Enrollment management effectiveness a big difference between NCA&T, FAMU's top leaders

Harold Martin’s success in building North Carolina A&T into the largest single campus historically black college or university (HBCU) in the nation shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. He is one the best experienced enrollment managers among all of today’s HBCU leaders and came to his alma mater with a big vision for the future.

Martin held a number of administrative roles at NCA&T early in his career that helped him learn how to be effective in recruiting students and meeting enrollment goals. According to his official biography, his “earlier positions at NC A&T [included] vice chancellor of academic affairs (1994–99); dean of the college of engineering (1989–1994); chair and acting chair of electrical engineering (1985–87 and 1984–85, respectively) and acting chair (1984-85) of electrical engineering.”

He later served as senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina, General Administration and chancellor of Winston-Salem State University. WSSU had the fastest rate of enrollment growth in the entire UNC while he was its top administrator.

Martin brought that enrollment management and recruitment experience to his alma mater, NCA&T, when he became its chancellor in 2009. NCA&T replaced FAMU as the #1 largest single campus HBCU in 2014-2015. It also gained a multi-million dollar boost in its tuition and fee revenue due, in part, to its enrollment increase that year.

NCA&T enrolled 10,725 students in Fall 2014. It saw its enrollment go up again in Fall 2015 to a total of 10,852. NCA&T is expecting more enrollment growth in Fall 2016.

FAMU is continuing to see enrollment declines under a president who didn’t come to the university with the type of vision or experience in the area of enrollment management that Martin had. Elmira Mangum began her contract at FAMU on April 1, 2014. The university’s enrollment in Fall 2015 dropped to 9,920 (down from 10,233 in Fall 2014). That cost FAMU another $9M from tuition and fee losses.

FAMU expects to lose another $9M+ due to its projected loss of 920 students in 2016-2017.

The major administrative jobs that Mangum held before the FAMU presidency didn’t place her at the front-and-center of student recruitment or enrollment strategies.

Back in 2009, the Cornell Chronicle ran a story that announced the decision to hire Mangum as the new vice president for budget and planning. It included the following summary of her administrative experience:

“As senior associate provost at the University of North Carolina and administrator since 2001, Mangum has served on the planning, priority and financing committees that develop strategies for the university budget, construction and renovation of academic facilities; provides leadership on policy development, budget planning and financial management for faculty; and leads preparation of the operating budget. Among her administrative positions at the State University of New York at Buffalo, from 1984 to 2001, she served as associate and assistant provost for resource management and as vice provost. She played a key role at SUNY Buffalo in the development and implementation of strategies for campuswide budget management. Previously, she served as senior budget and management analyst for the Dekalb County, Georgia, finance department.”

The proposed Strategic Plan that the Mangum administration discussed with a Board of Trustees committee on June 23rd calls for FAMU to increase its enrollment to 10,250 in Fall 2020. But the poor job that the administration did in the area of enrollment management for 2015-2016 and the projected student losses for 2016-2017 can’t be ignored.

Mangum’s lack of top-level enrollment management experience didn’t have to end up as a problem for her or FAMU. She had time to obtain the assistance that was needed to prevent enrollment from going down in Fall 2015 and Fall 2016. The data shows that whoever she was listening to didn’t help her do that.

It shouldn’t have taken more than two years for Mangum to come up with a strong vision for reversing the enrollment decline. What’s happened to student enrollment up to this point is also a reason to doubt that FAMU has the right senior administrative leadership in place to actually implement the plans for an enrollment increase.