By Stanley E. Henderson, AACRAO Honorary Member and Past President, Live from #SEM2025
The following two sessions focused on the AACRAO Strategic Enrollment Management Endorsement Program for professionals, presented by Christopher Tremblay, EdD, Director of the AACRAO SEM-EP and Executive Director of Enrollment Management for the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; and Kimberley Buster-Williams, EdD, Assistant Director of the AACRAO SEM-EP, and Associate Vice Provost for Student Success and Retention at The George Washington University.
“SEM-EP Meet and Greet” where graduates, learners-in-course, and those interested gathered to exchange information on the program with the director and assistant director.
“Get Badged with AACRAO’s SEM Endorsement Program” was targeted to prospective learners.
What Is SEM-EP? Access and Curriculum
The program is geared to the “new normal” learner, someone who approaches education already juggling job, family, and life responsibilities. As a result, prospective learners will find a streamlined application process with multiple entry points into the program and a self-paced curriculum that is generally completed within 12 to 18 months.
The curriculum includes:
The AACRAO Essentials of SEM course.
Three webinars: How to Build a SEM Plan, Harnessing Data Driven Insights to Enhance SEM, and SEM in Action: Implementing and Sustaining Your SEM Plan.
Three six-hour field visits, either virtual or in-person, to another institution (arranged by SEM-EP or by the individual learner), or two field visits and one AACRAO conference.
A capstone experience consisting of a research program, a literature review, or a SEM project.
Cost is $2000. Institutions may support learners in the program. To spread the cost out, learners can take the “Essentials of SEM” first ($495) and would then have up to three years to start/finish the Endorsement (minus the “Essentials” cost). Partial scholarships may also be available.
Graduates of the SEM-EP receive a SEM Endorsement badge awarded by AACRAO as an indication that the individual completing the program has “developed the proficiencies needed to effectively understand and practice the complexities involved in strategic enrollment management (SEM) operations on college campuses.” AACRAO also maintains a global registry of badge holders.
What’s the Impact?
96 learners have graduated from SEM-EP.
With 43 currently enrolled (the most ever), the program will cross the 100-graduate threshold in the next few months.
Twelve SEM-EP learners presented at the SEM conference this year.
Research- and project-related capstones from the SEM-EP are finding their way as articles in SEM Quarterly and College & University.
The first job posting listing SEM-EP as a preferred qualification was noted in the last year.
A renewed partnership for doctoral scholarship and completion.
Graduates attending the meet-and-greet session commented that the program was more valuable than a certificate program or a master’s degree. The advantages of networking opportunities for SEM-EP learners were obvious as they met with AACRAO staff and leaders outside the conference sessions to discuss engagement opportunities. Some learners complete the program after finishing doctoral studies to burnish credentials for advancement. The rigor and recognition of the program are becoming increasingly significant in climbing the career ladder.
Tracking the SEM-EP Legacy in the AACRAO Community
The AACRAO community embraces this endorsement program. Multiple member institutions volunteer staff time for the field visits, either virtually or in person. Other AACRAO members volunteer as evaluators for the reflection pieces and capstone work product that make up the curriculum. At the 35th Annual AACRAO Conference for SEM, mentoring opportunities were freely available—and taken advantage of—both from established AACRAO SEM folks, as well as SEM-EP graduates themselves with their staff or colleagues at other campuses.
In fact, SEM-EP is a legacy of an AACRAO community habit that I have called the “AACRAO Ethic” for more than 30 years. AACRAO members have a commitment to make a difference, certainly on their campuses and for their students, but also for each other.
Our association, from its 1910 beginnings, has been a community innovator for improving our work and our well-being. In fact, SEM-EP is the result of one member’s passion and persistence for providing a way to credential enrollment professionals. Joe Head of Kennesaw State University was the chair of a task force on credentialing and certification I appointed while president of AACRAO in 1995. The task force recommended an early version of SEM-EP, but it encountered some opposition and association financial challenges in the latter part of the 1990s. Joe took the idea to his Georgia ACRAO association and then shared it with several other state organizations.
He reengaged with the national association in 2010, found support and financial backing, and in 2012, SEM-EP launched with Joe as its director and Christopher Tremblay as the assistant director. Tremblay became director in 2017. The rest, as they say, is history.
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