Vice President, Enrollment Management

Position Description

The University of Oregon seeks a dedicated and dynamic leader to serve as the next Vice President of Enrollment Management. The desired candidate will have a proven track record of delivering results, implementing innovative solutions, developing their team, and working collaboratively across a complex organization and a broad range of community partners.

University of Oregon

Founded in 1876, the University of Oregon (“UO”) is a comprehensive public research university committed to exceptional teaching, discovery, and service and is the flagship public university of the state of Oregon. The UO is an R1 university, a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), and a member of the Big 10 Athletic Conference. It serves more than 23,800 undergraduate and graduate students from all fifty states and over 91 countries and offers 315 undergraduate and graduate degree programs through its nine academic colleges, its institutes and other program areas. The UO currently employs nearly 2,100 teaching and research faculty and over 3,800 staff. In Fiscal Year 2024, the UO received $177 million in grants, contracts, and competitive awards.

Under President Karl Scholz, the UO is guided by a comprehensive strategic plan, Oregon Rising, which centers on four core goals: enhancing pathways to timely graduation, becoming a leader in career preparation, creating a flourishing community, and accelerating the University’s impact on the world. With respect to the last goal, the UO has identified four areas of signature scholarship: Environmental Resilience, Youth Behavioral and Mental Health, Human Performance and Sport, and Accelerating Innovation and Scientific Impact. In 2026, the University will celebrate its sesquicentennial and launch the public phase of a capital campaign. With the strategic plan, a campaign on the horizon, a highly successful first year in the Big Ten, the UO has significant momentum to even better serve its students and their families, the state and region, our people, and make an even more profound impact on the world.

The UO serves as a key economic driver for the state, with an estimated $2.6 billion annual economic return to Oregon. The main campus spreads over 295 acres and serves as an arboretum and a tree identification classroom. The total university budget is over $1.6 billion for operations, with an additional $195 million of capital investment completed last fiscal year. Its University Athletics Division 1 program is world-class and boasts outstanding football and basketball programs as well as NCAA championship programs in track and field, volleyball, golf, and cross-country.

The University’s main campus is located in the Willamette Valley, with easy access to snow-capped Cascade mountains and scenic coastlines. The area enjoys a mild climate. Nicknamed “TrackTown USA,” Eugene is a green-friendly university city that is home to numerous running, biking, and hiking trails, farmer’s markets, and thriving restaurants. Eugene, and UO, have recently hosted the NCAA Track Championships and the U.S. Olympic Trials for track and field. While retaining the feel of a modest-sized town, it has the amenities and economic energy that flow from a lively arts community, a university town and a combined population of over 230,000 residents between Eugene and the neighboring city of Springfield. The UO has a campus in Portland, including a $60M investment in a new campus location in Northeast Portland housing its executive MBA, law, strategic communications, product design and the University’s signature Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health.

Division of Enrollment Management

The Division of Enrollment Management advances the University of Oregon's tradition of excellence by recruiting, enrolling, retaining, and graduating high-achieving scholars from Oregon, across the country, and around the world. We work to support prospective students, current students, and their families through each phase of the enrollment process: the college search, admission, orientation, registration, financial aid, matriculation, and onward to graduation.

Enrollment Management at UO has a history of innovation and a recent history of breaking records. In the last three years, we have enrolled the largest classes in the history of the university. We have enrolled the most Oregonians to date, as well as the most diverse classes in our history. For fall 2024, the first-year enrollment was 5,103 with an average GPA of 3.73 and 41% of the class identified as domestic minority students. Among the Oregonian students, 1 in 4 are PathwayOregon recipients, a program that covers the cost of tuition and fees for Pell-eligible students.

The division does impressive work in housing, transforming the east side of campus with three new residence halls and a new dining facility. Within that space is also a new state-of-the-art Welcome Center. Within financial aid and scholarships, we created an award-winning Financial Wellness Center and have greatly expanded scholarship opportunities.

Enrollment Management at UO is comprised of approximately 1,500 employees within the offices of Admissions, Financial Aid and Scholarships, Registrar, Strategic Communications, Housing and Dining, Student Orientation Programs, and a central office that includes Budget Management and Research and Assessment. 

Position

Reporting to the President, the Vice President for Enrollment Management serves as the chief enrollment management officer for the University of Oregon. The vice president is responsible for undergraduate enrollment and plays a pivotal role in recruiting, supporting and retaining the university’s student body, helping ensure their success from recruitment through to graduation. The vice president is expected to lead strategic enrollment management utilizing integrated approaches across the division and extending into collaborations across campus, working together with a central strategy to support the mission of the university.

The vice president is a key figure in helping the university attract and retain a dynamic, diverse and academically talented student body. The vice president:

• Provides strong, institutional vision and serves as a strategic expert to university leadership in matters relating to student recruitment, admission, enrollment, retention and graduation;
• Works with colleagues to implement strategies to support inclusion, close equity gaps, increase overall academic excellence, support student success, belonging and retention, and drive enrollment growth in support of the university’s strategic plan and long-term health;
• Creates and implements innovative, division-wide and university-wide strategies for enrollment within an increasingly competitive landscape;
• Supports and makes data- and human-driven decisions; and
• Collaborates effectively with the deans of the university’s academic colleges and the Robert D. Clark Honors College as well as with the provost, vice presidents, and vice provosts to develop and implement enrollment strategies and share insights and data.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Enrollment Leadership: Lead efforts to grow enrollment of a diverse and academically talented student body. Use cross-functional unit approaches to cohesively enroll and retain students. Serve as an effective and compelling representative of the division and the university.
• Advisory Role: Advise university leadership on enrollment strategies and issues including presenting and contextualizing data and trends to others. 
• Partner: Work collaboratively with other members of the president’s leadership team and colleagues across campus to share insights, enhance the university’s work toward its mission and goals, resolve issues, and reduce barriers to success.
• Budget and Personnel Management: Directly supervise six associate vice presidents. Ensure a positive and collaborative team culture that values diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Provide effective oversight of budgets and staff within the division. Work closely with the senior vice president for finance and administration and others across campus to ensure the highest levels of financial stewardship. May also participate in development efforts to identify and raise new funds in support of facilities, new programming, experiential learning opportunities, scholarships and internships.
• Data-Driven Decisions, Effective Technology and Policy Implementation: Utilize enrollment data to inform strategic decisions including closing equity gaps. Ensure that policies for the division, including those specific to financial aid, are competitive, equitable and compliant with regulations and university policies. Provide vision for using technology to improve the student experience and ensure responsive and effective work across the division.
• Student Service: Enhance the student experience through effective orientation and the provision of a safe and positive residential experience (e.g., in Housing and Dining), by ensuring that procedures and processes in all Enrollment Management units are designed and executed in alignment with the university’s goals for student success, and by supporting and partnering successfully with colleagues in academic programs and student services outside of Enrollment Management.

Qualifications

The Search Committee encourages those who have demonstrated a strong record of the professional competencies outlined above to apply to be the next Vice President of Enrollment Management at the University of Oregon.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's degree from accredited institution.
• Extensive senior-level experience in enrollment management or closely related experience.
• Proven record of substantial enrollment leadership and responsibility in higher education.
• Experience with budgeting, financial controls and fiscal accountability.
• A history of decisive and innovative leadership, including current-state enrollment practices, effective management of staff, and financial and physical resources oriented toward an organization's goals.

 Preferred Qualifications:

• Seven or more years of senior-level experience in enrollment management, with a track record of successful recruitment strategies that align with organization’s mission, culture, and strategic and aspirational goals.

Professional Competencies:

• Proven ability to deploy successful and inclusive recruitment strategies in highly competitive markets.
• In-depth understanding of contemporary methods, data and technology used in strategic enrollment management.
• Evidence of success in executing long-term vision and strategic goals through engaging and collaborating with key stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to interact with political and social structures both internal and external to a complex institution.
• Expertise in developing and articulating a vision that brings together and mobilizes diverse perspectives, people and programs.
• Comfortability and experience with effectively communicating and presenting to various stakeholder groups such as boards, families, colleagues, and staff members.
• Strong and established commitment to close equity gaps in the university’s student body throughout the enrollment process.
• Capacity to work with numerous constituencies including students, faculty, senior administrators and staff to meet critical business objectives in a large organization.

Search Team and Application Process

The Search Committee invites nominations, applications (a letter of interest, full curriculum vitae or resume, a diversity statement, and the names and contact information of five or more references) or expressions of interest to be forwarded to the search firm assisting the University of Oregon (electronic submissions preferred). Confidential review of materials will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. It is preferred that all nominations and applications be submitted to the search firm by Friday, January 24th, 2025.

Laurie C. Wilder, President
Porsha L. Williams, Vice President
Jacob C. Anderson, Senior Principal
Jack McGrew, Associate
Parker Executive Search
Five Concourse Parkway, Suite 2875
Atlanta, GA 30328
Phone: (678) 775-4564
lwilder@parkersearch.com || pwilliams@parkersearch.com || janderson@parkersearch.com || jmcgrew@parkersearch.com

An equal-opportunity, affirmative-action institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.