Workgroup no. 3, focusing on enrollment management, compared information they found when they split up to interview different people from enrollment areas on campus during their last meeting.

During their meeting last week, Workgroup no. 3 members asked employees they invited from different areas questions they received from Eastern President David Glassman.

These questions regarded suggestions they had including what programs or areas could use targeted investments, what could be outsourced and how to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Workgroup chair Jody Stone, interim dean of the graduate school, said the Workgroup would look at both commonalities in their information as well as minority opinions they heard after they split up.

“After we digest all this information, we will compile it into a short summary and make primary and secondary recommendations,” Stone said.

The group will prioritize their primary recommendations when it comes to enrollment.

Stone said if they have three items that could be outsourced, they have to decide what they think should be outsourced first, second and third.

If there is something the group thinks could be outsourced, but is not as important as what is primarily recommended, they will put that down in secondary recommendations and prioritize those there.

Stone likened the recommendations to two buckets.

“The first bucket’s going to be going to the president, vice president, (and saying) these are things we really think you should do. Once this bucket’s empty, you can start looking at stuff (in the other bucket) too,” Stone said.

Stone said he will look through the information tomorrow and give the information he finds back to the other Workgroups so they can pick up where they left off.

Todd Bruns, institutional repository librarian, said it would make the most sense to look at common patterns.

Bruns said a concern he heard from many people was that they need one imaging system since some people use Banner, and others use a different system.

Josh Norman, director of enrollment management and data, said this would fall more under the Workgroup No.2, University Technology’s jurisdiction.

“We have got to stay focused on enrollment management,” Norman said, adding that they had a tight deadline for their preliminary recommendations to be made to the administration.

However, Bruns said several people he interviewed who worked with enrollment management positions in the university were the ones who talked about using one system and not both which is currently being done.

“This is coming up as an issue in their work in enrollment management,” Bruns said.

Stone said with all the Workgroups working separately, they could all come across items and suggestions others could argue belongs in different groups.

For now, he said, he will not assume other Workgroups have the same finding the enrollment management Workgroup has, and make sure their Workgroup recommends them.

Stone said he will ask vitalization project task force chair Ryan Hendrickson, interim dean of the graduate school, how that will work out.

“We’re going to have to take information from all Workgroups and see what are the major things that come out of all of them,” Stone said.

Bruns said people he talked to also talked about software that is not being used to its full potential.

Music professor Paul Johnston said people had spoken to them about expanding MyEIU to be used to retain current students as well as bringing in prospective students.

Another thing that came up as a commonality in the group’s interviews was the idea outsource marketing.

Investing into a market of students who went to college in the past but never finished their degree was also discussed, as it came up as an idea from multiple areas.

“It is a huge population that we could tap into that could come back, take online courses and finish their degree,” Burns said.

A couple people talked to Johnston about having an overall enrollment plan, something he said seemed to be a recurring theme.

“Maybe that’s the idea is having some leadership in enrollment management will be helpful,” Johnston said.

One common theme that came up in several of the group’s interviews was that they can not cut much more, as they are already working with a limited staff.

“One thing I heard was the idea that we’ve cut across the board, and there wasn’t a lot of strategic cutting, and so some offices are actually below where they should be,” Bruns said.

Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or cjbuchman@eiu.edu.