I am pleased today to announce the formation of a Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Taskforce.
 
During my first 106 days on campus, I’ve received an outpouring of suggestions. Many of these have focused on enriching the UF student experience. I’m grateful for that input. You've heard me say that I think this is a pivotal time for us to ask first-principles questions about the purpose, duties and opportunities in front of our institution. We have a big, important mission, and we have a shared sense of urgency. To succeed, we want to embrace the hardest questions about who we’re serving and how we know if we’re being effective enough. It's time to push forward.
 
In that spirit, this taskforce will examine a broad set of issues centering primarily, but not exclusively, on future enrollment in our undergraduate programs. We will do a capacity assessment of our extant academic programs, physical learning spaces, digital delivery, and full-time and part-time residential housing — both university-owned and university-adjacent. In addition, we will examine the experience our students have during recruitment, prospective visits and official arrival on campus. We will also consider the market for, and perceptions of, the UF undergraduate programs, out-of-state tuition relative to peer institutions, demand at peer institutions for programs we do not yet have, and our international recruitment funnel.
 
The taskforce will include a broad range of community stakeholders and will begin work before summer to help further refine specific areas for investigation. Taskforce members include:

1. Mary Parker, Vice President and Associate Provost, Enrollment Management, Co-Chair
2. Raymond Sass, Office of the President, Co-Chair
3. Elaine Turner, Dean and Professor, UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
4. Elias Eldayrie, Vice President and Chief Information Officer
5. Cathy Lebo, Assistant Provost and Director of Institutional Planning and Research, and University Data Administrator
6. Evie Cummings, Senior Assistant Provost and Director of UF Online
7. Heather White, Vice President for Student Life
8. Ja'Net Glover, Senior Director of University Career Services at the University of Florida
9. Olga Weider, Assistant Vice President and University Controller
10. Nicole Yucht, Executive Director of Advancement Communications

I’m grateful for each of the taskforce members and to the broader campus community for getting involved here. This work will be an important run-up to the broader strategic planning process that will launch this August and run through the upcoming academic year. Some of this is a sprint, and some of this will be a marathon, but all of this effort is made up of definitive steps forward. Let's get moving.

Go Gators,
Ben