Steven B. Sample President of USC
C. L. Max Nikias Provost & Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Jerry Lucido Executive Director and Vice Provost of Enrollment Policy and Management
I would like to welcome you to the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice. Over the last four decades as a university professor and leader, I have witnessed dramatic transformations in the landscape of higher education. It can be difficult to plot a course through this rapidly shifting terrain owing to the diffusion and complexity of information, trends, and resources.
We at the University of Southern California realized that there was a need for a central hub for the field of enrollment management. Our awareness of the need induced us to create a new center – unprecedented in its focus and scope – to inform, educate, and explore issues in the field, and to connect education leaders from around the nation and the world. The center’s mission is to be a place where you can learn from some of this country’s most respected scholars and practitioners, where together people can explore the wide range of issues and concerns surrounding admissions, financial aid, access, and college preparation. We intend for the center to be a nexus of knowledge that will equip you to navigate this changing field.
I hope that the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice will be a valuable resource and forum for you.
Steven B. Sample
President
University of Southern California
The USC academic community is pleased to launch the Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice.
The mission of this center could not be more relevant or timely. A university campus is, in our day, far more than a collection of classrooms and laboratories held together by ivy and landscaping. Today, a university campus houses nothing less than the full range of our society’s ambitions and aspirations.
Our society expects our universities to be fountains of new ideas; curators of timeless truths; engines of economic progress; and crucibles in which to refine new generations of leaders. Meanwhile, parents and their progeny see universities as gateways to inclusion within the grand American adventure—and, increasingly, a grand global adventure.
What manner of enrollment policies best serve individual students and society as a whole? What blend of talents and backgrounds allows for the best possible educational experience? In the competitive marketplace of college and university admissions, what are our institutions’ overriding responsibilities to the communities in which they reside? These questions must be addressed vigorously and answered in meaningful ways, if colleges and universities of the United States are to serve our constituencies to the fullest of our ability. I am pleased that the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice will make a valuable contribution to this effort.
C. L. Max Nikias
Provost & Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
University of Southern California
Today in America, a laser-like light is focused on the point of college access. National and state policymakers, college and university leaders, public education officials, national and local media, and parents and students alike view the college admission process as a gateway to future prosperity, health, security, and satisfaction. Why is the admissions office door the focus of all these hopes and dreams? What barriers exist within admissions processes that continue to separate many Americans from the opportunities and benefits of higher education? And, what can be done from an enrollment management standpoint to improve college access and facilitate success by way of persistence and graduation?
The new Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice (CERPP) at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles is a prism that propels the light focused on enrollment issues through the critical perspectives of social science researchers, policymakers, business leaders, and college practitioners. In essence, the center brings together individuals and groups with a vested interest in promoting access and student success to inform and enhance knowledge of the enrollment management profession and facilitate practices that serve to better meet the needs of students, institutions, and society as a whole.
Without question, the capacity for USC’s Center for Enrollment Research, Policy, and Practice to effectively serve students, institutions, and greater society depends upon a dynamic interplay between scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. I hope you will actively participate in forums, research projects, and professional development opportunities sponsored by the center as we engage in a collective effort to ensure the benefits of higher education are accessible and utilized to the very fullest.
Most sincerely,
Jerome A. Lucido
Executive Director and Vice Provost for Enrollment Policy and Management
University of Southern California