Strategic Enrollment Plan implementation underway

In spring 2025, Central Michigan University began to work on the development of a Strategic Enrollment Management Plan to address the nationwide enrollment challenges facing colleges and universities. 

Now, after months of work involving dozens of CMU teams, plan implementation is underway, said Jennifer DeHaemers, vice president for Student Recruitment and Retention.

“This is an exciting time for CMU and the SEM plan, which will be implemented over the next five years to help us grow enrollment to between 15,700 and 17,000 students,” DeHaemers said.  

Recent highlights

Based on projections from CMU Academic Planning and Analysis, CMU’s enrollment could have plummeted to 12,000 students or fewer if nothing changed, DeHaemers said. 

“University leaders made the decision last fall to implement 11 high-impact initiatives and to continue to study three additional initiatives that could boost enrollment of new students and increase retention of current students,” DeHaemers said.

On January 15, 2026, CMU announced The Central Career Guarantee program, one of the initiatives in the plan. 

“The Central Career Guarantee is a response to the number one reason students and their families choose to pursue higher education: better job prospects,” DeHaemers said. “This is a major differentiator for CMU – a stake in the ground that proudly declares that what we do works for our students and graduates.”

Dave Patton, senior vice provost for academic affairs, said The Central Career Guarantee is also based on research about what works in student success efforts.

“Research and our own data tell us that students who are meeting regularly with academic advisors, success coaches and career development personnel, and who are engaging in curricular and co-curricular opportunities, are more successful in their pursuits while in college and after,” Patton said.

Big efforts underway

While The Central Career Guarantee was one of the most visible steps on the SEM plan, other important work has also been underway in the past few months, DeHaemers said.

“Through a great deal of work on the part of the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid, the admissions Slate Customer Relationship Management team, and the Office of Information Technology, CMU was able to deliver a financial aid award letter to new Fall 2026 admitted freshman and transfer students on December 1, 2025,” DeHaemers said. “This made us the first public university in Michigan to get award letters in the hands of our newly admitted students for fall 2026.”

CMU also became a full member of the Detroit Promise Program, which provides eligible students with last-dollar scholarship funding so they can earn their college degree tuition-free. CMU now offers an unlimited number of scholarships to eligible students participating in the Detroit Promise, matching what they receive from Detroit Promise. This partnership will provide greater access to CMU to Detroit-area students who participate in the program, DeHaemers said. 

CMU will also extend its free application period from August to October, DeHaemers said.

“Historically, we waive application fees for undergraduate students during the month of October, and we offer application fee waivers throughout the year to students who qualify for free and reduced lunch programs,” DeHaemers said. “Now, we will offer the application waiver from August to October, making that benefit available to more students for a longer period of time.” 

The revenue from application fees typically helps to cover the cost of processing the applications and other recruiting activities, but after a thorough financial analysis, DeHaemers said CMU leaders decided to extend the free application period.

“Making that benefit available to more students for a longer period of time may help students and their families manage the cost of applying to college and encourage them to consider CMU,” she said.

In addition, CMU is exploring options to reserve sections of online courses specifically for students who are fully online, DeHaemers said. She said the university expects to offer that option via the course search and registration system by the time enrollment for summer and fall 2026 and spring 2027 courses go live.

Plans in progress

DeHaemers said there is also work underway to market specific degree programs; develop new online degree programs at the undergraduate level; identify and address slow processes; and implement new initiatives to strengthen recruitment and retention efforts.

“With these efforts, we know we will make a positive impact on CMU and the community,” DeHaemers said. “In the coming weeks, there will be opportunities for more faculty and staff to get involved in this important work through working groups, teams and committees.”

SEM plan origins

CMU began its work on the SEM plan with an external consulting group in March of 2025. Following numerous listening sessions with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, CMU adopted a SEM plan with four key strategic priorities:

Faculty, staff, and students served on work groups tied to each of the four priorities and developed a list of 33 high impact initiatives to drive progress in enrollment and retention efforts. 

The University Transformation Office is also working with the project sponsors to ensure effective implementation of the SEM Plan, DeHaemers said.