Retention and graduation of students is equally as important as the recruitment and enrollment of students.

III. All-University Enrollment Management Committee

1. The All-University Enrollment Management Committee shall consist of the following members:

• The chairs of the Academic Senate and of the Senate's Educational Policies Council and Student Affairs Committee or designees;
• three faculty members elected by the Academic Senate from the faculty at large, to overlapping three-year terms; these members may succeed themselves for any number of terms;
• one department chair elected by the Academic Senate to a one-year term;
• the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management, the Associate Vice President Academic Planning and Educational Effectiveness, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, and the Dean of Graduate Studies, each of whom may be represented by a designee; and
• two students designated by the Associated Students (one graduate, one undergraduate).

2. The committee shall choose its chair from among its members at its first meeting of each academic year. The first meeting of each academic year shall be called by the chair of the academic senate in consultation with Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management.
3. The committee shall meet at least once in the fall semester to review current enrollment patterns and projections and to discuss whether changes in policies and procedures are likely to be needed. The committee may be called to meet as frequently as situations require.
4. The committee shall:

• advise the president on all aspects of enrollment management, including the calendar for the applications process and changes in the campus's enrollment target;
• review and recommend to the Academic Senate regarding proposals from individual programs seeking impaction, including supplementary procedures for maintaining a diverse student body; and receive and review annual reports from impacted programs on their success in maintaining a diverse student body and on the need for the continuation of impaction;
• collect and disseminate best practices developed by departments and programs to manage enrollments, whether through impaction or through other measures;
• review and recommend to the Academic Senate regarding proposals to limit undergraduate applications from outside the historical service area of SFSU;
• review and recommend to the Academic Senate regarding proposals to change the proportions among lower-division, upper-division, or graduate students, or among degree programs or professional programs;
• assess and report the university’s efforts to facilitate retention and graduation; and
• recommend to the Academic Senate regarding any changes in this policy or in related policies.

E. The Enrollment Management Committee is not intended to function as the presidential advisory group mandated for each campus by the Board of Trustees in its resolution of September 18, 2002.

***Approved by the Academic Senate at its meeting on April 14, 2009***

***Signed by President Robert A. Corrigan on August 18, 2009***