Mike Marshall, Ed.D., started this summer as Goucher’s vice president for enrollment and student success. He was previously the vice president for enrollment, marketing, and communication at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY.

By Molly Englund

How did you decide where to go to college?

I’m from Lima, OH. I played basketball growing up and wanted to play in college. When I graduated from high school, I chose to attend a small school in southeastern Ohio as a recruited student athlete because I really wanted to refine my basketball skills as well as my academics. So, after a year there, I transferred to Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. I had a wonderful experience. I’m a huge fan of small liberal arts colleges, just like Goucher. It was transformative.

What led you to working in higher education?

I was in one of our campus eateries, and I met a nun who was on crutches. I helped her carry her tray, and we sat down and started talking. She asked all these questions, and she said, “Have you ever thought about working in higher education? A little bird told me there’s going to be an opening in the admissions office. You should think about doing it.”

When I graduated, I applied for the position because there was something about working with young people that was really appealing. Plus, I liked the concept of traveling and talking about education and bettering yourself. I ended up getting the job. I tell people divine intervention got me into higher education, literally—a nun introduced me to it.

Does your transfer-student experience inform your work?

Yes. Transfer students historically have been an afterthought in enrollment, and there were barriers throughout my transfer process. I was going to lose a number of transfer credits, so I had to enroll in summer school, advocate for myself to get some credits to transfer, and find the syllabi—that’s when we had printed catalogs. But I was able to navigate it and, as a result, I’ve been a huge advocate for transfer students everywhere I’ve worked, at Texas Christian University, Clark Atlanta, and then Bellarmine University.

How did your career advance after leaving Mercyhurst?

When I went to Texas Christian University, I said, “I want to try to do everything.” I worked closely with the financial aid office and with transfer and international students, I continued to advance in admissions, and I did my master’s in liberal arts. Then the chancellor asked me to come and work in his office. The chancellor developed a university fellowship program modeled after the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows program, where you gain in-depth exposure to all facets of an institution.

I shadowed all the vice chancellors and the academic deans, and worked with the trustees, for an entire academic year. It was like taking five years’ worth of experience and cramming it into one year. The experience was a game changer. Throughout that year, I learned so much about higher education that when the vice chancellor for government relations announced retirement, he said, “Mike, I think you’d be a great successor.”

I did that for four years, traveling to do state government relations in Austin and then federal relations in DC. I was on Capitol Hill doing a lot of work, and I taught an undergraduate course on higher education advocacy and policy and took students to DC and Austin. And I managed the most generous scholarship at TCU, which was called the Chancellor’s Scholarship; we grew, diversified, and elevated the program, and took students abroad.

Ultimately, I realized how much I missed enrollment, and then an opportunity at Clark Atlanta presented itself. I became the associate VP for enrollment services, and I served as the interim chief student affairs officer for more than a year. I was at Clark Atlanta for three years, and then on to Bellarmine, where I became vice president for enrollment, marketing, and communication.

What did you like about Goucher?

It has such a rich legacy but has been nimble and agile over the years. It’s an attractive institution—the learning that takes place inside the classroom and outside the classroom, the study abroad requirement, the Goucher Commons curriculum, the internship accelerator, and the social justice orientation. And the campus itself is immaculate, with 280-plus acres—it’s a safe space to grow and learn and develop not only as students but as a community.

It’s really about the people. The engagement that I’ve had so far reaffirms that the community is full of down-to-earth, authentic, transparent, people who are focused on improving the human condition.

What opportunities do you see for Goucher?

There are a lot of opportunities to tell Goucher’s story to more people. Goucher has a national and an international reputation that you can continue to amplify and tell in a more cohesive and coherent way. There are several ways we can equip even more people to serve as brand champions. One, engage alumni more to help them tell the story. Engage the college influencers, including high school counselors, to better tell our story because they have better rapport with students to influence where they go to college. Two, leverage the existing evangelists to help recruit students, by tapping alumni, students, faculty, and staff to help us recruit more students. Three, marry the traditional enrollment admission and recruitment functions with student success—that is, retention and graduation—and ensure that the entire student journey is better integrated, so that students have a seamless journey from pre-matriculation all the way through planned giving.

What are some of the enrollment challenges that colleges face?

First is the shifting demographics. I think we as an industry often focus on the shrinking pool of students, which is a sobering reality. But there’s also a shift in who’s going to college. There’s a book that I always highlight, Becoming a Student-Ready College. We typically focus on whether students are ready for college. This book asks whether colleges are ready for students. Institutions must be prepared to meet the students of the 21st century. They are nontraditional students, students of color, first generation, low income, international, military—and we need to be able to meet them where they are, because we’re dealing with the most pluralistic pool of students in the history of the world.

Then you also have shifting attitudes toward college the value proposition of higher education. How do you better tell that story and get people to understand the value there? But then also, how do you maximize the educational experience to ensure that there is something for students to gravitate toward?

The third thing I would say is the regulation and the public policy landscape, whether it be FAFSA challenges or the SCOTUS decision on race neutral admission. How do you navigate and negotiate all of that?

Those are some of the things that come to mind. The pandemic, the learning loss that occurred with students—again, it’s about meeting students where they are. Some of the adaptive learning technology helps identify where they are on the learning curve and how we can provide them with the resources they need.

Is that the student success part of your job?

It is. We’ve identified opportunities at Goucher to move the needle on first-year retention and see that all the way through to graduation. That’s where the student success piece is: How is it integrated? How do you maximize the synergies that exist and optimize the resources that you have to be able to support students?

I always talk about the art and science of the work that we do. Most small colleges do an excellent job on the art side, which is building and managing relationships. But then there is the science side of it, where we can build models to try to predict where we’re heading, to inform and prioritize the work that we do.

Working with various campus partners is vital to student success. Whether you’re working in the dining hall, on the grounds, or in athletics, whether you’re working on the academic side or the administrative side—we all play a role in retaining and graduating students.