Why the SEM Conference Matters: A Conversation with Jack Miner

In this episode of Admit It!, host Alex Fronduto sits down with Jack Miner, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at the University of Cincinnati and Director of the AACRAO Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Conference. Together, they discuss the upcoming 35th Annual AACRAO SEM Conference, taking place November 9–12, 2025, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Jack shares insights into what makes SEM such a cornerstone event for enrollment professionals, highlights this year’s key themes and sessions, and offers valuable perspective on why attending the conference can be transformative for individuals and institutions alike. Whether you’re new to the SEM community or a returning attendee, this episode offers a glimpse into the collaboration and innovation that define the field of strategic enrollment management.

Host:

Dr. Alex Fronduto
Faculty Lead, M.Ed in Higher Education Administration & Associate Teaching Professor
Northeastern University

Guest:

Jack Miner, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management, University of Cincinnati
AACRAO SEM Conference Director

Transcript

0:09

Welcome to the Acro Admitted podcast where we dive into the people, ideas, and strategies shaping the future of enrollment management. I'm your host, Alex Ferduo, and today we're talking about one of the most anticipated events in our field, the Acro Strategic Enrollment Management Conference. Now in its thirty-fifth year, the SEM Conference brings together professionals from across the country to share insights, research, and best practices that drive student success and institutional growth. Joining me today is Jack Minor, the vice provost for enrollment management at the University of Cincinnati, and he's also the director of this ACRSEM conference. We'll talk about what makes this conference so special, what attendees can expect this year in Las Vegas, and why it remains such an important space for collaboration and innovation in our field. I hope you enjoy. Hello and welcome everyone to the Admitted podcast. This is your host, Alex Faruto, and I have the pleasure to be joined by Jack Miner, who's the vice provost for enrollment management at the University of Cincinnati. He is also the Acro SEM conference director and is going to talk about today, a lot about the SEM conference. Thanks so much, Jack, for being here. Well, thanks for having me, Alex. Good to see you. Good to see you too. So, we know coming up in November is the thirty-fifth annual AcroEM conference, and we know that people may be well aware of this conference, others may know nothing about it. So I hope in our conversation today, we can really give insights to kind of the beginner experiencing the SEM conference or those that may already be registered and wanna know a little bit more, a nice teaser, maybe increase people wanting to join us in Las Vegas. So, again, welcome. I would love for you first to obviously give a quick introduction to yourself, um, your professional work, and kind of how long you've been working on the SEM conference. Yeah, so, um, great to, great to be here. Great to talk more about this. So I actually, and a lot of people probably know this, have a really long cro history. Um, so served a number of years on program committee and a number and chaired a number of PAACs, um, was, uh, the program chair for the, the Phoenix conference a number of years ago, served as vice president. President of finance for the board of directors and then served as president of ACR a number of years ago. And then after my time with the board was done, I was kind of, you know, I, I was, uh, an ACR president pretty early on in my career and so I had a lot of, a lot of work time ahead of me. And so I continue to be engaged in the organization. And the SEM conference was a good fit. And so, I spent about 30 years at Ohio State University, um, and then about 6 or 7 years ago, um, came to University of Cincinnati, and, um, I think people know a lot about us because we've kind of gotten a lot of headlines the last few years, but, um, we have been growing significantly. So when I came in, Um, our goal was to grow from 42,000 to 60,000 students, um, by, uh, uh, 2030. Um, we've grown 10,000 students just in my time there, so we're well on our way. Um, we're about 54. 1000 students this year, so we're kind of closing in on that 60,000 number. So it's been really good. It's, it's, and we honestly have the same challenge as everybody else does, and I think that's what the, the SEM conference is all about, is really letting um enrollment leaders at different levels really try to learn from each other and think about how do we solve the problems that we have on our own institutions. So. Well, first two things, uh, as everyone knows and you just said, you've been around for ACR for some time. So first, thank you for all you've done with ACR. That's important as well to give back, to be doing all of this for the new world of enrollment leaders. And then second, uh, in terms of the SEM conference, like you were mentioning, you were talking a little bit about what someone could expect. So if someone knows nothing about the SEM conference, first, what makes it different than other conferences? Maybe size, maybe what are the session types, and you said all levels. I know sometimes people are thinking that maybe this is only for upper level, you know, executive level types of enrollment leaders. So clarifying that could also be helpful. Yeah, it's interesting, because I do feel like um with the SEM conference, we have a little bit of a demographic that comes to SEM versus annual meeting or some of the other um conferences or meetings the Acro puts together. But you do end up with a really great mixture. Uh, one of the things that we've tried to do with SEM is put together a range of information, where annual meeting may be really trying to train a lot of new people in the field. One of the things that SIM is really trying to dig into is giving folks who've been in the profession for a while, or People who are advancing or looking to advance in the profession, a lot of opportunity to learn more and to really dig in more and have more discussions. One of the things that I think you'll see a lot more of at SEM and some of the other conferences is research-based presentations, and a lot more um discussion. And panel presentation. So it really does try to create more of a dialogue among the uh participants. And then again, going back to who attends, we do have a lot more senior leadership at this, at this conference. One of the things that is a phenomenal model for SEM is schools can do a SEM team. Um, and one of the great things about a SEM team is a VP for enrollment can bring their entire leadership team. In some cases, they also bring their VP for finance. They, um, some universities actually bring their university president, and that group will come as a unit, um, kind of divide and conquer when they go to sessions, but we also can assign them an acro consultant. That works with them on finding the sessions that best get out of the conference, what they're looking for, but it also gives them a head start on a strategic plan and on a strategic enrollment plan. So it's a really unique opportunity that isn't available at other conferences either in Acro or even in the. Kind of private vendor world. And then for people that are newer um in within enrollment management, and especially people that are looking to advance, you know, there's a lot of it, a lot of who we get at SEM are registrars, directors of financial aid, uh, directors of admission, who are Really using this as a continuing education opportunity for themselves to not just get make them better at the role they're in now, but to really set them up for what that next role will be for them. So essentially it becomes a training ground and a networking opportunity for future enrollment managers. I love that. So you're kind of basing it off two pieces, right? One being the idea of the knowledge that they're going to get, but you're also talking a little bit about the network they're going to get, whether it's helping them in their current position, or if they're going to go, you know, expand their reach, move up, etc. And so talk to me about the size, cause I think that that's really important for people to understand, you know, especially if they've been to like the cro annual or some other big conference, you know, what is the sizescape? Yeah, so, so that's one of the other great things about this is this is about a 700 to 900 person conference, usually, depending on where we are. Um, and one of the nice things about it is we're very self-contained within the facility. So again, thinking about an acro annual meeting. One of the things that is, uh, a reality of that, but also takes away from it a little bit is everybody's spread out in different hotels, you're going from the hotel to the convention center, um, you're not necessarily networking as much or you're Network, networking with very specific people. One of the nice things about SIM is it's very structural around creating those opportunities. So one, we're all in the same hotel this year, we're at the Horseshoe. Um, so within the same hotel, all of the conference spaces are in the same hotel. But one of the other differences is We actually are doing meals this year. For the participants. So, some of the, our Tuesday session is a plenary that will be um featuring athletic directors from across the country. Um, and that is actually going to be a lunch presentation. So, it, uh, and, and, um, actually, I take that back. That is, um, I think our lunch session is going to be on Um, affordability. So it's going to be again an opportunity you're meeting with other people, you're getting an opportunity to network, you're getting an opportunity to learn, but it's also a really great opportunity to meet people from other schools to really think about what are the things that you want to learn at the conference. And I think everyone knows that networking, especially around meals like breaking bread, so to speak, is just sometimes that informal networking, again, even just getting knowledge, right? Sometimes there's less pressure to get that idea of, oh, what are you doing at your institution? And that kind of leads me to my next question. There's always this idea that people don't want to share their secrets in their book in terms of enrollment, right? Many other associations, and I'm not saying that we are not, but there's just this idea that like. People might be struggling or people are doing special things to meet their class. How do you feel that happens at the conference? Do you feel that people are just willing to share? You mentioned research presentations. That seems like that's showing data. So I'd love you to talk a little bit more about that because people are trying to look for this information, but can't always get it. Yeah, I would say that that SEM is actually one of the best conferences out there for really kind of opening up the books, opening up your practices, and really showing what you're doing. And I, I think a couple of examples of that. One of the things that is always foundational for SEM, and I would argue, for a lot of people, especially A lot of people that are attending SEM for the first time, the single takeaway that they are trying to check off their list to make sure they walk away with is how to create a strategic enrollment management plan. And so there's a number of sessions about that. There's actually a pre-conference workshop that walks you through that as well. But what's really great about that is, um, You're getting an opportunity to not just learn the nuts and bolts of how to do that. So what should be in the plan? How do you create relationships? But one of the other things that you get in every single one of those presentations is examples from the presenter and examples from other people in the room of what was magic about their plan. You know, I'll use myself as an example. You know, it is a very optimistic goal to go from 42,000 to 60,000. Not. And to actually be getting there, you know, to, to actually, you know, be making progress. So we are frequently in that scenario where we are, and, and I almost always do presentations at SEM and share very specific information about what we do. Um, and what our path has been. I think as, um, a lot of schools are struggling with enrollment and with enrollment growth, I think that becomes even more important. But one of the other things that I think SEM allows you to do. is we've also um curated some opportunities in STEM that creates a more diverse population of people attending the conference. So, for example, we do a pre-conference workshop and a pre-conference meeting for um tribal serving universities and indigenous serving universities. That has grown into also doing a theme of sessions through the conference on that topic. Uh, we've added a theme of sessions on historically black colleges and universities, and then we also get a larger percentage of attendance from community colleges than we'll traditionally get at annual meeting. So, Again, thinking about that scenario of being able to come in and, and walk away with, how do I create a strategic enrollment plan. But I've heard that from the perspective of an HBCU and I've heard that from a perspective of a community college, and a large research one, and a small private. But you're picking up the little hints from all of those schools, and people are sharing kind of tips and tricks that you may be the research one, but you end up learning something really amazing from the private school that you're the small private that you're able to put into action. So I think that's one of the things that's really unique about SEM is giving that broad opportunity. That's amazing. I love even like you said, the pre-conference opportunities in kind of running that theme thread through the conference as well, especially like you said, there's value to having people surrounding you that are in the same type of university or college versus obviously hearing a diverse amount of institutions and what they're doing, and it seems like you're trying to balance both of those, which I think is really amazing, um. And so we've talked a little bit about that value proposition. I think you really talked about what can you get from this conference. So I'm thinking about now specific sessions or maybe like you started to mention plenaries, like what are some specific things this year that you would say are really exciting for those maybe weighing whether or not they should go. Yeah, one of the things that that we're able to do with Sam a little bit more than than annual meeting. And some of the other meetings within ACR is because of the time of year, and, and, and it really is interesting how kind of magic that is, because we're doing the conference um in November, and everybody is just off of fall enrollment, you know, they're out, you know, for Road Warriors, you're out in the field right now, you know, so folks that are, are doing early decision deadlines, you know, it's a couple of days past your early decision deadline, you know, so it's kind of in the heat of a lot of things, but it also has a lot of information. So one of the nice things that we've been able to do with, with SIM every year is really change up the theme. So a few things this year that I will highlight. That are just really incredible. One is that National Student Clearinghouse's Research Center is actually releasing their annual report on fall enrollment at the SEM conference. So we will not only get a preview of the report, and again, that's a report that makes, makes the news nationally. It is. It is usually a headline on um network news and things like that, because it really does talk about where are we going as a society for education, and especially this year, if you think about everything that we've been facing politically, kind of all of the issues with immigration and international students, um, cuts in federal aid, changes to, um, DEI restrictions, all of those. Pieces culminating, you know, there's a lot of folks waiting, kind of with bated breath on what does this look like? Where did we land on enrollment this fall? So it's really exciting that that's gonna be, um, not only released during our conference, but we're also gonna dig into that. That's actually gonna be one of the, one of the highlighted sessions. Um, one of the other sessions that we're doing as a plenary is, um, really building on a partnership that Acro has. So, Um, building on a partnership to really think about what are the opportunities around, um, affordability. So again, I mentioned that concept of seeing a drop in federal aid. So we had partnered with Strata, um, to really do some in-depth research and thinking about what are the issues that we're seeing. Around affordability, how are different institutions addressing affordability? So that'll actually be one of our plenary sessions, and it'll be Justin Draeger from um Strata leading that, but it will also be a panel of practitioners. So, a panel of vice provosts from across the country, really talking about how are they working through that. I also mentioned that one of our other things that we try to do at SEM every year is a panel of folks from outside of enrollment management. So, um, we've done, um, CIOs one year, we've done, um, I think we did, uh, finance VPs at one point, we've done, um, university presidents a few years. This year, we're doing athletic directors, and that is very specific and very timely. Um, you know, many universities use their athletic program as one of the factors for their profile, one of the factors for their admissions, and In some ways, they use that as an attractor. So there's university, there's especially small schools out there where a very large portion of your undergraduate population are student athletes. And so we've brought in a group of athletic directors from across the country to really talk about what is that landscape, not only what is that landscape from From a recruitment standpoint, but what is that landscape under um name and image likeness? What is that um landscape look like under the ability to pay athletes? But when then one of the other things we're going to talk about there that really tries to focus on what is SEM and what is enrollment management. Everybody thinks of enrollment management, usually as admissions, admissions, and admissions, getting them in the door. One of the things that we always try to focus on is how do we retain those students? How do we make sure that we're providing Um, really great sessions that talk about that. And one of the, one of the lessons I think you're going to learn that I actually know, uh, a number of the athletic director panelists. And one of the things I think you're going to really learn is at a number of universities, you know how to retain students, because we're doing it with student athletes, you know, we We have great student athlete support services. We don't always scale that to the rest of our campus population and in some cases, we're doing that with high-risk students, and then, um, retaining them and graduating them at higher rates than our general student body. So again, we know what to do, we may just not be making the investment. Uh, kind of across the conference, some other ones that I'll call out, um, are really some things that are again, very timely. We have a workshop, and we have a number of sessions that are looking at the challenges related to international admissions and recruiting international students. Um, one of the sessions That I'm really looking forward to is a session that talks about how do you partner with private agents to be able to increase recruitment. And again, I think as many of us across the country are really seeing challenges um with international recruitment, we're really gonna have to think differently about how do we bring those students in. And then you mentioned earlier, that a lot of our sessions, because of who we are, because of the topics that we're in, um, deal a lot with data and deal a lot with research. Some of the ones that I would say are going to be most interesting or I'm most looking forward to are really around, um, Following students along their journey. There's actually a research session, um, that is on, that's talking about stealth students. So, it's essentially, who are those students that are looking at you as a university, that you don't even know are looking at you as a university, and that are popping up all of a sudden, and how do you get more information about them? And some really great data around that. So again, I think we've got a really great diversity. Of what the programs are. Um, and, um, and again, what we try to do is really have a little something for everybody kind of at different points in their career, but also from the different offices. When I started, um, going to STEM a number of years ago, so I've probably been going to STEM for, I don't know, 15 years or something like that. And, um, I was surprised, interestingly, the number of registrars that were going to SEM, for example. And I think we see that. Um, now, and, and some of the greatest sessions that we see, and actually some of the ones that are coming up this year are registrar sessions that are really focused on providing access and um providing, um, Opportunities for student success and for retention. So, there's a lot of pieces around looking at your course offerings, um, looking at your schedule blocks, looking about how you're rolling out the curriculum for an individual program, um, and how that can impact an individual. Student success. So again, one of the nice things is that opportunity to really um have schools dig into some um kind of individual um experiments that they've run, and to really show how it paid off for them. So I think that's really unique for the SEM conference. And all of that is just in a couple of days all compressed together exactly. So even though it's not like a huge annual, there's still so much value in offerings that, you know, depending if you're going to listen to the plenaries, doing the data presentations, just that informal networking. I feel like that alone should provide some value for people to want to be there and kind of just get involved as you've already alluded to. Strategic enrollment management is evolving rapidly, partly because of just the fields and partly because of what happens around us. Anything in the world today affects enrollment management, whether, like you said, it's in the news, whether it's the value conversation. How does someone get prepared for the future, right? It's really hard to look ahead because we're so in the now. I feel like we've been in the now every year, even prior to COVID, it's just always been like, oh, we can't use the last 5 years, or can we use the last 3 years? Can we use this? So like thinking about forward thinking, if someone's really like, I can't do things now, but I know I need to think about this in the future. Are there any sessions or any advice of why this conference would help those types of people? Yeah, a, a couple of things. So, so again, I mentioned earlier that there's a lot of magic to win our conferences. And interestingly enough, you know, sometimes that's great, sometimes that, that's not great. So, for example, um, last year, um, our conference, um, was during the general election. Um, so the Tuesday of the conference was the Tuesday of, of general election, and um, the editor of Inside Higher Ed and I were having a conversation Wednesday morning about election results that we didn't know at the time whether or not we were going to have. We had no idea what they were going to be. So we essentially were kind of, you know, having a freewheeling conversation. That was a real, it was very interesting at the time because, um, Interesting enough, he had predicted, oh, I don't think we'll see many changes in higher the impact higher education. And then so we always try to build something like that in. So one of the things we're doing this year, for example, is our opening speaker, um, is, um, Lynn Gutkin, and Lynn is also a journalist. Um, and what Lynn is going to talk about, so Lynn's Actually the senior editor at Chronicle of Higher Ed. And what Lynn's gonna do for us is really talk about, you know, based on what we've seen now and kind of reading the tea leaves a little bit, what do we anticipate the next 3 years of higher ed looking like? And what are the, what are the next things that someone's gonna throw at us as a challenge? And then we've got two other sessions that really talk about that as well. So we have um one of the folks from ACro's government relations team, that's going to do a session that is kind of like a catch-all. So it's everything that's going on, on it related to um higher education and politics kind of crammed into an hour. Um, and it's everything from, um, the changes that we're seeing related to, um, immigration policy, the changes we're seeing within the Department of Ed, um, some of the pushes we're seeing around accreditation and accreditation agencies, and he's going to really dig into all of that for us. And essentially, one of the things that I feel like is really tough for enrollment leaders right now. It is hard to keep up with the news. It, it is hard to kind of keep up with what are all the things that are affecting me because it's changing every day. And, you know, this group of 7 or 8 or 9 universities is being offered a compact. And do I need to be worried about offering that compact, that's being offered that compact at some point. So, one of the sessions we really dig into that. Another session, Um, is partnering with our, um, government relations team and then the similar government relations team from NASA, and they're going to dig into all of the pieces specifically around financial aid and affordability. Um, and again, we had those sessions because one, Um, it is so much information and so hard to digest when you're just getting it from news sources. And then it's also that piece of our government relations folks being able to have the inside, um, connection to be able to say, OK, um, the last couple of weeks, for example, the negotiated rulemaking teams have been meeting. Um, and normally, the negotiated rulemaking team is really a discussion and people are bringing different perspectives. And this year, it sounds like it's a lot of, here's option A and here's option B, let's take a vote on one or the other, and that's the entire discussion. So, again, a very different model, and it's important for us to know that. Because in the past, when something would get proposed from the Department of Education, we would usually see reaction from all of the higher ed agencies like ACR that would kind of work behind the scenes and take an idea and make it more practical or make it more student. Friendly or more functional. And now we're really not seeing as much opportunity to do that. So that's important for folks to know, because that's really changed the landscape for a lot of us that have been in the field for a long time of what we hear is the first option might really be what gets implemented and that's new for us. So. I mean, I will also make a plug just from the Acro leadership meeting when we listened to the government relations, just all of that broken down is just putting that as a highlight to other people that if you're going to SEM, that is super helpful because there is so much happening and also determining what you should act on and what you don't need to act on right now, like that's even part of the discussion, right? You see a headline that doesn't necessarily mean you need to do anything about it. And I feel that. People can't break through that. And so I think I really appreciate that forward thinking, even if it's not the next year, like this month, like what do you need to worry about, right? That's still forward thinking nowadays. And so, um, I'd like everyone else to know we didn't plan that question, but Jack was just, he was ready to answer it too. So I loved that. I think that really honed in on what people need, um. Switching gears a little bit. Oh, go ahead. I would also say I think one of the things that I would say is that also is a little bit of the magic of the SIM conference of again, it's that piece of Um, you do tend to, frankly, end up with a little bit more seasoned presenters there are a lot of times, and, and people that have kind of been in the industry a little bit more, and you will see a lot more pivoting on site, you know, so I, I know, again, I know a lot of the presenters, I've been around forever. I know the presenters really, really well. The behavior of the presenters at at annual meeting is people will load their session. 3 weeks, 4 weeks in advance, because they've written it, it's in the books, I'm good to go. At SEM, you have a lot of folks that are still working on their, their session on the plane to, to Las Vegas. So, so it is a very different feel because, again, it's an ever-changing conversation right now. And I think people being able to respond to that, and the content they deliver is really, really helpful. No, and I, I couldn't agree more. Like we said, it is changing every day. So why work on it today, right? We still have over a month. And so I completely agree. So as we kind of near our end, I kind of have two last questions. One is for you personally. What has been your greatest moment about the SEM conference? Like, how can that relate to others? If you're thinking like personally slash professionally, for you, what would it be? Yeah, for me, I, I think it has consistently been the networking. And, and it's interesting, you know, I had been obviously really involved with, with Acro. I've been going to Acro for 20 I don't even know. I mean, literally going to Acro longer than some of the people going to Acro have been born, you know, and so that is the reality I'm in. But it's been fun for me because as I've moved to SEM, um, I've actually got a chance to meet someone in network and get to know really well, so many people that we didn't necessarily know from, um, annual meeting. One of the other pieces that I would say that has been really benefit and again, to those relationships, one of the other relationships that has been really beneficial for me is, I've gotten to know So many of the vendors, um, and corporate partners so much better at SEM. And again, I think that has a lot to do with it's 700 people at the conference, it's 800 people at the conference versus 2 or 3000. And so again, it's a really good opportunity to make those connections. And it's um a much more relaxed feel, you know, so it's not as much. It, and there's, there's not as much, as many giveaways and things like that. It's really more of an opportunity where you can feel like you can go learn about something and not feel like you're really pressured to, to, um, to buy. And I think because of that, you really get to know those people as individuals a lot better too. And so, there's been cases where I may not have needed that. That vendor relationship, or I may not have needed that relationship with school X, Y, or Z now. But then two years from now, I remember, oh yeah, I think, you know, this school in Iowa was doing that back in, you know, 2019. I'm going to track them down and see what that idea was. So again, it's a really good relationship. And that just translates to enrollment management. Everyone thinks you have to do a direct sale, right? It's the long game in the relationship. So I feel, I love that connection. You just, you just connected it so well, um. So last but not least, people may want to learn more. They might want to just go and register because they were so excited everything you shared. Where would you tell them to go or what can their next step be? Yeah, absolutely. Um, go, go to the Acro website, you can Google. Acro SIM and it'll be the first thing that comes up. Um, registration is still open. We are at the Horseshoe, um, casino. And one of the other things I would say is, if you've ever been thinking about going to SEM, Vegas is not the worst place you could go to see your first time. Um, and I say that for a couple of reasons. So, Let me just run down some of the cool folks that are going to be there while we're there. You can, yeah, of course, you know, you can go see the, the tried and true Barry Manilow's and Wayne Newton's of the world, but you can also see Brandy, you can see the Eagles, you can see um Babyface, Kelly Clarkson, Kids on the Block, Heart. So literally, there are a variety of fun shows and things you can do while you're in Vegas. I will call out that um Vegas tends to be one of the cheaper options for folks to be able to do conferences at. So, Um, flights, it's usually cheaper for folks to fly from wherever they are in the country to Vegas. Um, hotel rates are usually cheaper than they are in, in other places. So again, if this is something where you're thinking about, oh, I've always wanted to try, um, SE, Vegas is definitely a really good place to do that. So. Uh, I could not agree more. I've been to Vegas several times, and I do agree there's so much to do, and you can continue to go back even if you've been there before. There's more you could probably explore. Well, Jack, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for all you've done for ACR, all you're doing right now for the SEM conference, and I can't wait to see you at the SEM conference. Great. Thanks a lot, Alex. Bye-bye now.