5 Questions with Dale Gaubatz, Chief Enrollment Officer

ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 19, 2024) — In August, the University at Albany appointed Dale L. Gaubatz as its new associate vice president and chief enrollment officer.

In this role, Gaubatz oversees enrollment management functions and provides strategic vision to help the University achieve its enrollment objectives. He brings over two decades of experience leading enrollment teams at various institutions, most recently serving as vice provost for enrollment management at the University of the Virgin Islands.

Gaubatz works in the newly renamed Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment. Previously the Division of Student Affairs, the new name acknowledges the important work of the division in helping lead UAlbany’s enrollment strategy and supporting student enrollment.

Gaubatz graduated from Texas Tech University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and from the University of the Incarnate Word with a master’s degree in administration and organizational development. He spent most of his higher ed career in Texas and Colorado.

Throughout his career, he has focused on developing and implementing innovative enrollment strategies. His work in transformational change management helped modernize and transform admissions and admissions marketing approaches at three different colleges and universities. He also has experience as an enrollment consultant for leading firms in higher education.

Gaubatz recently spoke with us about his career and hopes for his new position at UAlbany.

What drew you to UAlbany?

I think what we provide at UAlbany is the purest form of higher education. The fact that our highest ranking is around social mobility is important to me. There’s generational wealth change not just for the student, but their family. That impact is what really gets me out of bed in the morning. That's what excites me about the work that we do. 

The other part is that we already look like what other universities are striving to be. Universities across the U.S. are straining to diversify themselves — and we are an authentically diverse campus. I am not saying our work is done by any means, but that's who we are as an institution and that really drew me to UAlbany. And then I came up and immediately fell in love with the campus. It looked like Epcot spawned a college campus. Campus feels so unique and thoughtfully planned. Then the people I met with and the students that took me on my tours were wonderful. I thought, “Oh yeah, I'm all in.”

What's most rewarding about enrollment management?

I still believe, regardless of all the rhetoric out there, that a higher education degree is the best way to ensure economic mobility for your life. And critical thinking skills are more important than ever. The ability to discern what's real and what's not and being able to look analytically at an issue and determine which way to go matters. So, from a civic and economic perspective, a higher education degree is still incredibly important. And for all the future jobs, it's just as important as it ever has been. So, those things continue to drive me, because in the enrollment arena we're in it for the students.

In addition to the well-documented demographic cliff, what factors will influence enrollment in the coming years?

I think it's how well we can push back as an industry on the narrative that a college degree isn't needed anymore. As an industry, we must push back on that rhetoric more effectively. People with a college degree, on average, earn between $650,000 and $900,000 more in their life than those who don’t. People with a college degree are 3.5 times less likely to have incidents of poverty.

We are building the model as it should be. That is one of the other things that drew me here: we have a lot of work to do like every other institution, but we are putting the right things in, which makes it exciting. Some of the new degree programs that we have coming online are in those high-need fields and that's the kind of thing where students are going to get multiple job offers when they graduate. That is exciting for our students, Albany, and New York.

When it comes to enrolling a strong and diverse student body, what is a key aspect of the job you think many people overlook?

I think the human connection. We do a lot of things informed by data, based on data, a lot of analytics and analysis so that we can be the best stewards of all the funding we get. But it's still a human-to-human business. And we sometimes miss the importance of just connecting with families one-on-one, of getting facetime with high school counselors so we can hear what they need from us. As a public institution, we provide a heck of a lot of value here. But we are also a public good. We are a public good for every student that finds a home at UAlbany. And in a lot of cases, we must find them. And that human interaction piece is really missed.  

A good example is what the financial aid team did this past year because of the whole fiasco with the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Nationally, the FAFSA completion rate is about 60-65%. Our FAFSA completion rate at UAlbany was right at 90% this year. And that's because of things the financial aid team did to enable one-on-one interactions with families. The team's not that big but they went above and beyond to do that. Of course, the rest of the Enrollment team and so many others played a role in our success this year. If they had not done that, then we would not have had that completion rate, and then we would not have had the incoming class that we had. So, human interaction is the part that easily gets lost, especially at larger institutions. I think one of the reasons students love coming here is that we offer all the bells and whistles of a big institution, but there is also a small college feel. Our admissions practices need to mirror what we are delivering, and I know we can build that over the next few years.

What are you most looking forward to in this role?

Getting to know the team more, understanding the internal and external needs, and the areas where we can have some quick wins here. I get excited about all the quick wins that we see, but then long term, we are just touching the surface of the remarkable things that UAlbany can accomplish. Every day I go to meetings and learn new things we could be doing a little bit differently. Each of those can add up quickly.