Saint Mary’s Welcomes Jim Brooks as Senior Vice President for Student Experience and Enrollment Management

Following an extensive national search, Saint Mary’s College of California announced the appointment of Jim Brooks as Senior Vice President for Student Experience and Enrollment Management (SVP SEEM). Brooks brings nearly four decades of experience in higher education to SMC, including the past 13 years at the University of Oregon (UO). His first day at Saint Mary’s will be February 1, 2025.

“The SVP SEEM position is critical to the current and future success of Saint Mary’s, particularly in bolstering enrollment and strengthening our student retention and completion rates,” said SMC President Roger J. Thompson. “With a senior leader of Jim’s stature and experience bringing our Student Life, Enrollment Management, and Mission groups together under one cohesive umbrella, we can seamlessly leverage the strengths of each and create a forward-looking student experience from the first point of contact to graduation.”

Brooks currently serves as interim vice president for student services and enrollment management at the University of Oregon and manages a staff of more than 1,100. Among other departments, he oversees the offices of Admissions, Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, Continuing and Professional Education, Student Orientation Programs, University Health Services, and University Housing. 

Prior to becoming interim vice president at UO earlier this year, Brooks served in progressively responsible leadership roles in the area of financial aid and scholarships, beginning as director of that office in 2011 and culminating in a promotion to senior associate vice president and director in 2022. 

“The SVP SEEM position is critical to the current and future success of Saint Mary’s, particularly in bolstering enrollment and strengthening our student retention and completion rates.” 

— President Roger J. Thompson

President Thompson, who worked closely with Brooks during his tenure at UO, recalls that Brooks worked tirelessly to help the university rethink how institutional aid was used, and how important such funding is to prospective students and their families. His efforts resulted in lasting, tangible changes in the UO institutional aid budget and scholarship programs. 

Both were key factors in dramatically expanding the university’s enrollment figures, which increased from 20,000 during Brooks’s first year at UO to more than 40,000 applications for fall 2024. The first-year student class subsequently grew from 3,900 his first year to 5,103 for fall 2024, the second-largest first-year student class in the university’s history.

At the same time, the competitive scholarship offers that Brooks and his colleagues created resulted in stronger, more college-ready first-year UO students. His efforts, for example, helped raise the average high school grade point average of incoming first-year students from 3.55 to a GPA of 3.72 for fall 2024.

An emphasis on diversity and collaboration

Another of Brooks’s stated goals at UO was to improve upon the racial and ethnic diversity of the student body, and the numbers bear that out. Though fewer than 18 percent of the overall population in the state of Oregon identify as domestic minorities, the university’s first-year student class for fall 2024 is 41 percent domestic minorities.

Brooks, clearly proud of those results, has noted that a more diverse campus is good for all students and will better prepare them for professional and personal success.

In addition, President Thompson called Brooks “an exceptionally collaborative leader who recognizes that success depends on the ability to work effectively with others and avoid silos.”

Within Brooks’s large division, he consistently collaborated with offices such as Continuing and Professional Education (which he integrated into Student Services and Enrollment Management) and the Office of Admissions (with whom he partnered to implement activities intended to reduce “melt” in the incoming first-year class). 

He also nurtured and solidified his division’s partnership with that of Undergraduate Education and Student Success and with Student Life. He also worked closely with University Communications & Governmental Relations on state and federal financial aid issues. 

Returning to a faith-based institution

Prior to his arrival at the University of Oregon, Brooks served in executive leadership roles at the University of Missouri and Indiana University. It was at those institutions where he developed his expertise in financial aid, scholarships, student success, and enrollment management, which he then cultivated and refined at UO. 

Brooks earned degrees from two faith-based institutions, the University of Notre Dame and Anderson University. He says the opportunity to return to an institution that combines faith with the educational experience is very appealing.

“A community where the student experience is personal and relational, and the potential to positively impact that student experience, is an opportunity that I welcome,” said Brooks. “Helping Saint Mary’s College of California take the next steps in creating a world class student experience excites me.”

“I have no doubt that Jim will seamlessly integrate SMC’s Enrollment Management and Student Life divisions and its Office of Mission to help SMC reach its ambitious goals in enrollment management and the student experience,” said President Thompson.