The National Association for College Admission Counseling on Monday named Angel B. Pérez as its new chief executive, placing an outspoken proponent of education equity at the helm of the organization during an unprecedented enrollment crisis that could permanently change the way many students apply to college.
Pérez, currently vice president for enrollment and student success at Trinity College, in Connecticut, will succeed Joyce E. Smith, who is retiring after more than 30 years of leadership in the association, known as NACAC. The group’s 15,000-plus members include admissions officers, high-school counselors, college-access advisers, and independent educational consultants.
In an interview with The Chronicle on Sunday, Pérez said he intends to lead a collaborative effort to “reinvent enrollment and college access in America and across the globe.” He also described his hope that NACAC could convene a global conversation on rethinking the admissions profession and its role.
“It’s a perfect time to increase public policy and advocacy within the association,” he said. “The fact that many colleges in this country are three months away from going bankrupt is an embarrassment to the nation. NACAC can play a large role in talking about how college is funded, how pipeline programs are funded, how all federal funding can used to create greater access for students.”
Pérez will start his new job in July, in the middle of what promises to be a summer of continuing turmoil within his profession. With the pandemic disrupting the enrollment process, many colleges are scrambling to fill their seats amid a tanking economy that threatens many families’ ability to afford high education. Covid-19 has forced testing companies to cancel exams, prompting many institutions to drop or temporarily suspend their ACT/SAT requirements for the high school Class of 2021.
It’s a perfect time to increase public policy and advocacy within the association.
All of those developments could change how admissions works, even after the crisis subsides. “This is a huge opportunity to reimagine the process as more student-centered, to rethink what they actually have to submit in order to prove that they’re college-ready,” Pérez said. “Right now, there are high levels of anxiety. On the college side, the entire enrollment model is broken. On the high-school side, counselors don’t know how to counsel the next class. There’s going to be some sort of reinvention. The question is, What does it look like?”
Pérez recently served as chair of NACAC’s Ad Hoc Committee on Leadership in College Admission, which was created last fall. Its charge, as described by the association’s president, Jayne Caflin Fonash, was to “envision what the future of accessible, equitable, and ethical postsecondary education looks like and determine what changes are needed to make that vision a reality.” The committee’s forthcoming report, Pérez said, includes “very strong recommendations” for such changes.
Pérez, who grew up in Puerto Rico and the South Bronx, came from a poor family. His life changed, he said, when a high-school counselor “tapped me on the shoulder said, ‘You are extraordinary. Have you ever thought about going to college?’”
“I want every kid in America and across the globe to have the kind of support that I had in getting to college,” he said. “That’s the work that needs to be done.”
That counselor helped Pérez navigate the admissions process. He went on to graduate from Skidmore College, earn a master’s degree from Columbia University, and Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University.
At Trinity, Pérez made numerous changes in admissions and financial-aid policies meant to help low-income and first-generation students. Those included dropping the college’s ACT/SAT requirements, adding an assessment of character to its holistic review of applicants, and adopting a four-year financial-aid-award system. He also created the college’s Center for Student Success and Career Development, which provides students with focused support en route to graduation and a job.
During his nearly six years at Trinity, Pérez helped the college increase its enrollment of underrepresented students. In a written statement announcing his departure on Monday, Joanne Berger-Sweeney, the college’s president, credited Pérez for raising the institution’s profile, attracting stronger students, and expanding the diversity of the student body. “Most importantly,” she wrote, “he reminded us of the necessity to remain student focused in our work.”
NACAC, like the industry it serves, stands at a crossroads. Under pressure from the Justice Department, the association recently removed all mandatory practices from its ethics code. Many members have been questioning what the association stands for — and how it should evolve to remain relevant for a new generation of admissions leaders in a shifting enrollment landscape.
Pérez described the admissions profession as deeply divided about its future and how to go about its day-to-day work. He plans to go on a national “listening tour” to solicit feedback from the association’s members.
“I know there is frustration and hunger for change,” he said. “I’m a uniter who has worked in a highly contentious environment throughout my entire career, and I take joy in bringing people together.”
