Where have all the good admission reps gone?
by Guest Contributor | February 15th, 2006Contributed by: Dr. Jean Norris
Managing Partner, Norton Norris, Inc.
A colleague and I were reminiscing the other day about college admission counseling and the changes throughout the years. It seems like you can’t get through a week without hearing about unethical admission practices or a school on probation or losing accreditation. Although many stories focus on the proprietary sector, it certainly isn’t exclusive. Both of us remembered the late ’80s when we worked as admission counselors in the not-for-profit sector. You remember… before the Department of Ed stepped in and banned incentive compensation and for-profit colleges weren’t really viewed as competition. The funny thing about those days is even though we were paid to enroll students, there wasn’t a soul we worked with that would put their personal gain over the needs of a student.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not promoting the idea of going back to paying commission based on enrolled headcount. I am advocating, however, the concept that someone in the role of helping people change their lives might actually derive benefit from helping someone. Instead, we’ve put admission personnel into a no-win situation and made their job something to be feared. They have to think about everything they say or didn’t say. Could the prospective student have misinterpreted something? We listen to their telephone calls; assign them lofty enrollment targets; send them to training; bring in compliance officers to audit recruitment materials; and are frugal with their pay. All the while, they are still accountable to the higher ups to bring in academic quality and a specific volume of new students.
No wonder it’s hard to find good admission representatives and keep them. I imagine a job posting that looks something like this:
WANTED: High-energy individual who desires to meet with prospective students and their families to explore their options on purchasing a five-figure, non-tangible item. Qualifications require the ability to balance faculty desires for high-ranking students with enrollment management mandate of volume. Requires long hours, including weekend and evening work in a position that has little control or respect but responsible for the fiscal stability of the institution and all employees. Benefits include sleepless nights, travel to exotic locations (including Dubuque, Iowa), and the opportunity to have a television producer pose as a prospective student and secretly film you (on a particularly bad day) to showcase your admission counseling skills on national television.
In the end, I don’t think the issue of ethical behavior has anything to do with whether an admission counselor is paid for enrollments or not. I also don’t support that this is simply an issue of the for-profit sector (the desire for student revenue has universal appeal). I believe it has everything to do with the individual integrity of the person in the job supported by the ethical values of their institution. Perhaps we need to reexamine our intense focus on compliance and expand the view to include real leadership. After all, following the letter of the law does little to promote true ethical behavior. Let’s get back to the days of solid values and integrity that are owned, supported, and promoted by employees at all levels. Perhaps then, the stories in the news will focus on the positive model higher education administration has set for others to follow.
_____
Dr. Jean Norris has worked in higher education for the past 17 years in a variety of senior-level positions for both proprietary and not-for-profit colleges. Currently, Jean is a managing partner leading the training and assessment division of Norton Norris, Inc., a Chicago-based marketing consulting firm specializing in Tactical Enrollment Management®. Jean is frequently called upon to present in national venues including the American Marketing Association, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the Career College Association, the National Small College Enrollment Conference, and the Community College Enrollment Management Symposium. Recently published works focus on admission training and ethics in college admission counseling.
