The California Community Colleges (CCC) is the largest system of higher education in the United States. In the past two decades, CCC has effectively shut hundreds of thousands of students out of higher education by increasing the cost of tuition. The drop in student enrollment resulted in fewer students meeting their educational goals within a reasonable time or at all. Lower student enrollment has also caused budget cuts and course cancellations. Consequently, CCC is being prodded to increase access to quality educational programs, improve student outcomes by shortening the path to completion for degrees and certificates, and improve operational efficiency. A means to each end is enrollment management.

If student enrollment is not effectively managed, leaders at California community college campuses will be faced with the prospect of canceling more courses, offering fewer academic programs, and closing under-enrolled campuses. This qualitative, single-case study was conducted at a California community college in Southern California that is representative of other campuses in the CCC system. The participants in this study were managers and faculty from both the counseling and instructional ranks who share responsibility for managing student enrollment. Participants were selected because of their respective responsibilities and areas of expertise within the organizational structure of the site for this study. Participants included academic deans, student support services deans, an academic senator, and the chair of the academic senate. Although each participant brought a different perspective to the practices that work together to manage student enrollment, their ideas converged around fundamental principles of service and organizational theory that promote student success. Participants identified seven enrollment management strategies utilized at the study site to manage student enrollment and shared their perceptions about the alignment of these strategies with California’s Student-Centered Funding Formula. The results of this study are transferable and will provide California community college leaders with an example of effective enrollment management strategies from which to model equally successful student and institutional outcomes.