Strategic Enrollment Management

Augsburg’s Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) division includes four uniquely equipped teams: Undergraduate Admissions, Graduate Admissions, SEM Operations, and Financial Aid.

Vision: Be a belonging organization that builds deeper relationships, change systems, and dismantle oppression in higher education enrollment management.

Mission: Meet every student where they are with authentic presence. We exist to deliver enrollment results, innovation, service, and the essential infrastructure to attract, meet the needs of, and enroll future graduates. 

Values: We value integrity, honesty, passion. We lead with grace and kindness. We self-manage our work-life balance with support from each other. We embrace data-informed decision-making to guide our actions. We see our entire team succeed through our positive impact on society. We use these five statements to remember why we are here.

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Our Belonging Organization

In 2019, the SEM division embarked on a journey to be a belonging organizational structure. Our division’s strategic enrollment management impact is guided by the updated Augsburg 150 Strategic Plan.  We are passionately committed to the importance of our collective and individual sense of belonging as the primary element for well-being, which in turn sets us up to achieve our SEM goals.  Our belonging organizational structure requires each of us to mindfully reflect, set our own intentions, and prioritize balance in a world that often seems out of balance.  We strive for a sense of individualized intention led by the mantra of “feel loved—act strategically.”  

Guided by the Gallup Q12 Belonging Index, we are each in our own ways becoming active belonging adventurers.  The journey thus far strives to cultivate a sense of belonging where individual’s perspectives, promise, and purpose are shared and supported.  Many tools and activities continue on an annual basis- the Results Support Management framework, wellness check-ins, a hire-in hire-up practice, the EDIFY personal advocacy storytelling curriculum, and national conference presentations/media. The work behind being a SEM belonging organizational structure is never complete, it is tirelessly ongoing all the time.

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Admissions Success Coaching: A Research Initiative from the NACAC Center for Innovation in College Admission

Purpose. Belonging. Changing Admissions for Good.

The NACAC Center for Innovation’s Admissions Success Coaching research project is an ambitious initiative designed to reimagine how high school students engage with college admission counselors. Through structured, personalized coaching, we aim to provide students with the agency, confidence, and support they need to succeed—while offering admissions professionals new models for meaningful engagement.

Augsburg University is partnering with NACAC’s Center for Innovation in College Admission with support from the Lumina Foundation to complete a multi-year Admissions Success Coaching research initiative to transform the admissions experience for students and college admission counselors. This research-backed framework—a set of replicable structures, interventions, and training materials to bridge the gap between yesterday’s methods and today’s students—will serve as a roadmap for institutions and policymakers seeking to advance post-secondary college attainment and trust-based relationship building in college admissions. 

To learn more about the Admissions Success Coaching research project visit NACAC’s Center for Innovation in College Admission. Want to participate as a pilot institution? Contact Robert Gould at gouldr2@augsburg.edu.

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SEM Leadership

Reporting to President Paul Pribbenow, the enrollment division is led by Robert J. Gould, Vice President for Strategic Enrollment Management.  The SEM leadership team includes directors and associate directors that authentically support and lead 27 staff and 18 student employees.  The directors work as one team, leading inclusive culture change using the OKR (Objective and Key Result) framework to achieve audacious results.  A co-lead financial aid office is one example of the belonging organizational structure’s impact.  We invite and welcome collaboration:

 

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