SEM at 50: People, Practice, and Progress of Strategic Enrollment Management

Article Abstract

Related Issue:

SEMQ Volume 14, Issue 3 (October 2026)

Strategic Enrollment Management’s first 50 years, from Jack Maguire’s 1976 “Grand Design” at Boston College to today, trace a path from early structural debates about organizational design, through academic context and faculty engagement, to strategic planning as SEM’s operational backbone. The field developed planning frameworks, adaptations such as graduate enrollment management (GEM), and an evolving relationship with data now extending to artificial intelligence. A parallel thread has been the movement toward learner-centered, culturally responsive practice—from the “community” face (Henderson 2010) of SEM and Harper’s (2010) anti-deficit research, through early institutional models like UNCF’s initiative at HBCUs, to Henderson and Pollock’s (2021) portable “principles of practice”—all pushing back against one-size-fits-all templates in favor of approaches tailored to an institution’s own learners. The field has been animated by recurring tensions: between the tactical and the strategic, between administrative structure and academic mission, and between recruiting and graduating learners. This account draws on the practitioners and institutions most visible in SEM’s published literature and national associations—a record shaped by the influence of U.S. public flagships and elite privates, many of which are predominantly white institutions. The future narrative of SEM must in commemorative work include the voices of the institutions that account for 80 percent of learners today—regional publics, small private colleges, minority-serving institutions, and community colleges. As higher education confronts declining demographics, affordability crises, eroding public confidence, and shrinking international enrollment, SEM’s legitimacy rests not on any single model but on its capacity to generate, test, and apply frameworks responsive to changing conditions—and on preparing its next generation of practitioners—all in service of its enduring question: how does an institution attract, enroll, support, and graduate the learners it is best positioned to serve?

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Author

Stanley Henderson

Senior Consultant, Emeritus

|

AACRAO
Christopher Tremblay

Executive Director of Enrollment Management, University of Michigan

Article Type

SEMQ Article

Competency

Academic Innovation, Data Reporting & Analysis, Leadership, Organizational Management, Strategic Professional Development, Student Success & Enrollment Management

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Author(s)

henderson-s-e--sm Stanley E. Henderson retired from the University of Michigan-Dearborn where he served as Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Life from 2005–2015. In that role, he provided leadership to campus enrollment efforts that resulted in nearly a 30 percent increase in freshman enrollment as well as record growth of students of color and international students while increasing quality indices. He was also instrumental in developing a public-private partnership for student housing. He previously served in senior enrollment management positions at the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign, the University of Cincinnati, Western Michigan University, and Wichita State University. His roots in enrollment began as an admissions counselor at Michigan State University in 1970.

Henderson has a 50-year record as a national leader in developing new models for universities to better recruit and retain students. At the University of Michigan-Dearborn, his work resulted in the integration of ten student service offices around common student success goals and championed a spirit of community to grow student engagement to new levels. His leadership in designing an enrollment facility at the University of Cincinnati helped to create a widely studied model of One-Stop service and integrated recruitment and retention delivery. He was known on his campuses as a collaborator with faculty and Honors Programs for the recruitment of scholarship level students.

He also has been deeply involved at the national level of AACRAO, where he served as the association’s first vice president for enrollment management in 1991–93 and as president in 1995–96. He was a founder of the Association’s national SEM Conference, now in its 36th year. He is a frequent contributor to AACRAO publications, including the first history of enrollment management, as well as a frequent presenter at state, regional, and national levels. He is also a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award and the Founders Award for Leadership. AACRAO has presented Henderson a Lifetime Achievement Award for “Outstanding Leadership in the SEM Profession” and awarded him Honorary Membership in 2015. He continues to serve the Association as a Senior Consultant with AACRAO Consulting.

Henderson holds a B.A. with High Honor in Political Science from Michigan State University as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, an M.A. in Government from Cornell University, and completed doctoral course work (ABD) in Higher Education Administration from the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.

He is the co-author of SEM Core Concepts: Leading Toward Learner Success and Campus Enrollment Health</em > (2024), and SEM as a Connector: Principles of Practice (2021), part of AACRAO’s SEM Trilogy series.

Christopher W. Tremblay, Ed.D., is a nationally recognized leader in enrollment management with more than three decades of experience shaping enrollment strategy, student access, and institutional vitality across a range of higher education settings. He currently serves as Executive Director of Enrollment Management at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and as Director of AACRAO’s Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Endorsement Program—a role in which he has helped shape the professional development and credentialing of enrollment leaders around the world. Tremblay originated the concept of the “Pioneers and Pacesetters” list in November 2023. Over his 33-year career, Tremblay has held senior enrollment leadership roles at multiple institutions, including vice chancellor for enrollment management at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, associate provost for erollment management at Western Michigan University, and assistant vice chancellor for enrollment management at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. His work spans admissions, new student orientation, financial aid and scholarships, college access and enrollment management. A committed scholar-practitioner, Tremblay earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Western Michigan University, a post-master’s certificate in enrollment management from Capella University, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of College and University journal since 2020 and is the co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of College Access (launched in 2015)—reflecting a deep and sustained commitment to advancing knowledge and equity in higher education.

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