Damon Wade looks ahead to Fall 2021

During an interactive conversation with key members of the New College Foundation and the New College Alumni Association last Wednesday, Damon Wade, Ph.D. laid out his Fall 2021 goals for New College enrollment.

Since September, Wade has served as New College’s vice president for enrollment management, developing strategies to increase the student population and enhance New College’s overall visibility in the state. He and his team have spent months focusing on building and maintaining brand awareness, as well as engaging with current Novos, alumni and students at local high schools.

“What I heard a lot [from conversations with people in the community], unfortunately, was that folks really don’t know a lot about New College,” Wade said. “We’re in their backyard, and I think any institution of higher education should be an anchor of intellectual progress and prowess. We need to do a consistent job of building our brand, and really hone in on that value proposition to our community—to students in this local market as well as throughout Florida.”

To do this, “funnel optimization” is paramount, Wade explained. From the moment students express a desire to attend New College, Wade aims to make sure their interest is piqued and that they remain captivated. This all comes down to consistent communication.

“We want to optimize the funnel—those touchpoints throughout the enrollment cycle from August to start of term,” Wade said. “We want to communicate effectively why students should come to New College.”

Wade then posed questions such as, “How do we reach out to inquirers consistently? Do they hear from us via email? Do they hear from us via text? How are we communicating with them via social media, in terms of helping them make an informed decision as to why they should take a look at New College and make New College their home for the next four years?”

The objective is to swiftly take a prospective student from an applicant to an admitted student to a deposited student. But targeting ideal New College students is crucial, too.

“We’re trying to identify who will thrive at New College, honing in on that ‘right-fit’ student—getting in front of that student who we believe will thrive and stay at New College,” Wade said.

In terms of numbers, Wade said he hopes to increase enrollment for Fall 2021 to 730 students.

“That will stabilize enrollment decline, which has been at about 22 percent over the past three years,” Wade said. “If we increase enrollment by 250 (freshman and transfer students), that would be a significant increase over Fall 2020 enrollment.”

Currently, New College’s inquiry pool is expanding, Wade said. Applications are up by 36 percent, and fully completed applications (with all items submitted) are up by about 15 percent.

“Nationally, college applications are down. Most of the Florida schools for Fall 2021 are either up slightly, on par with what they achieved last year, or down slightly,” Wade said. “So, I think, right now, we’re looking pretty good.”

And giving students the incentive to enroll at New College by offering them extensive financial aid packages is part of the recruitment and retention process (via initiatives like the guaranteed admission program that was rolled out this fall).

“We have a financial aid package that tries to target high-performing, high-need students. We want to attract those students and increase our engagement with area high schools,” Wade said. “We want to build a relationship with those high performers, and expand our relationship with the high school counselors and principals, to let them know we’re here for their students. I think a lot of that work had not been done over the last five or 10 years.”

Wade is also bringing ideas from his previous work (as associate dean for student services and enrollment management at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Continuing and Professional Studies) to the New College landscape.

In December, he helped launch Faculty Fridays at New College, which will run until May. These events consist of faculty-led webinars that focus on individual Areas of Concentration (AOCs), pairing faculty members up with prospective students or applicants.

Programs like these brought Wade excellent results at other institutions. During his three years at UVA, for example, he oversaw a 124 percent increase in student enrollment. Before that, as vice president for institutional effectiveness and enrollment management at Grambling State University, Wade increased the freshman-to-sophomore retention rate from 68 percent to 75 percent (and more than doubled the size of the freshman class). Grambling experienced a 128 percent increase in first-year students over a three-year period.

Wade also served as the director of institutional effectiveness, research and assessment at Elizabeth City State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He holds a master’s degree in Urban Affairs from Norfolk State University, as well as a master of public administration degree and a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Administration from Walden University.

At New College, Wade has an “open-door policy” for engaging with students, staff and faculty. He looks forward to helping the College grow and thrive in Fall 2021 and beyond.

Abby Weingarten is the senior editor in the Office of Communications & Marketing.