By Heather Zimar, Managing Editor, Journals and Publications, AACRAO
In the Summer 2026 issue of College & University, Dr. Jessica Morales Maust, Vice President of Enrollment Management at Marian University, turns to “the social brain” to explain a crisis she argues has been “hidden in plain sight” for decades: turnover among college admissions counseling professionals now outpaces the average for higher education employees by more than 20%. Rather than treating attrition as a problem of pay, workload, or incentives alone, Morales Maust examines the motivation of admissions professionals through the lens of social cognitive neuroscience—the study of how workplace environments activate the brain’s threat and reward systems.
Drawing on a mixed-methods study of 133 admissions professionals, the article applies David Rock’s SCARF® model—Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness—to identify the social domains most likely to trigger a threat or reward response at work. Pairing the SCARF® Domain Assessment with the Situational Motivation Scale, Morales Maust found that three domains—Status, Relatedness, and Fairness—were significantly associated with motivation: higher perceived status and relatedness aligned with stronger intrinsic motivation, while relatedness and fairness aligned with lower amotivation and externally driven engagement. Qualitative focus groups deepened the picture, surfacing five themes in which collaboration, recognition, fairness, metric pressure, and trust shaped whether counselors felt energized or depleted.
Key findings and professional reflections from the article include:
- Turnover as a Social, Not Just Structural, Problem: Salary adjustments, new incentive structures, and wellness initiatives alone have not resolved dissatisfaction or turnover; the study reframes attrition as rooted in how admissions work is socially experienced—whether counselors feel respected, connected, and treated fairly.
- Relatedness, Status, and Fairness Drive Motivation: Across the full sample, these three SCARF® domains were significantly linked to healthier motivation, with relatedness—supportive bonds and being treated as a whole person—emerging as an especially salient driver of engagement.
- Structured Reflection Can Shift Motivation: In a Welch’s t-test comparison, focus-group participants differed significantly from a control group across all four motivation scales—evidence that giving counselors structured space to articulate and validate their social experience may meaningfully influence motivational states.
- A Dual Responsibility for Enrollment Leaders: Morales Maust frames the findings as a “dual responsibility” at the heart of strategic enrollment leadership—shaping enrollment outcomes while sustaining the people who carry out that work—arguing that supporting counselor motivation requires attention to social environment design, not only operational strategy.
“As higher education navigates demographic change, competitive pressure, and workforce instability, the future of strategic enrollment management may depend as much on how leaders design human environments as they design enrollment strategies,” Morales Maust wrote.
Dr. Morales Maust will host an AACRAO webinar, “Wired to Matter: The Brain Science Behind Motivation, Engagement, and Longevity in College Admissions,” on September 15, 2026, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET.
Other articles in the Summer 2026 issue of College & University include:
“Empowering Career Success: Building Strategic Campus Partnerships for Micro-Credentialing at Texas Christian University” by Regina Middleton
“Interview with Carolyn Noll Sorg — Seeing the Whole Student: When an Enrollment Leader Becomes President” by Ken Anselment
“Interview with Laura Perna” by Lesa Beals
“Electronic Workflows to Radically Support Graduate Education” by Terrah Foster Akard, Susan Hilderbrand, Amanda King, and C. André Christie-Mizell
“Hiring Practices That Promote Access and Equity: Strategies for Expanding Opportunity and Reducing Barriers in Human Resources” by Erin Michelle Collins
“Reimagining Curriculum Governance: AI-Enabled Parallel Workflows in Higher Education” by Jen Platania and Rodney Parks
“Celebrating the Journey: Recognition as the Heart of Student Retention” by Rodney Parks
“Mobilizing Retention: Why Student Mobility Opportunities Must Be Central to Student Success and Retention Strategies” by Obianuju Juliet Bushi
“Reframing Enrollment Through Forensic Insight” by Brendon K. Taga
“Leaders Who Give: Graduate Reflections on AACRAO’s Leadership Development Programs” by Johnika Nixon, Luis Alarcon, Jessica Muehlberg, Kristina Rosales, Steven McDowell, Patricia Pothour, Ana K. Rodriguez, and Christopher W. Tremblay
“Review of: Hacking College — Why the Major Doesn’t Matter, and What Really Does” by Kimberley Buster-Williams
“Review of: Dream School: Finding the College That’s Right for You” by Crystal Marie Hotchkiss
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