RNL enrollment and financial aid models

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Georgia Open Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1) All contracts with Ruffalo, Noel, Levitz (RNL) since Jan. 1, 2018 for enrollment management and financial aid optimization services.

2) All reports provided to the university by RNL since Jan. 1, 2018 regarding the following RNL services:
- Historical Research & Competitor Benchmarking
- Econometric Modeling
- Annual Financial Aid Plan Development
- RNL Smart View Dashboards & Reporting for Insight-Driven Response
- Retention Analysis
- Revenue Optimization & Simulation
- Four-Year Enrollment & Net Revenue Projection Model
- Enrollment Likelihood and FinAid Receptivity Scoring

3) All validation studies, differential impact studies, or comparable studies supplied by RNL or done by the university or a third party on the university's behalf regarding the accuracy of RNL's predictive models.

4) De-identified copies of all enrollment and financial aid model training datasets supplied to/received from RNL for 2021-2022 school year applicants, containing:
- All non-identifiable variables for each applicant that the university supplies to RNL for the purpose of building and training its predictive models
AND
- All output data fields (i.e., receptivity scores, lead categories, etc.) generated by RNL's predictive models for each applicant.

With regards to item 4 of my request, please note that I am asking for a de-identified data set that does not include fields that could be used to identify an individual applicant (e.g., name, address, SSN). These fields can easily be redacted by deleting those columns from the responsive spreadsheet.

I ask that all fees be waived as intend to use the requested records to further public understanding of public agencies and not for any commercial purpose. In the event you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employee involved and an explanation justifying the employee hours required to fulfill the request.

Should you choose to reject this request or redact portions of responsive documents, I ask that you provide a detailed breakdown of the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

Thank you very much for your help. I agree to the $62.34 fee.

Todd

To Whom It May Concern:

Please find enclosed a check for $62.34 to satisfy the fee associated with the attached public records request.

Thank you.

Hello,

Thank you again for all your help with this request.

Having received responses from several other universities to identical requests, I wanted to follow up to inquire about some specific documents I believe CCG will have that are responsive to my original request.

Specifically, I would like to re-request:

1) The most recent historical analysis and competitor benchmarking report RNL prepared for CCG (This document is described in RNL contracts as "a comprehensive investigation of undergraduate student enrollment behaviors related to their needs, academic credentials, population segments, and financial aid offers [approximately 100+ pages]).

2) ForecastPlus model reports for the prospect model, inquiry model, and admit model . I have attached an example of one of these reports from the University of Nebraska-Kearney, for your reference.

3) Annual econometric modeling reports for each year since Jan. 1, 2018. RNL describes these models as "logistic regression models based on two or three years of historical information and the goal is to understand ... how student variables, such as household income, ZIP code, academic profile, etc. interact with one another, so we can predict how changes in some variables will affect the future course of others."

4) The results of the revenue optimization and simulation model produced for CCG by RNL for each year since Jan. 1, 2018. RNL describes this service thusly: "this tool determines the appropriate amount of financial aid—down to the student level—and creates a series of optimized awarding parameters that can influence the recommended awarding structure."

Thank you very much for your help, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Todd

Hello Phyllis,

A check should have been sent back in February from Muckrock (not from me directly). You didn't receive one?

Thank you,
Todd

Hello,

I just wanted to follow up on this to confirm whether you've received the check yet?

Thank you,
Todd