With 12 years of experience in the Office of the Registrar, Will Lipske is an expert on topics like academic programs management and degree auditing – but he knows there’s always more to learn.
So when he was chosen to participate in the College Board’s 2024-2025 Enrollment Leadership Academy, he seized on the opportunity to further his knowledge and continue growing as a leader.
Connecting dots
Through the one-year ELA program, Lipske developed a broader understanding of the strategic enrollment management landscape. The program took him to institutions across the Midwest and beyond, and it provided learning experiences through events like the College Board Forum.
During the ELA on-campus visits and while at the Forum, “we learned about key concepts in enrollment management, and it was a deep dive admission course in the sense of, let’s talk about what role community-based organizations play in the recruitment process, let’s talk about what kind of yield and melt strategies that come into play,” he recalls. “We did a crash course in financial aid, like, what is net tuition revenue? What is the actual tuition discounting that comes into play out there? Let’s talk about [CSS] Profile, and the timing of that was just curious knowing that we were about ready to go into Profile at UW–Madison, and so hearing a little bit more about that from folks who were using it actually in practice was exciting.”
Among his ELA cohort, the vast majority of his peers were from the admissions and financial aid sectors. As one of the few registrars in the room, Lipske was able to emphasize how the registrar’s office fits into the enrollment management landscape, which even higher education professionals can struggle to articulate.
During his ELA cohort’s first meeting, “I asked someone ‘What role do you think the registrar plays in enrollment management?’ And this person said, ‘They have the data.’ And that was the extent of their answer.”
“That is not wrong, and we have much more,” he continues, “whether it’s through curricular management information like degree program entry requirements, whether it’s looking at course sequences and course requisites, whether it’s looking at making academic progress through prerequisite attention, whether it’s looking at the student record itself and looking at some of the student attributes, whether it’s part of transfer courses and how people are coming in and direct equivalencies.”
Increasing collaboration
One key takeaway from his time in the program, Lipske says, is the importance of collaboration across admissions, financial aid, and registrar’s offices.
After completing the ELA program, Lipske identified an opportunity to proactively share information with admissions colleagues about changes to Guide and academic program offerings so they could communicate about those changes with prospective students. On the financial aid side, he recognized the importance of keeping colleagues updated on time-to-degree expectations and academic calendaring, which can impact aid awards.
Collaboration is also crucial when navigating emerging issues like changes to financial aid rules included in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
“I know I would have been put into those conversations regardless, but I feel like I have a fluency where I can collaborate, I can share what I have and what [the Office of Student Financial Aid] might need from a financial aid perspective to continue to support stuff that might be a direct hit in one of our sister enrollment management offices,” he says, “but they need us and we need them, and so I feel like I gained exposure to a foreign language that now I’m a little bit more fluent in because of this experience.”
Ultimately, Lipske says this big-picture view makes him “a better ally, a better supporter, a better contributor to our sister offices with Enrollment Management” and strengthens the division’s ability to meet shared goals.
Bringing people to the table
Beyond campus, the ELA program has helped Lipske strengthen his leadership in his role as vice chair of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers’ (AACRAO) Academic Progress Committee.
Having a more robust foundational knowledge of the world of enrollment management has helped him identify presentation topics from which broader audiences could benefit. It has also encouraged him to tap peers on the shoulder and suggest that they bring their insights to the table.
Leading in these spaces, Lipske says, is “part of the ethos of UW–Madison,” benefitting both the institution and higher education as a whole by building networks and sharing lessons.
“I feel like when one of us thrives, we all thrive within the registrar perspective,” he says, “so we can learn from each other, we can grow from each other. We recognize that each of our institutions is different, but there’s specific themes. There could be some specific strategies that are coming into play, and we might have different student information systems, but we all have to figure out how to manage enrollment into class sections.”
This article is part of a series highlighting the Division of Enrollment Management’s contributions to higher education beyond the boundaries of UW–Madison, in keeping with the Wisconsin Idea and our Strategic Framework.