The identity of candidate No. 1 for the vice president for enrollment management position has been revealed. Brian F. Dalton, the senior vice president for strategic planning at Mercer University in Georgia, will be visiting campus Nov. 21-22. Read below for a detailed profile of Dalton.
As Otterbein360 previously reported, Otterbein decided to keep the identities of the four candidates confidential until the day before their visit. More information on the reasoning behind this decision can be found here.
Otterbein360 will be profiling the four candidates as soon as their information is made available. Students can use this information to give informed feedback on the VPEM search to the search committee.
Brian F. Dalton, Candidate No. 1
Brian F. Dalton has been the senior vice president for strategic planning at Mercer University since June of this year. In this position, he has been responsible for developing and maintaining a 10-year strategic plan for the university.
He was also the senior vice president for enrollment management at Mercer University from July 2008-May 2011. In his resume he said that while serving in that position he enrolled the largest freshman classes in a decade and the largest transfer class in 15 years. He also decreased the overall new-student discount by 2.7 percent, meaning the college did not have to offer as large of a discount to bring in new students. In 2009, he proposed and enacted the Mercer Pledge, a guarantee that students would graduate in four years.
Dalton said he would focus on identifying students who are the right fit for a school like Otterbein. “I’ve always been a passionate advocate for the success of students, whether it’s recruiting the right type of student, or ensuring their success, or seeing … the realization of the promises we make as an institution,” he said.
Douglas Pearson, the vice president and dean of students at Mercer, said that Dalton developed relationships with many students within weeks of arriving at the university. “He sincerely cares about the students at the institution he works for,” Pearson said in an email interview. “This rapport has enabled Brian to build on the positives and immediately begin to work on the negatives.”
Pearson said that Dalton understands the importance of collaborating with other departments. Under Dalton’s leadership, the university found ways to “more purposefully” integrate the Student Affairs department into the enrollment process.
Mercer University is a private university that offers programs in a variety of fields, including liberal arts and continuing studies. It enrolls approximately 8,000 students. Mercer is following a semester schedule.
Dalton also served at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minn., from 1998-2008 in two positions, the vice president for enrollment management and the associate dean for program development. According to his resume, he increased the size of the freshman class by 81 percent over a span of eight years.
Before these two positions, he served in several other enrollment and admission positions at universities in Texas and Pennsylvania.
He holds a doctorate of philosophy and education administration from the University of Texas, a master of public administration from Gannon University in Pennsylvania and a bachelor of arts in political science, also at Gannon.
In his cover letter, Dalton said that enrollment management must focus on institutional imaging and marketing and relies heavily on data for effective decision-making.
Dalton’s resume and cover letter can be accessed in the “VP for Enrollment Search” tab in My O-Zone.
Check back to Otterbein360 for more updates on Dalton and the other candidates as information is made available.
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