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| Fred S. Siegel, associate provost for enrollment services |
4:20 p.m., May 16, 2003--If enrollment statistics are the report cards of admission officers then Fred S. Siegel, UD associate provost for enrollment services for the past six years, has a grade point average of 4.0.
Siegel will be leaving UD over the summer to become associate vice president and dean of freshmen at George Washington University (GWU), the institution he left six years ago to come to UD.
“I guess there is something about the six-year mark that makes me feel as if I have to move on,” he said, “but I’ve accomplished what I came here to do. As President Roselle would say, I am ‘leaving the wood pile higher than I found it,’” Siegel said.
During Siegel’s tenure, there have been record enrollments at UD, a significant increase in the quality of students applying and freshmen applications have jumped from 15,000 to 22,000. Additionally, the incoming freshman class for 2003 is “far and away the most diverse class to ever enter UD,” Siegel said. It represents a 24 percent increase in applications for students of color and an overall 45 percent increase in matriculants who are students of color.
“None of this is to say things were deficient when I got here. They weren’t. And nothing will fall apart when I am gone either,” Siegel said.
“We’ve been able to put in place a way of doing business that will stand the University in good stead for years to come. There is a great staff here that can move things forward,” he said.
Siegel said he had no intention of leaving UD until GWU made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“I’m not taking another enrollment job,” he explained. “I’m moving on to a very different area of student services, and the position will really allow me to branch out. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime things where you can grow yourself in a new position.”
In his new post, Siegel will be responsible for freshman success and services, international student services and recruitment, and have administrative responsibility for GWU’s Mt. Vernon campus, where he and his family will live.
Prior to his first stint at G.W. in enrollment services, Siegel was director of admissions at Boston University. He said those experiences allowed him to bring a new marketing strategy to UD that mirrored a highly selective private school process.
“Like it or not, people perceive private education as better education, and at UD we are able to market all the attributes of a private college at a value that no family can turn down.”
A key to revitalizing the enrollment process was to make it more centralized, Siegel said. “Some of our events, like Blue & Golden Days were sponsored at the college level. We were able to make those sorts of events centralized for control and planning purposes.”
Being a New Englander with contacts, Siegel also was able to help UD make inroads into that market, And, he said, “having worked on urban campuses allowed me to think differently about recruiting students of color. Building those numbers has taken a lot of work and strategizing, and this year we are finally having a bonanza—we are finally seeing the results.”
As Siegel contemplates his new career move, he said he is optimistic about what he is leaving behind.
“Enrollment success at UD will unquestionably continue,” he said. “There are a lot of people here who worked furiously hard to make this possible. UD will continue to see great numbers, and more and better-qualified applicants. I don’t see any blips on the radar screen.”
Article by Beth Thomas
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson
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