Rom Stresses Need for Enrollment Growth, Staff Importance During GSIE State of Unit Address

Russell Cothren

Staff members of the Graduate School and International Education

Curt Rom, interim dean of the Graduate School and International Education, had a clear message for GSIE staff during a State of the Unit address at the unit's annual staff meeting earlier this month: while change may be happening across the university, it's GSIE employees and their work that creates consistency and stability.

"The importance of what you do every day when you come to work has not changed. Our commitment to the university — and your commitment to your job — is consistent," Rom said. "We help people. And how do we help people? We provide transformational opportunities for students, staff and faculty. … That's our mission. And that remains consistent."

Rom provided an update to approximately 80 staff members gathered in the Arkansas Union for the annual staff meeting, highlighting accomplishments of the past year and looking toward the coming school year.

Overall, the look to the future of GSIE was centered around one theme: growth. Rom stressed the need to grow areas within GSIE such as the Rome Center, Office of Testing Services and Study Abroad. But the biggest emphasis was on graduate and international enrollment growth. The creation of a strategic recruiting and enrollment task force will help recruit more international and graduate students to the university, complemented by strategic communication efforts such as a redesign of the GSIE website.

"One of the primary goals for the next two years will be to increase graduate enrollment," Rom said. "To do that, we want to improve our recruiting, our enrollment and admission practices and foster the kinds of programs that will serve the students, state and nation."

A new course, Pathways to Graduate School, will also help with recruiting efforts by providing information and resources around graduate school for senior undergraduate students.

"We're trying to interact with and impact seniors that are thinking about going to graduate school," Rom said. "They know that grad school is mysterious, and we're trying to pull back the curtain."

While overall graduate and international enrollment were down last year, Rom noted the record number of international graduate students enrolled this fall at the university, as well as a record number of students studying at the Rome Center last school year and robust study abroad participation that bounced back to pre-pandemic levels.

"We probably traveled more students and faculty in the last two years than almost all our comparator universities," he said. "We weren't taking risks to do that — we were managing and mitigating the risk and providing opportunities for travel and international experiences."

Rom concluded his remarks by reiterating the importance of the Graduate School and International Education staff in the mission of the school — and the university.

"Our absolute greatest competitive advantage is people," he said. "It's who you are, and what you do when you come to work. That's how we out-compete everybody else. Whether you're reading that first application or helping hand out a diploma cover at commencement, what we do in GSIE changes lives."