Guest Interview Blog with Joanne Canyon-Heller
Guest Interview Blog—Joanne Canyon-Heller, President of NAGAP and Director of Graduate Admissions, Roosevelt University
Stamats: Why did you choose to be in Graduate Admissions?
Joanne: My career in education started in 1980 when I began to teach high school. I then taught undergraduates for 11 years at National Louis University. While teaching in college, I began to advise students and teach faculty how to be advisors. At this point I began to see myself in more of an advisory role. I then received an offer from University of Wisconsin-Parkside to work with the MBA program and to advise and handle accrediting. This position was a perfect fit for me between my passion and my skills. This is when I knew I was hooked on graduate admissions and knew I had found my niche. I came in to Roosevelt University as the Assistant Director and took all the knowledge and expertise from my previous work to look at all aspects of the operation here. I have focused on the process and the marketing of our programs and that has helped move us forward.
I like graduate admissions because it is combination of working with adults, faculty, and problem solving. Graduate admissions is more about the program and skills based outcomes rather than just providing an environment for students and hoping the students will like it. As I think about the development of graduate admissions, it is very different now. When I began, many folks “evolved” or “stumbled” into graduate admissions. Now it is a chosen career path and there are programs to help develop graduate admissions professionals.
Stamats: What is your biggest challenge this year?
Joanne: I believe we all are facing the challenge that the economy has had on graduate programs. It has shaped which programs interest students and which programs they think twice about before pursuing. For example, the media has heightened the awareness of teachers losing jobs and not being paid for advanced degrees. This has affected interest in education programs. Liberal arts is also an area of less interest with many potential students wondering, “is this the time” to pursue such a graduate degree. Conversely, psychology/counseling programs are healthy with many more positions and needs for this type of expertise.
We have several challenges. One of our challenges at the moment is new branding. We have begun a focus on social issues and social justice. Balancing the brand, who we are as an institution, providing programs that are applicable for today’s world, and keeping attuned to student and society needs is critical. We must keep doing what we do well, keep those programs strong, and then continually evaluate what is not working well and serving our students or mission. Also, we are seeing more schools in students’ application set. The competition is increasing and more fierce for the best students so we must work to get them accepted quickly and then keep them engaged until matriculation.
Stamats: What is working well for you and your team?
Joanne: Though our team is a bit smaller and has more responsibilities than ever due to a current hiring freeze, I can definitely say that what is working well is that our team works well together. This is key as the environment requires us to be more dynamic in our decisions and work habits and the fact that my team is cross trained and can all work across various skills helps us function efficiently and effectively. We also coordinate well with undergraduate admissions and have done cross training which helps things run more smoothly.
I have staff at two campuses. All admissions, both undergraduate and graduate meet weekly to share information. This helps prevent silos and keeps everyone informed and more able to share the workload. It is also important to keep faculty informed and well trained. We’ve worked to train faculty on Banner and our imaging system/process so that acceptance can flow more smoothly and quickly.
A key to our team working well together is constant feedback with the team to make sure we are all on the same page. This communication flows constantly and consistently from the VP to the student workers and back. Given that we deal with rolling admissions, we are constantly looking for more efficient ways to do things. In fact, we review our work plan on a regular basis, at least every 6 months or sometimes less. While we support and encourage continual training, one specific focus was to work on our process of the “To Do” list. We do daily wrap ups and plan for the next day so that each day we understand what has been accomplished, what needs to be handled the next day and then how that workload may need to be shared to have things accomplished on time and with the best outcomes.
Stamats: What is the next trend you see coming or are tracking?
Joanne: As you ask about trends, there seem to be quite a variety of changes on the horizon. Let me mention several that we see, and that I hear about across the country.
- Multidisciplinary Masters—I am seeing many programs that are either dual degree (i.e. MBA/Public Health) or personally created degrees based on interests or skill sets
- Tracking of service occupations—Understanding the focus and concentration of various service occupations such a Counseling. Should there programs be single track, have various tracks, or just concentrations? Watching the market, not just meeting needs, being competitive, but offering something different for a competitive advantage is key.
- Blend of delivery—With today’s hectic world, have just single delivery (i.e. class room OR online) is not meeting students’ needs. Having blended delivery or ability to switch or combine courses with different delivery modes is critical.
- Agility—Listening and responding to market need is critical. Even more critical is to be able to do this in a timely manner and in conjunction with both student and industry needs.
- Investment vs. Meaning—In today’s economic times, which will win out? Getting a graduate degree as an investment in skills and career development or because one wants to find great understanding or meaning in their profession? How do we help satisfy both desires?
- Networking and diversity is both local and international—While we often focus on our incoming set of students when thinking about networking and diversity, these two dynamics reach far beyond our previous definitions to multiple layers and a much broader context as the world becomes smaller.
Stamats: How does the word “segmentation” apply to your department or strategy?
Joanne: At Roosevelt University segmentation is more of an undergraduate issue as it is a larger class. For graduate, each program focuses on a specific segment, so in that sense, I see segmentation as specific to the programs. Given this fact, segmentation is less an issue for us in the recruitment process but more so a challenge when someone is in the funnel as we work to meet all the needs of those in the process.
In recruitment, we do focus on some special lists for certain programs and some special fairs such as the McNair fairs which have worked well for us.
