September 6, 2002

National Marketing Recruitment Award honors innovative enrollment strategies

Loyola was one of three universities honored with a Marketing-Recruitment Excellence Award from Noel-Levitz for its focused efforts to improve student recruitment and enrollment. Noel-Levitz is the nation's leading higher education consulting firm and operating division of Sallie Mae (NYSE: SLM). The awards were presented at the North American Enrollment Management Institute in June.

Loyola was elected for its program "Recruitment, Enrollment and Student Success: A Holistic Approach." This program, initiated in 1997, aimed to combat declining numbers of high school graduates, unstable economic conditions, negative perceptions about the city of New Orleans, and increased competition. This multifaceted plan in part utilized:

• predictive modeling to reallocate resources to those most likely to apply;
• a powerful, PC-based communications system with enhanced capabilities to support national and international recruitment;
• more systematic, equitable, and strategic allocation of financial aid;
• expanded volunteer programs; and
• a high school counselor fly-in program.

"This program demonstrates that by using a number of strategic and creative marketing techniques, schools can shape their student enrollment, improve the profile of incoming classes and increase student retention," said Thomas William, president and CEO of Noel-Levitz. "This is why innovative enrollment strategies, such as this one, are so important."

Nominees for the Marketing-Recruitment Excellence Awards were judged by a panel of higher education enrollment professionals on several factors including identifiable and measurable institutional outcomes, originality and creativity, adaptability to other institutions, clarity of focus, and use of resources.