Principles of Recruiting and Retention

The goal of recruitment should not necessarily be to increase numbers; rather, recruitment efforts should produce students with solid academic credentials and of diverse backgrounds. There are a number of factors (such as a healthy economy, the numbers of students from which recruitment efforts can ultimately draw, and the geographic location of a university) which have an impact on recruiting results. On the other hand, there are a number of things that can be done to strengthen recruiting programs. I have called these the "Seven 'E's' of Highly Effective Recruiting."

1. Enhance high school recruiting efforts: Careful preparation of printed materials, videotapes, CDs, and other visual aids is important in both the initial impression and long term effect.

2. Expand faculty involvement in recruiting efforts: Working as part of a team which includes admissions counselors and other recruiting staff, recruiting efforts can be maximized without reinventing the wheel or duplicating efforts.

3. Expand student involvement in recruiting efforts: Coordination of student involvement is recommended, even necessary, being careful that activities have the least impact on the college student's class schedule while having the largest impact on the target audience. Coordination is also necessary when college student organizations and clubs are involved.

4. Expand the number of student ambassadors: At NMSU, ambassadors participate in Fall Receptions, Spring Honors Nights, New Student Orientations, etc., all of which are very time consuming. It is important to have a number of students prepared to perform these duties.

5. Enrich high school students' knowledge of what higher education is: Activities such as "Engineer for a Day" give high school students the opportunity to spend a day on campus.

6. Explore higher education and engineering career opportunities with high school students premised on a foundation of "first know thyself": Working with high school counselors, college career counselors can help provide materials (such as SDS, Kiersey) through which students' interests are associated with career possibilities.

7. Explain opportunities for financing a college education through internships, co-ops, and scholarships: Working with high school counselors and parent associations, college personnel can become valuable resources for dissemination of this information.

The college search and application phase is important because it is in this phase that students eliminate most colleges from consideration. One tool used by the College of Engineering has been to hand out a bookmark which gives students timelines for this phase. Other materials have also been developed or are in development for use at the various stages of student recruitment.

A number of writers have advocated developing a recruitment plan. Stephanie Moore, in Midstate: ACT as a Strategic Resource in Meeting Student and Institutional Needs, 1984-85, outlined strategies in "Tailor Your Recruiting Tools." The full article is reproduced as an appendix. I have summarized the key points below.

Moore summarizes by stating that "it will help if you think of students in stages from prospect to candidate, to applicant, to matriculated student. For best results, then, we need to develop material and programs to match these various stages of student interest."

Retention can mean many things. To some, it means retaining a student in a particular discipline; to others, it means keeping a student enrolled at the university. From a student-oriented perspective, it should mean providing an environment in which students can most likely succeed in their efforts to become educated. Sometimes becoming educated means majoring in something other than the discipline in which the student began. From a student-oriented perspective, it might also mean addressing prior academic deficits — plugging the holes in a "Swiss cheese academic foundation" — while at the same time encouraging the student to persevere. There are a number of strategies which will result in successful retention. I have called these the "Seven 'A's' of Highly Effective Retention."

1. Access to adequate tutoring/academic support: This includes peer tutoring, learning centers, developmental classes, etc.

2. A personal mentor: The literature supports the "high tech, high touch" first mentioned in Naisbett's Megatrends. Mentoring is used very effectively with prospective medical and law students, even before they are accepted by the respective professional school.

3. Academic advising with the individual in mind: According to the literature, individual academic advising and career advising are primary factors in "student persistence."

4. Assistance for students to meet financial obligations: This can include involving undergraduates in collaborative research with faculty. Undergraduate collaborative research has been found to be most beneficial in the first two years of college, the time when the heaviest attrition occurs.

5. Assessment of student needs using exit surveys and student satisfaction inventories: Feedback! Results will be specific to the time period being surveyed, but will provide data for developing intervention strategies related to student retention.

6. Attrition NO, Retention YES: Developing an "attitude to persevere." Career planning to develop realistic expectations is one example. (See tables in appendix)

7. A joy in learning: The relationship to studying. (See "Reflections on Staying in School" by Dr. Tom Hutto in appendix)

Dr. Ray Muston, University of Iowa, contributed to the Midstate (1984-85) report cited earlier. His "Executive Summary Report: Change in Selected Undergraduate Enrollment Factors among Sixty-One Major Universities 1978-79 vs. 1981-82" provides some useful insight.

Numerous studies have highlighted the importance of undergraduate student persistence in overall enrollment planning and management. Successful student matriculation through the undergraduate curriculum has a greater impact on total enrollment than the simple recruitment of entering freshmen. More than one institution experienced a decline in enrollment of students in good standing in a magnitude greater than the entire entering freshman class.

… Among factors which have been associated with undergraduate student persistence are the following:

Students "recruited" to institutions in the absence of a systematic commitment to understand and respond to their individual needs are not likely to persist. Dissatisfied students share their dissatisfaction with family, friends, and future student generations, and consequently influence future university student markets.

Students who believe in the quality and responsiveness of the institution are far more likely to persist to graduation and to serve as the largest single body of institutional referral for new students." (emphasis added)

One more point needs to be mentioned. Colleges must generate the resources to support recruitment and retention activities and reward faculty, staff, and students for their efforts.

Campus/Student Characteristic

Average

Rating

Negative

Inadequate academic advising

Inadequate curricular offerings

Conflict between class schedule and job

Inadequate financial aid

Inadequate extracurricular offerings

Inadequate counseling support system

Positive

Caring attitude of faculty and staff

High quality of teaching

Adequate financial aid

Student involvement in campus life

High quality of advising

Dropout-prone

Low academic achievement

Limited educational aspirations

Indecision about major/career goal

Inadequate financial resources

3.03

2.81

2.80

2.63

2.61

2.59

4.29

3.90

3.69

3.30

3.23

4.45

4.09

3.93

3.65

N =

2-Year

Public

294

2-Year

Private

4-Year

Public

221

4-Year

Private

377

Total

947

Caring attitude of faculty and staff

High quality of teaching

Adequate financial aid

Student involvement in campus

High quality of advising

Excellent counseling services

Excellent career-planning services

Concern for student/institutional fit

Admissions geared to graduation

Early-alert system

4.31

4.02

3.81

3.00

3.43

3.56

3.36

2.83

2.54

2.70

4.51

3.67

3.53

3.40

3.28

3.06

2.77

3.36

3.14

2.84

4.02

3.71

3.82

3.45

3.22

3.16

3.21

3.02

3.06

2.68

4.40

3.93

3.52

3.45

3.08

2.94

2.96

3.28

3.15

2.61

4.29

3.90

3.69

3.30

3.23

3.20

3.13

3.09

2.95

2.69

Few people expected me to go to college when I graduated from high school in 1949. Not I, and certainly not my teachers, for I was an indifferent student and did not have the kind of grades people expected a college-bound student to have. I thought people were either born smart or born dumb and it was obvious from my grades which category I was in.

But my father had a different view. Whether from despair that I would ever amount to anything or from some unwarranted optimism that there was more to me than met the eye, I am not certain, but he felt that I should and was determined that I would get a college education. And so off I went to Truett-McConnell College, a small two-year Baptist institution in the isolated mountains of northeast Georgia.

To my surprise I liked it. There I discovered that there is a relationship between studying and learning, a fact that had totally escaped me when I was in high school. I discovered a joy in learning that went beyond the mere desire to master enough knowledge and skills to get a good job. Most importantly, it was there that I developed the self-esteem that made it possible for me to recognize that I could take charge of my own life, and to some extent, determine my own future.

But it was not clear sailing from there. Although I now had the motivation to do so, when I received my associate’s degree I did not have the money to go on to a four-year college. So I found a job, got married, and went into the army. In the military I discovered I could continue my education while on duty and so I became what we now call a "nontraditional student," a phrase we use to describe a person who wants a college education enough to go to school at night and at other inconvenient times.

By the time I completed my military service I not only had no money, I also had two children, so once again I entered the job market. For the next two years I attended night school and in time completed a third year of college work. My alma mater, the University of Georgia, required seniors to spend their last year in residence so I quit my job and entered the University. Fortunately I was able to use the G. I. Bill and a scholarship to complete my degree.

A photograph from that year, 1957, eight years from the time I first entered college, shows me standing in my cap and gown, two small children at my side and an infant in my arms. I was the first member of my family to ever complete a college degree. During those years of struggle, there was often the temptation to give up, to quit the dream of an education. Now because I did not, new doors opened to me which led to a better life and since then I have been a lifelong student, completing a master’s degree in 1961 and a Ph.D. in 1979.

From my experience, a message has come which I have always passed on to my own sons and to my students. Stay in school. Complete your education. Earn that degree. The sacrifice you make now will be more than justified in the future. You may be tempted to give up because you think that it will take too long to complete your degree. But the time will pass whether you take classes or do nothing. If you stay in school you will have your degree at the end of that time. If you do nothing, you will have nothing. It is your choice.

No one has all the answers on how to develop an effective student recruitment plan. But you'll make more headway if you tailor your approach to the various stages of a prospect's interest —from first inquiry to the day when he or she enrolls at your college.

As you know, recruitment usually goes this way: A prospective student first sees some recruitment literature, and requests more information from the college. The college responds. The student then applies, is accepted, and eventually enrolls. Each point is a step in the process.

An institution's needs should determine how much emphasis to place on each step. For example, if a college wants to increase its enrollment, it may need to upgrade its first-contact piece. This will generate more prospects.

Another college may have an adequate number of prospects but may want to upgrade the quality of matriculating students. That college will want to emphasize the steps closer to actual admission.

Once a college has decided where to place its emphasis, it must determine what is needed at each stage in the way of literature, phone calls, campus visits, and so forth. The college should lead the candidate from one step of the recruitment process to another.

·Develop an appealing first-contact piece. Of course, this first piece, like all of your recruitment "tools," should reflect the distinctiveness of your college.

·Send out a secondary school poster. An attractive poster for bulletin boards in secondary schools may increase inquiries. Be sure to attach cards which prospects can return to your admissions office.

·Use magazine advertisements. Advertise on a national or regional basis in such publications as Time, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report. Include a coupon to be filled out by the prospects and mailed to your admissions office.

·Emphasize certain constituencies. For example, the Methodist Church founded the University of Denver. Although our connection with the church has been minimized, we feel there is still an advantage in appealing to young Methodists who might want to come to DU. Also, we are located in an area with a strong Spanish-American tradition, and we may try to increase our appeal to Spanish-speaking people.

·Build a traveling exhibit. An exhibit built into a van makes it possible to take professors and materials from various departments right to the prospective students. Both Purdue and Drexel have used this technique with much success. Although exhibits are costly, you may decide to invest in one.

·Plan a special PR activity. Special meetings can deal with a range of topics. They might include the changing nature of today's college student, your faculty's quality, special financial aid programs, or research on your campus. A few years ago, DU launched a three-day "blitz" campaign in Grand Junction, Colorado. The blitz included meetings with faculty members, a speech by the chancellor, appearances by a music group – all with newspaper, radio, and TV coverage. As a result, that year we doubled the number of matriculating students from the target area.

Once you have an inquiry, you need to lead the candidate to the point of submitting an application. In other words, you need to strengthen his or her interest in your college.

·Develop an attractive first-response piece. When a person first inquires about your school, he or she moves from being a prospect to being a candidate. You need an attractive first-response piece. You can send this before the candidate receives the college catalog. In fact, if you really want to increase admissions, consider diverting some of the funds currently spent on your catalog to a first-response piece. It may be a better way to spend the money.

Your first-response brochure – often called a prospectus or general information brochure – can cover such topics as faculty quality, the freshman year, programs and majors offered, and campus attractions. Be sure to include an application. This brochure should contain ample information so that students can make an informed decision about your college.

·Publish special brochures. If you have an outstanding faculty, you may want to emphasize this in a special brochure. Or consider using one to show the typical life of a student at your college. With good photographs and lively copy, it can describe dormitory life, counseling, career development opportunities, and the fraternity system – not to mention the flavors of ice cream the cafeteria serves. Don't neglect your athletic programs. At DU, we decided to emphasize this area when we found that 80 percent of our students become involved in intramural sports.

·Put together audio-visual presentations. A strong audio-visual presentation can build on the assets described in your literature. You can show it to interested candidates and alumni recruiters, as well as on local TV programs.

·Develop a transfer prospectus. This brochure should focus on program compatibility, and on career and graduate school possibilities, if available at your campus. Building on materials you already, it should also promote your college's standard attractions.

Once a qualified candidate has applied and been accepted, make sure he or she actually matriculates. Here are helpful procedures and materials at this stage of recruitment:

·Develop program planning guides. These publications appeal to candidates interested in a particular area such as business administration, natural sciences, journalism, and so forth. The guides can describe requirements, career possibilities, and so on.

·Establish a center for prospective students. This facility for prospective student visitors should make use of available recruitment literature and audio-visual programs. Student or alumni volunteers can run the center. You might also offer pre or post application admission counseling.

·Encourage department chairpersons to contact prospective students. A potential applicant will be impressed by a letter from the head of the academic area that interests him or her.

·Set up a third-party admissions program. This can include selected alumni, current students, faculty, and parents. These people attend meetings and social events, provide counseling, and make phone calls to prospective students. If they are well prepared, they can be very effective in follow-up, and can personalize the recruitment program. A full-time employee should administer this program.

·Plan special events. These activities bring prospective students to campus for intellectual, social, and cultural happenings. For example, consider involving them in foreign language programs or in workshops on such topics as creative writing, debate, art, music, and photography.

As you develop your recruitment program, remember to coordinate recruitment PR with your institution's overall PR approach. For instance, pay close attention to the impact other media relations and special events efforts might have on recruitment.

In the past institutions have made the mistake of considering students either prospects or those actually enrolled. Actually, there are more steps in the recruitment process.

It will help if you think of students in stages from prospect to candidate, to applicant, to matriculated student. For best results, then, we need to develop material and programs to match these various stages of student interest.