That’s My Job: Office of Enrollment Management

Published on Monday, November 18, 2024

By: Gary Pettus, gpettus@umc.edu

Photos By: Melanie Thortis/ UMMC Communications

If you’ve ever made a phone call or sent an email that sounded like this … :

• “Help. I’ve got to register for classes by midnight or I’ll miss my deadline.” … or …
• “I’ve lost my diploma – please send a copy right away.” … or …
• “I need my college transcripts or I won’t get this job.”

… then you’re familiar with the work and mettle of the nine-person staff in the Office of Enrollment Management at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Most of its work, however, is what many here at UMMC might call “non-emergent”: hysteria-free, but vital, record-keeping/reporting that may be underappreciated – until a crisis of enrollment or employment does emerge.

“Everything starts with us and ends with us; academically, it comes full circle,” said Dr. Emily Cole, executive director of the Office of Enrollment Management.

“We’re with students during the admissions process. We’re with them, ensuring that they get credit for all courses completed and that this is on their transcripts.

“We’re with them when they graduate. We’re with them once they enter their careers, whenever they have to be re-credentialed. If they sit for licensure, we assist with that.

“We are with a student’s entire life cycle.”

When Cole says “entire,” she means it. A couple of years ago, a School of Medicine alumnus pursuing a new job requested a transcript and other information. Those documents were first logged during the Eisenhower administration, back when Spam was just meat in a can.

The Medical Center was very young then – 1955 being its birth year. Since then, nearly seven decades of student transcripts and other records have piled up, and the OEM has them all – now in a digital format, thanks to a conversion representative of one of the most profound changes undertaken in recent years by this behind-the-scenes group.

To put it in terms fans of the TV series, “The Office,” might appreciate: The Office of Enrollment Management is no Dunder Mifflin, the fictional firm with the slogan “limitless paper in a paperless world.”

“We want a paperless office,” said Cole, who holds a Doctor of Health Administration degree, “and this is what we’ve worked on for the past five years. Moving everything online has been the biggest change in this office.”

The move began in 2019, the year Cole succeeded former registrar, Barbara Westerfield. Because of this transformation, even diplomas are now being “awarded” online.

Starting with this year’s August ceremony, graduates at UMMC received these digitized documents. It will happen again in December. “Of course, the big one will be in May,” said Dr. Natalie Gaughf, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, whose office oversees the OEM.

The virtual diplomas are provided through Parchment, a “credential management company.”

“This speeds up the process for the student, who will be able to maintain the diploma for themselves and, if they want, post it on social media,” Gaughf said. “It’s more efficient for the student and this office.”

As usual, during commencement, graduates are handed a diploma-less diploma cover. But they no longer line up afterward in the Mississippi Trade Mart to collect their paper testimonials. Instead, they receive a digitized version that day. About five to 10 days later, their traditional paper diploma will arrive in the mail from Parchment.

More changes are coming, including the adoption of Coursedog, an online platform that will make it easier to manage and update each campus school’s course catalog: the roster of classes, policies, leadership lists and so forth – otherwise known as the Bulletin.

“Transferring the Bulletin to Coursedog will allow a school to post changes more easily and ensure accuracy more readily,” Gaughf said. “And, because it’s designed to be used on smartphones and laptops, it’s easier for students too.”

The Coursedog switch, scheduled to go live in February, will “cut down significantly on human error,” Cole said. It is part of the OEM’s paperless project which “will allow us to function like a modern academic center.”

Such efforts are in “competent and hardworking” hands, said Dr. Scott Rodgers, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.

“Emily Cole provides outstanding leadership for our Office of Enrollment Management, a group that deserves our gratitude and deepest appreciation for their commitment to our students and our schools,” Rodgers said.

“These folks are indispensable to UMMC’s mission.”

The task of gathering, and safeguarding the accuracy of, a relentless cascade of numbers and statistics comprising a person’s academic life and reputation must be done well, Gaughf said. “And enrollment management has always done it very well, and they’re quick. It’s amazing how organized the office is.

“There really is no downtime for them.”

That’s because the OEM manages six different campus schools in one system, with each school adopting its own policies, calendars, deadlines, standards and more.

The type of person suited to collecting, processing and babysitting thousands and thousands of monumentally important permanent records is, Cole said, service- and detail-oriented; someone able to handle stress, especially at graduation and whenever application deadlines loom; someone able to work independently, multi-task and think through a process. A “go-getter.”

“I have a really good, sharp staff,” Cole said. “They enjoy working together and spending time together outside the office. I think they’re fantastic. We’re all committed here. People depend on us.”

Not least of all, Dr. Driscoll DeVaul. “They are my go-to people,” said DeVaul, assistant dean of academic affairs in the School of Health Related Professions.

“From admissions to enrollment to graduation, they do an amazing job of supporting us in the best way. Whatever we ask them to do, they are always forthcoming. Among other things, that means helping us make sure we’re following the guidelines of the different accrediting bodies.

“Led by Dr. Emily Cole, they get us where we need to be. I could brag on that group all day.”

Office of Enrollment Management

• Emily Cole, executive director
• Lauren Nichols, director of enrollment services
• Brittney Anthony, associate director of enrollment services
• Tameshia Bankhead, enrollment data specialist
• Candice Brent, enrollment data specialist
• Nicole Connolly, senior enrollment data specialist
• Nikki Hubbard, enrollment data specialist
• Nicole Nichols, enrollment data specialist
• Mary Bess Skinner, enrollment data specialist