SEMQ Special Issue: Equity and SEM (November 2023)

Equity is the most critical issue of our time. In the next decade, higher
education in North America and beyond will concern itself increasingly with
addressing equity, inclusion, diversity, and decolonization. To effectively do
this, we will need to reach out and collaborate with colleagues throughout
higher education, both in the United States and globally, and not just those
who engage in enrollment management and academic services, but also those who
teach and support our students throughout their educational journeys. This
special issue (our first!) of SEM Quarterly speaks to how SEM
practitioners are engaging with colleagues throughout the academy to create
connections between SEM and equity.

We start off with a systematized literature review on the intersection of SEM
and equity. Keith Connell and Clayton Smith present a systematized review that
goes through a critical analysis and synthesis process to explore the
intersection between SEM and equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization
in postsecondary educational institutions. They provide implications for
improving and increasing the enrollment, academic, and post-graduation success
of members of marginalized communities and introduce SEM and equity topics
that merit further research study.

We have long known that inequities underlie all of American social
institutions, including higher education. David Kalsbeek explores the role of
SEM analytics, suggesting that the equity-minded SEM leader will use constant
self-criticism and regular self-examination to advance institutional equity
and diversity outcomes while achieving shared accountability. He outlines some
of the ways an equity-minded approach to SEM analytics can address historical
inequities in higher educational institutions.

One of the demographic categories we have been concerned with in recent years
is minority male students. Bryan Bell, John “JJ” Evans, and Heather Taynor
share the results of a longitudinal cohort study that compares course
completion and persistence rates of minority males at eleven community
colleges. They found that the use of dedicated success coaches and a
technology-based retention solution improves the course completion and
persistence rates of minority male students.

American Indian/Alaskan Native students face a college-going and college
completion crisis. Lisa Silverstein, Tiffany Gusbeth, and Jonathan Breaker
describe the native student journey at tribal colleges and universities as way
of introducing an Indigenous approach to SEM. They find that by Indigenizing
SEM and building capacity centered on the unique cultural values inherent in
tribal colleges and universities, we can increase American Indian and Alaska
Natives visibility, representation, and degree attainment in higher education.

While holistic admissions hold great promise for identifying and admitting
students with a variety of experiences and skill sets, holistic admissions
processes are often vaguely defined, and their use in practice remains
underdeveloped. Teresa Ober, Olasumbo Oluwalana, Huidi Yang, and Reginald
Gooch present two studies that examine holistic admissions procedures in
graduate degree programs that highlight the importance of considering multiple
dimensions of applicants’ qualifications, experiences, and alignment with
institutional values in holistic admissions processes. They suggest that by
incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities and continuously
evaluating the effectiveness of holistic admissions plans, we can enroll a
more diverse and successful student body.

Individuals with disabilities and chronic illnesses face challenges in higher
education and career progression. Whitney West and Iman Riddick argue that
implementing operational improvements in higher education to enhance the
experience of students, staff, and faculty with disabilities and chronic
illness requires a multifaced approach that addresses physical and
architectural barriers, limited access to accommodations and support services,
stigma, discrimination, and lack of awareness, and intersectionality and
multiple marginalized identities. By implementing these initiatives,
institutions can enhance the sense of belonging and inclusivity for all
members of the postsecondary community.

One of the most pressing and threatening concerns to higher education is the
dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion at our postsecondary
institutions, but there is still time to bring equity back to the center of
the work we do. Allyson Brown and Keith James provide a practitioner’s
approach to creating equity and inclusion in the enrollment management culture
that calls for implementing a multi-layered inclusive strategy as a way to be
proactive in decreasing reactive tactics to navigating potential recruitment
challenges that includes identifying opportunity points, conducting anti-bias
training, and cultivating sustainable practices.

Recommendation letters and the other components of the application portfolio,
such as personal statements, are intended to make admissions decisions more
equitable by providing contextual information that admissions officers need to
fairly evaluate applicants. However, unevenness in the quantity and quality of
contextual data supplied across applicants often impacts the holistic review
process. Tara Nicola, Mandy Savitz-Romer, and Julius DiLorenzo provide a
literature review that allows us to reimagine “a broken system” that
highlights promising practices and policies for better leveraging letters to
promote equity in the undergraduate admissions context.

College admissions recruiters play an essential role in shaping the future of
the student body at postsecondary institutions to ensure that it is inclusive,
equitable, and supportive of all students. One critical factor that impacts
the work of admissions recruiters is their positionality, which can influence
how they understand and interact with various student populations. Jairo
McMican and Sade Comiska contend that college recruiters should develop
positionality awareness so that they can recognize the ways in which their
identities, experiences, and biases shape their perspectives and interactions
with prospective students.

Let me conclude by sharing two quotes. The first is from former U.S. president
Jimmy Carter: “We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.
Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes,
different dreams.” And the second is from Marco Bizzarri, CEO of Gucci:
“Diversity and inclusion, which are the real grounds for creativity, must
remain at the center of what we do.” The first is about acknowledging our
diversity, and second is about embracing it in everything we do. We must do
both if we are dedicated to the work of enrollment management in the 21st
century.

Happy reading.