Strategic Enrollment Planning
What is SEP?
Strategic Enrollment Planning (SEP) at USF is a comprehensive, mission-aligned effort to ensure long-term enrollment vitality and fiscal sustainability. The SEP process supports the USF 2027 Strategic Plan and will serve as the foundation for the university's next institutional strategic plan.
Strategic Enrollment Planning is a complex and organized effort to connect mission, current state, and the changing environment to long-term enrollment and fiscal health, resulting in a concrete, written plan of action.”
Lew Sanborne, Ph.D.
SEP Steering Committe
- Eileen Fung – Co-Chair
- Eric Groves – Co-Chair
- Stacy Lewis – Co-Chair
- Erin Brigham
- Stephanie Shrieve-Hawkins
- Shannon Gary
- Erin Eckels – Working Group Leader
- Desmond Dair – Working Group Leader
- Anneliese Mauch – Working Group Leader
- Anastasia Vrachnos – Working Group Leader
Our Commitment Throughout the SEP Process
- Align enrollment with mission and academic excellence
- Strengthen fiscal sustainability
- Use data to inform strategy
- Engage the community with transparency and shared ownership
- Prioritize initiatives that create measurable impact
Timeline
| Visit | Date | Objectives/Focus |
|---|---|---|
| One | January 21-22, 2026 | Project design and planning with cabinet and the project steering committee; identification of key performance indicators; initial data preparation with the data team |
| Two | February 17-18, 2026 | Presidential Charge; Project launch with all working groups participating; introduce all participants to the project and initiate situation analysis development |
| Three | March 23-24, 2026 (TBC) | Review situation analysis progress with working groups; identify lingering data and information needs; initiate strategy ideation |
| Four | Early June 2026 | Finalize situation analyses with working groups; substantive strategy ideation; identification of strategies for action planning |
| Five | August/September 2026 | Strategy action plan draft reviews; development of tasks to complete strategy action plans |
| Six | Week of October 19, 2026 | Strategy prioritization summit: strategy developers present strategies to USF President, cabinet, and project steering committee; leadership prioritizes strategies; identify next steps to revise strategies based on summit outcomes |
| Seven | November 2026 | Plan formation: integrate updated strategies into the emerging plan; develop outcome, expense, and ROI roll-ups for final strategy set consideration by the USF cabinet |
| Eight | January 2027 | Final plan presentation and approval of the strategic enrollment plan; set the stage for implementation, and for the transition from planning to management; initial meeting of SEM Steering Team; establish annual SEM cycle |
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs are commonly acknowledged measurements that are directly related and critical to the mission and fiscal health of the institution, such as headcount, net revenue per student, or retention rate.
- Headcount (by student type and level)
- Retention rate
- Persistence rate
- Graduation rates
- Traditional funnel metrics (by student type, program, & level)
- Yield
- % first generation
- Ethnicity & gender pronouns
- UG Hilltop #
- % Pell eligible (and in need brackets)
- Standardized test scores
- % from outside California
- % that go on to service careers
- % with USF as first choice
- # working (off and on campus)
- On-campus engagement rates
- Specialized accreditations
- Program scorecard/review metrics
- Student outcomes (internships & job placement/first destination)
- Research activities & productivity of faculty and students
- Rankings (i.e. US News)
- Market penetration rates
- Clearinghouse lost-admit & transfer out destinations)
- Net revenue per student
- Net margin
- % Pell eligible (and in need brackets)
- Discount rate
- % full-pay
- Average Debt load
- Contribution margin by program
- Overall institutional net margin
- Revenue diversification
- Alumni net promoter score
- Alumni giving rate
- Alumni/student engagement rates
- Career services engagement
- Transfer credit acceptance rate
Working Groups
Working groups are short term groups that work to develop a situation analysis in their area. The group will then move into strategy ideation, ahead of subgroups developing multi-year business plans for a subset of strategies that are identified by the group.