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Campus Trailblazers
Setting the Pace: Kevin Phillips
Director of Undergraduate Admissions
His goals:
In admissions, we try to provide each student who visits the University of New Haven a personal and memorable experience. Prospective students have so many choices as to where they wish to attend college and we want to be different. We are open seven days a week for information sessions and campus tours. We have instituted many new programs that really help personalize our campus visits: Interviews, enhanced visits for Engineering and Business students, specialized programs, Charger Days and much more. The overall goal is to get more students to apply and visit UNH. A high percentage of those who visit and apply do actually end up coming here at a much higher rate than many other universities. We just want to be different in a positive way.
His approach:
The main focus for me is to help students in any way I can. Stopping to say hello and taking just a few minutes with prospective as well as current students goes a long way in showing them that they made the right choice in coming to UNH.
The Rewards:
I am most proud of the Open Houses here at UNH. We have worked over a number of years to tweak them based on student and parent evaluations. The results have shown that the vast majority of visitors feel that we as a university are the most helpful and engaged of all the other colleges they visit. This is made possible through the efforts of our current students, faculty, staff and administration. They have been so helpful in making our prospective student events the best around – and that has translated to more and more students applying to and deciding to attend the University of New Haven.
A Little About Him:
My background in athletics has helped me tremendously. I played high school, college, and professional basketball and then ended up coaching basketball as an assistant and a head coach in high school and college. Working together as part of a team, developing a strong work ethic, and working under pressure are all things that I had to go through as an athlete and coach and certainly they apply to admissions at a university. I also ran my own basketball camp from the time I was 18 until last summer. That experience helps me every day. When I think of things in this manner: “Is my decision the best thing for UNH?” then think of it as if I had a business – would I do it for my business? Giving customers the best experience definitely applies to college admissions and UNH is such a great place that it is easy for me to talk to people about it. I also have two young daughters and that has helped me understand parents all that much more, and today parents are much more a part of their child’s college selection process than they used to be. I don’t play basketball anymore (though I probably should just to stay in shape but I am usually working here).
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