Working Group to Improve Enrollment with Stopped Out Students

Greg Offerman, Associate Director in the Office of Student Financial Aid and Beth Warner, Associate Registrar, are members of a working group that has been convened by Dean of Students Christina Olstad and Vice Provost/Director of Academic Planning and Institutional Research Jocelyn Milner. This group is seeking to give cross-college attention to undergraduate, degree-seeking students who have stopped out (or appear to be on the cusp of doing so). Long-term this group will be charged with exploring and making systemic changes, including consideration and implementation of needed policy and process changes in an effort to build on UW–Madison’s already strong retention rate. In advance of Fall 2020, and in light of enrollment volatility due to the ongoing COVID-19 disruption, the group implemented short-term strategies to communicate with potential stop outs among the Fall 2020 continuing undergraduate population encouraging them to enroll. Additionally the group did what was reasonable to remove potential obstacles to those students continuing enrollment. Starting in late July, the group monitored lists of students who were eligible to enroll but had not yet done so, investigated holds preventing the students from enrolling, sought options for resolving those holds, and communicated with students who were enrolled in Fall 2020 courses at one time but had dropped all of their courses. From there, the following actions occurred: 
  1. The Bursar’s Office released Tuition Balance Due (TUB) holds under $500;
  2. The Office of Student Financial Aid connected with all students with tuition balance holds to discuss options for paying past due balances.  This work included making sure student FAFSA information for 2020-2021 was as accurate as possible, emailing all of these students, and calling students to follow up on their plan to pay their tuition bills;
  3. The Office of the Registrar connected with units who had placed advising holds and asked for their flexibility in removing those in an effort to encourage students to enroll;
  4. The Office of the Registrar apprised and shared student lists with the Academic Advising Policy Leaders;
  5. The Dean of Students’ Office reached out to students with the Mandatory Major Declaration hold in L&S;
  6. The Dean of Students’ Office sent an email and survey to students who were enrolled but had subsequently dropped; and,
  7. The Dean of Students’ Office utilized the Center for the First Year Experience texting application to send a message targeting eligible students, encouraging them to enroll.
Though perhaps not a direct correlation, given that there is a subset of students every year that wait until the last month to enroll in fall courses, throughout August the number of continuing students eligible to enroll that hadn’t enrolled dropped by 246 students. If anyone has suggestions for strategies they’d like the Stopped Out Working Group to consider, feel free to connect with Greg Offerman or Beth Warner, as the Division of Enrollment Management representatives. The other working group members are: Jocelyn Milner (chair), Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Christina Marie Olstad (co-chair), Dean of Students Maxwell Artis, Student Services Coordinator, Mercille J Lee Program Brian Bischel, Assistant Director, CCAS, for Office of Undergraduate Advising  Kate (Catherine) Dougherty, Student Assistance Specialist, Dean of Students Office Kathy Kruse, Assistant Dean, Office of Dean of Students  Ginger Perkins, Office of the Bursar