Friday, October 23, 2009
MSUM promotes with technology innovations
Next year’s budget hinges heavily on increasing revenue by increasing enrollment. The demographic being specifically targeted is high school seniors.
“MSUM is an outrageously high-quality institution, we just haven’t told the story yet,” President Edna Szymanski said at a town meeting last Wednesday.
Marketing and new admissions technology are two ways that the administration is attacking the plan to boost enrollment to 8,000 students within five years.
One aspect of the plan is casting a wider net for recruiting prospective freshmen, increasing the mailings from 10,000 to 30,000 high school seniors. But it isn’t just the number of students, it’s how the information is being presented that is changing. Instead of a standard brochure, the redesined mailing will be like a deck of cards. Academic departments will be represented on cards, with graphics and witty titles for each.
“It’s really clever copy, relatable to 17 year olds,” said Pat Staples, the newly hired director of marketing.
lauren taute / the advocate
Students learn about MSUM at the National College Fair in Minneapolis Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The fair is the largest college fair in the nation with approximately 25,000 high school students in attendance. The MSUM faculty from closets to furthest are: Dean Mollerud, education instructor; Cortez Evans, admissions staff; Ron Messelt, education instructor and Allen Carter, music instructor.
Staples is also behind a major billboard campaign focused in the twin cities to increase our visibility in that area. The billboards say things like “Have a nice degree” and “Shop, Drop, Enroll.”
The Minneapolis National College Fair, the largest college fair in the nation, took place over two days at the beginning of October. Out of the almost 400 colleges represented, MSUM was one of only two institutions that had prospective students enter their information electronically rather than fill out contact cards by hand.
Twenty freshly-purchased netbooks plus technology that finds a wireless signal regardless of the location made this possible.
“We were accepting a
student’s information in real time,” said Jeremy Johnson, director of admissions. The switch meant that accurate, completed information jumped from 50 percent due to illegibility and students leaving some spaces blank to 100 percent.
The online form asked students how they wished to be reached by the university. These options have dramatically increased since just last year. The admissions office can now text students as well as e-mail and use social networking sites like Facebook and twitter. “We are communicating with students the way they want to be communicated with, which is very effective,” said Jeremy Johnson, director of admissions.
Not only that, but students were asked to list their interests which are immediately added to a personalized dragon VIP web page where they can see their admissions status and information about the particular interests they indicated.
Johnson said that there are three common trends in dealing with 17 and 18 year olds. They want customized, dynamic knowledge; and they want it to be instantaneous. The new, modern system addresses all three.
The focus is getting student to come and visit campus. “If they take a look at us, I strongly believe that they will choose us,” said Johnson. He suggested that at this point, students and faculty step in to tell the story.
“You know how it takes a village to raise a child, I always say that it takes a university to recruit a student,” Johnson said.