Dr. Alicia B. Harvey-Smith is a seasoned leader with a rare talent; she knows how to navigate through the potholes of institutional pastures, and she also has a gift for capturing her journey in writing. In this book she anchors her vision for change in her astute observation that ‘In essence, everything that we do, and how we do it, must be reconsidered.’ This is not just a book about re-engineering enrollment management. This is a book about how to achieve institution-wide student and institutional success with changes in policy, programs, practice, and personnel. For those colleges and those leaders who have suffered from this pandemic, this book is an antidote that provides a prescription for recovery.

Dr. Alicia B. Harvey-Smith is a seasoned leader with a rare talent; she knows how to navigate through the potholes of institutional pastures, and she also has a gift for capturing her journey in writing. In this book she anchors her vision for change in her astute observation that ‘In essence, everything that we do, and how we do it, must be reconsidered.’ This is not just a book about re-engineering enrollment management. This is a book about how to achieve institution-wide student and institutional success with changes in policy, programs, practice, and personnel. For those colleges and those leaders who have suffered from this pandemic, this book is an antidote that provides a prescription for recovery.

Today’s college leaders must be prepared to address an increasing number of challenges to the viability of their institutions. One of the most consequential is enrollment planning in the face of a projected drop in college-age students and fluctuations in enrollment caused by economic cycles or unexpected crises such as a pandemic. In this publication, Dr. Alicia B. Harvey-Smith provides needed practical advice for leaders to address this existential threat and to strengthen their institutions.

Dr. Harvey-Smith provides a clarion call noting that the long-known rules of the game have changed and community-college-as-usual will lead to sub-optimum outcomes or worse. She suggests a practical and collaborative approach to business model redesign, a reduction in student-customer suffering, tactical uses of online instructional and related technologies, targeted and enriched student outcomes, and an improved and inclusive student demographic mix through a restructured strategic enrollment methodology.

The pandemic has, in some ways, forced all post-secondary institutions to quickly and creatively re-imagine how they will attract, retain, and graduate current and future students. This book prepares those institutions who strive to be innovative and entrepreneurial a road map on how to re-imagine strategic enrollment management and remain competitive and sustainable. In this ever-changing landscape of teaching and life-long learning, Dr. Alicia Harvey-Smith’s book, Higher Education on the Brink: Re-imagining Strategic Enrollment Management in Colleges and Universities, will help guide internal discussions and establish priorities that will maximize student engagement and financial sustainability.

The steep increase in the number of adults who might question the very value of a college degree, along with the steady uptick in the American entrepreneurial spirit, is forcing higher education to invest more in career assessment, life and career coaching, and career pathways. This is a necessary morphing of enrollment management. Simultaneously, societal cries for diversity, equity, and inclusion, with an ironic assist from COVID-19, further exposed disparities faced by low-income students, in part resulting from the digital divide and other access barriers. Higher Education on the Brink: Re-imagining Strategic Enrollment Management in Colleges and Universities, tackles the hard questions and provides best-in-class solutions for critics and innovators alike. Will colleges survive the pandemic? Yes! Will the students return? Yes! But only if we get it right.

Historically, college and university leaders have worked hard to meet the needs of students and the communities in which they reside. In these settings, leaders take pride in sharing how their faculty provide a personal touch in the classroom, given the small class sizes that afford special attention to individual students. On the other hand, these leaders face difficult challenges with increased student needs, achievement gaps, and retention of first-generation students.

To provide increased support for students, colleges and universities have ramped up evidence-based reforms. In order to make sustainable change in higher education, the culture warrants inclusion of multiple voices in the development of the strategic priorities and goals, which has historically been time consuming, yet valuable. Fast forward to March of 2020 and, in a blink of an eye, given a global pandemic, our culture had to change, and change quickly. We needed to ramp up and continue to draw upon our capacity to utilize data and evidence to make some of the most difficult decisions of our careers in order to protect the safety, health, and well-being of students, faculty, and staff.

Higher Education on the Brink: Re-imagining Strategic Enrollment Management in Colleges and Universities, by Alicia B. Harvey-Smith, Ph.D., provides a lens into the impact of the pandemic and how leaders must embrace positive and lasting change in higher education. This book offers an opportunity to reflect and consider the evidence-based strategies that will be required to support student enrollment, retention, persistence, and success. Finally, the author provides the space for leaders to consider the culture of higher education and how to engage both internal and external stakeholders, in new ways, to support necessary change and institutional sustainability—both critical factors for a successful future.

With no playbook to guide us, planning and responding to COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 challenges at hand are serious, complex issues that affect us all. A book that offers new innovations and ideas to re-imaging strategic enrollment management is a resource that many institutions of higher learning would appreciate. This book offers strategic steps and strategies to address complex issues colleges face and provides guidance to develop new enrollment management plans to attract and retain students.

Emergent enrollment declines, the pandemic, and resulting disruptions are challenging leaders. This down-to-earth, practical book suggests a variety of ways to meet Strategic Enrollment Management and other challenges, where ideas rely on shared responsibility, “significant cultural changes,” strategic approaches, and what the author describes as a “village approach.” Acknowledging the need to diversify revenue streams, Alicia B. Harvey-Smith also reflects a strong component of caring as colleges seek ways to assure access for those from the lowest-income groups and success for all who enroll.

Don’t let a crisis pass without recognizing possibilities’ is something I stressed when I taught crisis management to my public relations students. COVID-19 is a once-in-a-century crisis. The tragedy and heartache of this pandemic for many will never go away. But through the difficulties, COVID-19 forced a new way of thinking—and new paradigms emerged. Dr. Harvey-Smith introduces just that in a field of higher education accustomed to moving at a glacial pace. And with the current state of higher education, her work is very much needed.

In Higher Education on the Brink: Re-imagining Strategic Enrollment Management in Colleges and Universities, Harvey-Smith shows why great leadership is the key to organizational success. Known as one of the nation’s foremost authorities on change in higher education, Harvey-Smith provides solutions to current and future threats facing colleges and universities with a comprehensive examination of the many challenges that are fundamentally altering the nation’s higher education landscape. In the process, she presents a strategic framework for leaders to follow to ensure their institutions have adequate resources and provide quality outcomes for students. This book should be required reading for anyone concerned about addressing the challenges facing higher education during these times of unprecedented uncertainty.

The devastation of the coronavirus pandemic has necessitated innovative changes to the work required to best serve our students and strengthen our institutions. It is crucial to remember the broader socio-economic issues highlighted by the crisis as we seek to reinvent higher education. This book’s thought-provoking strategies and wisdom about approaching a post-pandemic academic world makes it a must-read for leaders in higher education.

Alicia B. Harvey-Smith, Ph.D., is a passionate, innovative, learning-centered educator with more than 25 years of experience in executive leadership, instruction, training, development, and consulting. The President/CEO of Pittsburgh Technical College, Dr. Harvey-Smith is a visionary with a successful track record of blending knowledge, experience, and entrepreneurial thinking to achieve transformative outcomes in colleges and universities.