By Heather Zimar, Managing Editor, Journals and Publications, AACRAO, Live from #SEM2025
Presenters Sarah Reed, University Registrar at UC Berkeley; Nicole Mancone Fisher, Assistant Vice Provost and University Registrar at Texas Christian University; and Brian Coldren, Assistant Vice Provost and University Registrar at UT Knoxville, shared how their roles as registrars are connected to strategic enrollment planning.
Each experience from “Beyond Records: The Registrar’s Role in Strategic Enrollment Planning” represented a different stage in SEM.
Early Stage: Exploration
Reed arrived at UC Berkeley in 2022 and quickly began working to understand her role in helping her campus lead, where she should prioritize, and how she could align her department. She engaged her campus in a multi-level environmental scan with the assistance of an AACRAO consultant. In addition, she joined the AACRAO ASCEND Leadership Development Program. Reed is currently involved in an Office of the Registrar organizational chart redesign and an Office of the Registrar Strategic Plan.
Emerging needs, she noted, are enrollment growth scaling; classroom availability and utilization; course and curriculum analytics and management; decentralized registration practices; data and data governance; and SME, EM strategy, influence, and storytelling.
Middle Stage: Design and Implementation
Fisher explained that TCU’s new strategic plan is based on four foundational pillars:
- student-centered growth
- research, scholarship, and creative activities
- athletics
- community engagement
TCU is currently focused on student-centered growth: “We nurture an engaging learning environment where students can thrive academically, personally, and professionally. We aim to create more of the values-based leaders the world needs by thoughtfully growing enrollment while maintaining a high standard of student-centered experiences that prepare students for success in their careers and for meaningful lives of impact and purpose.”
For the registrar’s office, she said: “Our goal is to really elevate our game using efficiency, software, and technology. This dovetails really well with our strategic plan.”
TCU is planning for scaling processes like automation, late adds, staffing and systems; reviewing curriculum and programs; and evaluating space planning and utilization.
Adopted Stage: Sustained and Revisited
Coldren discussed his institution’s efforts to control growth after seeing a significant gain in applications and enrollment. With this rapid growth, constraints, such as instructional capacity (classroom utilization, course scheduling process and resources) and campus congestion (student services, dining, parking) became apparent.
In addition, a comprehensive perspective is needed, he said. This means considering all student populations: undergraduate, graduate, and online.
Coldren’s campus has introduced new goals and strategies for a 2030 strategic enrollment plan:
- Deliver an Exceptional Volunteer Experience
- Expand Access to the Modern Land Grant
- Advance Tennessee through Workforce and Community Impact
The goal, he said, is to have 41,000 campus-based students and 14,000 fully online students for a total of 55,000. The campus is utilizing a classroom heatmap, course projection tools, and a course capacity analysis dashboard.
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