Perhaps you have had the opportunity to be exposed to the case study method as a student or as a practitioner. This method works well with enrollment management teams because it fosters integrated thought with collaborative decision making.

It also provides participants the opportunity to play roles that often encourage the development of new behaviors. Cases are real situations that encourage, through a structured analysis, the development of a vast number of strategies, each with benefits and liabilities.

As you work on case studies, you gain a clear understanding about how key elements influence decision making. Case studies require students to identify, from a real life scenario, a problem that needs resolution.

A series of strategies addressing the problem are then developed through an analysis of the facts, assumptions, questions, limiting factors, and key players drawn from the case. The process provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics involved in decision making.

Sample Case Study

You have just been hired as the Dean of Enrollment Management at Big Pine College. Big Pine College is a moderately sized liberal arts college located in the northeast approximately 30 miles from a major urban area. The community where the college is located is a mix of suburban towns with an adjacent rural landscape. The community has recently landed on some economic hard times when a major corporation went bankrupt and many of the local workers were out of jobs.

The college has, in the past, recruited approximately 800 new freshmen during the fall semester. The President, Emily Thoreau, has approached you and indicated that even though the new freshmen enrollment at the college has been declining during the past four years, she believes that trend will be turning around this year. In fact, she has indicated that the Board of Trustees has committed a substantial sum of financial support to help increase enrollment but they want to see a comprehensive plan.

The college currently enrolls 2830 undergraduates. Very few of the undergraduates come to the college as transfer students. The retention and graduation rates have remained relatively constant. The freshmen enrollment trend for the past five years is as follows:

1996 - 798
1997 - 750
1998 - 743
1999 - 734
2000 - 728

In order to address Dr. Thoreau's question you assemble your management team, which consists of the Director of Admission, the Director of Financial Aid, the Registrar, and the Director of Student Services. During your conversation with this group you determine that each is looking at the enrollment issue through a very narrow perspective. The Director of Admission believes that enrollment can be increased if recruitment programs are expanded.

The Director of Financial Aid indicates that more aggressive financial aid packaging strategies will address the decline. The Registrar wants to upgrade the technological services provided to students and the Director of Student Services wants to upgrade the physical facilities in order to attract more students. While each of these perspectives has merit, you believe that a more comprehensive approach needs to occur.