Oct. 26, 2022
Dear Colleagues,
As I explained in our Enrollment Management Town Hall yesterday, in order to maximize University resources in light of our changing needs as a maturing University and with the pending retirement of AVP for Enrollment Management, Mr. Hung Dang, I am taking the opportunity to revise positions and restructure reporting lines in both Enrollment Management and Communication & Marketing. This change recognizes the need for our campus to create additional capacity for marketing and branding and to link this expertise to Admissions & Recruitment. In short, Enrollment Management will now become Enrollment Management & Marketing; Communication & Marketing will become Communication & Public Relations.
One of CSUCI’s greatest challenges is clear. We’ve experienced a precipitous drop in enrollment since Fall 2019. At the same time, challenges present opportunities and an invitation to lean into innovation. This moment is right for structural change within our University – a change that I believe will be profoundly impactful in many ways, but particularly in response to the problem of declining enrollment.
While enrollment and retention rates are a motivational factor, so are also several major planning efforts that have occurred over the past 22 months. These include: an Integrated Marketing Communication Plan that incorporates brand market research and the auditing and revising of our website; Charting Our Course, which will inform the process of revising our Academic Master Plan; and our Inclusive Excellence Action Plan, which will make visible the degree of progress and impact of the various IEAP initiatives; and, finally, Mr. Hung Dang’s recently announced retirement.
Changes to Enrollment Management
The current AVP for Enrollment Management position has been restructured to become the Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management & Marketing (AVP EM&M). The AVP EM&M will report to the Provost and will be responsible for an integrated marketing and admissions strategy to inform comprehensive admissions and retention campaigns. Using market research, the AVP EM&M will be responsible for building and establishing a CSUCI brand foundation (through various campus collaborations) that reflects the University’s mission and its core academic values, clarifies the value proposition of a CSUCI education, and differentiates our University in a crowded market. The integrated admissions strategy will include utilizing marketing research to design and implement effective marketing and admissions and retention strategies, including comprehensive outreach campaigns. A complete position description can be found here. A search for the AVP EM&M will commence immediately and a call for faculty to serve on the search committee will be forthcoming.
The AVP EM&M will oversee Admissions & Recruitment and Financial Aid & Scholarships; the Interim Director of Admissions & Recruitment, Catherine Villa-Real; and the Executive Director of Financial Aid & Scholarship, Sunshine Garcia, will report directly to the new AVP EM&M.
The University Registrar, Colleen Forest, will report to the Provost.
The Director of Enrollment Technology & Operational Data, Ana Rosa Duran, will report to the University Registrar, while working closely with Chief Data Officer and Director of Institutional Research, Matt Zivot. Please note that this change is pending further review.
These organizational changes will be effective on the start date for the new AVP EM&M.
Changes to Communication & Marketing
Along with this change, the title of Communication & Marketing has been adjusted to more accurately reflect the work of that unit, which will now be named Communication & Public Relations (C&PR) and will continue to be located within the Office of the President. With this change, Nancy Gill’s title will be Associate Vice President for Communication & Public Relations; she will continue to report to the Chief of Staff.
Primary duties for this position include management of all activities and programs within the area of Communication & Public Relations (C&PR). The AVP C&PR manages campus-wide messaging and leads the University’s public relations efforts which include crisis/reputation management communication, news media relations, social media communication, graphic design and photography/videography communication, online campus news sources, and serving as Editor in Chief for the University’s magazine, Channel. The AVP C&PR supports executive communication, advises the University President and members of the President’s cabinet on communication strategy, public relations, crisis/reputation and emergency communication, and collaborates closely with the AVP EM&M to ensure the brand foundation of the University is communicated via top-level webpages of the website and in all University communication.
Direct reports to the AVP C&PR include the Interim Director of University Communication, Kristin Steiner; Associate Director of Communication, Joanna Murphy; Graphic Designer, Jessica Chiang; and Photographer & Videographer, Whitney Howard.
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I am confident that these changes will prepare the University for long-term success and we are excited to be embarking in this new direction. By taking these steps now, we are positioning ourselves not only to address the immediate challenges of recruiting and retaining our students, but also to achieve our mission-critical vision of serving as an engine of upward social mobility for our region, educating the regional workforce, and advancing our values of equity and inclusion.
Sincerely,
Richard Yao, Ph.D.
President