What we often fail to think about is exactly how complex, critical, and time-demanding their jobs are. Our staff really need to “be on” – and authentically on – all of the time. The position demands the ability to relate to diverse student populations and their family members while exhibiting a high level of enthusiasm and creativity.

However, they also need more than finely honed people skills. They manage a lot of paperwork and need to understand university policies and processes, not to mention how to navigate often overwhelming federal financial aid forms. They prioritize complex travel and event schedules, which often require extensive overnight, evening, and weekend work. After a long day of meeting students and their families, the administrative work begins. There are records to update, telephone calls to make, social media posts to draft, and relentless follow-up as each counselor continues to check-in with every student to ensure questions are answered and enthusiasm is built.

Two jobs on a college campus have built-in areas of accountability that are both data-driven and demanding. While it’s not only about the numbers for coaches and admissions staffers, coaches are evaluated on winning and admissions professionals must get students to become Tigers. At the end of the day, I know the desire to win is in the DNA of all of our coaches, and I know how much our admissions team cares about meeting institutional enrollment goals; it is, indeed, a heavy weight to bear for both.

Of course, student recruitment work requires a lot of support from the faculty who will teach and advise the new students, as well as from professional staff who will process financial aid and housing requests, help our new Tigers get acclimated to campus, and fulfill many other support service roles. These village-like efforts reinforce and supplement the work of the admissions staff. Our strong university-wide ethic of care also helps – a lot.

The pandemic has significantly changed how we interact with one another, and I got to wondering about its impact on the daily routines of our admissions staff. Like many of us, our admissions colleagues took to the Internet to communicate and develop strong personal relationships. Personal zoom sessions are becoming standard. Our admissions staff also attends virtual college fairs where they deliver short, powerful presentations to hundreds of students across the state simultaneously. To stand out in this media requires a whole different skill set.

Although some recruiters have placed their cars in park, the FHSU Tiger team is still making high school visits whenever they can. Our admissions staff don masks when visiting the schools and, not surprisingly, are thoughtful in adhering to social distancing measures, personal wellness checks, and sometimes temperature checks. In some cases, the in-class meetings have been replaced with socially distanced presentations in the high school gym – which demands our team to be even more creative and personable.