Think recruitment: USU administrators debut plan to recruit new students.
Friday, Sept. 5, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Research Joyce Kinkead and others introduced Utah State University’s new recruitment plan.
USU is reaching out to bigger and better things. The university’s goal is to bring in more students than ever before, with many new, higher requirements. USU’s new program “Think” is designed to get student’s attention to really think about college and their futures, Kinkead said.
It is a well-researched and organized program designed with a goal to bring 2,600 new freshmen, as well as 1,550 transfer students to USU. It is also designed to retain students until they graduate from USU, Kinkead said.
Executive director of Public Relations John DeVilbiss said this was a great opportunity “to really be together and work together as a team.”
He said, “To do one very important thing, that is to stay in touch, and say the same thing at the same time, over and over again-if you do that, then you’ve got a message across,” DeVilbiss said, explaining how to reach students with recruitment information.
Jimmy Moore, director of Admissions, said students will now be admitted on a higher index score, and students must have at least an 18 on the ACT, as well as a 2.5 high school GPA or higher. Moore said they are increasing the requirements to help encourage students to attend USU with a higher standard of excellence.
“This is the first time ever that we have had a work in document like this. This is really a comprehensive recruitment plan that we have put together. It’s going to be our blue print to recruiting,” Moore said.
Moore said the new handbooks will serve as a guide to student
recruitment.
They have been designed specifically for prospective students from anywhere and everywhere.
Billboards advertising USU will be placed in various locations, including the Salt Lake City area, to better introduce the university. The USU Web page has been completely redesigned to better serve the needs of the variety of current and prospective USU students.
Targeting all prospective students is one of the main goals of the program, Moore said.
Melisa Miller Kincart, assistant to the vice provost for Undergraduate Studies and Research, said about one third of freshman classes have been lost to retention initiatives surfacing as an institutional
priority.
“Students’ departure can be traced to students’ first formal contact with the institution, namely recruitment and admissions,” Kincart said.
Working toward making a good first impression is something that will be an important part of the plan.
The plan includes showing students what a great institution USU is, and what various options it has to offer for them.
Jenn Putnam, an assistant director of Admissions, said one way to get some of these goals accomplished is knowing their freshmen markets, knowing which areas are more likely to enroll, and working primarily on those others who have some likeliness of enrolling and to know transfer student markets, to show them what USU offers for their major.
“Most people have some type of connection with Utah State, and that’s what we’d like to leverage” said Scott Teichert, Admissions counselor.
Teichert said they wanted to extend student contact with the university, to create a bond, something good for the student to remember about USU.
“We need everything to be blue,” Teichert said.
School spirit is a major part of student recruitment. Students want to join a school that’s united and proud.
Marketing specialist Rachel von Niederhausern said staff members want to increase student contact.
She said the staff wants individualized and intentional contact with the students.
Kinkead ended the meeting by explaining to think quality. Data, drive and decisions added together, equal quality.
Kinkead said the things students do on campus in the classrooms is what is important.
Utah State is a family, Kinkead said, and students join the family “because their [students’] parents talk about the Aggie family, and that sense of pride.”
-amysueh@cc.usu.edu