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The Exchange Live: Leadership Edition GEM Talk: Hard Truths and Harder Decisions in GEM in 2026
January 20, 2026
2:00pm-3:00pm ET
Graduate enrollment leaders are not just managing change. They are carrying the weight of nonstop disruption with fewer people, fewer dollars, and higher expectations than ever before. As 2026 begins, many institutions are facing stalled or declining enrollments, rising price resistance, shrinking pipelines, regulatory uncertainty, and exhausted teams, all while leadership continues to demand growth, yield, and measurable results.
Ongoing uncertainty around Grad PLUS lending, shifting federal and state policy, post-SCOTUS admissions implications, intensifying online competition, and the rapid expansion of AI are reshaping how institutions recruit, admit, and support graduate students. At the same time, burnout is accelerating and experienced enrollment professionals are leaving the field in growing numbers.
This leadership edition of The Exchange Live is not a victory lap or a theoretical exercise. It is a candid, unscripted conversation among enrollment leaders working in today’s realities. The panel will confront what is actually working, what is no longer sustainable, and what enrollment teams can control in 2026 when growth is expected but new resources are not.
The conversation will include four members of the NAGAP Experts Bureau and Distinguished Service Award winners including Fran Reed, higher education consultant and NAGAP Vice President; Donald Resnick, higher education consultant; Keith Ramsdell, President of the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals; and Marcus Hanscom, Senior Director of Client Success at Direct Development.
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The Exchange Live: Education Edition: A Boy & His Bot: Building an AI Admissions Assistant
January 27, 2026
2:00pm-3:00pm ET
In a landscape where as many as 80% of graduate prospects engage in “secret shopping” and expect immediate, 24/7 access to information, traditional admissions models often fall short.
This session showcases how Niagara University built “Cy,” a ChatGPT-powered admissions assistant for its NSA-designated M.S. in Information Security and Digital Forensics program—without requiring technical expertise, enterprise software, or a dedicated budget.
Attendees will learn the practical, step-by-step process of creating a custom GPT chatbot using ChatGPT Plus, including how to write effective instructions, set parameters to prevent AI hallucinations, and incorporate program-specific knowledge.
The presentation explores how AI can help enrollment teams:
- Provide 24/7 instant support
- Accommodate anonymous, early-stage research behavior
- Create a safe, judgment-free space for questions
- Free staff to focus on high-impact, relationship-building work
Key takeaways include configuration best practices, comparisons between implementation paths, and examples of how AI chatbots can scale and support additional use cases across graduate admissions.
Echoing Allie K. Miller’s philosophy (AI expert) that “the people winning in AI are taking quick wins and iterating fast,” this session equips attendees to implement their own AI assistant immediately.
Presenter
Evan Pierce
Graduate Studies Director
Niagara University
[email protected]
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