As part of its renewed, long-term mission-driven planning, New Jersey City University is out with its first Strategic Enrollment Plan (SEP). The effort focuses on addressing enrollment challenges facing higher education institutions across the state and nation.

NJCU says the 36-page plan is the next critical phase of its refreshed mission and vision statement, introduced earlier this year. The SEP was designed by the Division of Academic Affairs and authored by the Office of the Provost. It also includes significant university community input.

The plan, available here, articulates guidelines and goals for recruitment, admission and retention of NJCU’s students. Four new institutional strategic pillars drive the initiative:

• Student Success and Retention
• Community Engagement
• Culture of Continuous Improvement
• Financial Stewardship and Responsibility

According to the school, it developed key measurable organizational actions and key performance indicators to achieve its enrollment objectives.

The SEP has 10 goals:

• Be the bachelor’s degree completion institution of choice for Hudson County residents.
• Be the most transfer-friendly public university in New Jersey.
• Consistently increase completion rates year-over-year for all students.
• Provide the most labor-market relevant graduate programs for underrepresented professionals in New Jersey.
• Provide relevant and engaging workforce development programs focused on the needs of a global workforce.
• Understand and analyze the higher education marketplace in terms of competing university program offerings.
• Strategically respond to market forces for undergraduate, graduate and noncredit programming.
• Strengthen NJCU’s identity by providing student support services throughout the student life cycle.
• Drive program investment decision according to program return on investment.
• Increase and diversity non-credit programming to respond to workforce needs in New Jersey.

NJCU says that the plan will serve as a basis for budgeting decisions. It marks the third of four major components of the university’s mission-driven planning process as it continues to battle a budget crisis that ensnared the previous school administration.

So far, that’s included phase one – an April 2023 NJCU Recovery and Revitalization Plan; and phase two – the February 2024 release of NJCU’s first Academic Master Plan. SEP marks phase three.

Currently being studied, phase four will reveal a Strategic Plan for Student Development and Community Engagement. That is slated for a fall 2024 implementation.

This year kicked off with a slew of activity from NJCU and continued recovery efforts under interim President Andres Acebo. NJBIZ has extensively covered those updates, as well as last month’s fiscal monitor report. That long-awaited release details the extent of the school’s financial challenges in addition to recommendations and potential solutions.

What they’re saying

“At NJCU, we are best positioned to tackle higher education’s challenges of a shrinking enrollment market and often limited resources, by developing programs that stabilize or increase enrollment, dismantling traditional obstacles for transfer students, and improving retention rates of our existing students,” said Acebo. “The Strategic Enrollment Plan guides our work through strategic, data-driven decisions around our students’ entire enrollment life cycle – from recruitment and admission, to retention, and ultimately graduation. At the same time, the SEP focuses on our institution’s critical role in the region the in the local community as a beacon of aspiration and hope.”

“The entire NJCU community is working together to address the challenges of declining enrollment,” said Donna Breault, provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. “Our Strategic Enrollment Plan was built upon our shared commitment to the mission of the university, while being guided by strategic use of data. The Strategic Enrollment Plan captures this work and our commitment to continue to grow the NJCU community. It represents the vision and insights of the hundreds of faculty, staff, and community members who helped draft it.”

“Like our Academic Master Plan, the development of the SEP is truly unique because it was intentionally and deliberately driven by motivated and committed stakeholders in our university community – faculty, staff, and students – and I am appreciative of the dedication and commitment to fulfilling this significant objective,” Acebo added. “We are marshaling and leading a transformational approach to the delivery of a regional comprehensive public higher education.”