Test 2

Over at IHE, Eric Sickler uses Valentine's Day to illustrate his suggestions for a strong recruitment plan:

Let’s start by channeling Maslow.

Humans want to feel the love. It’s right in the middle of that colorful pyramid. We all yearn to belong; we all want to feel wanted. Arguably, a young adult’s need for it is on overdrive.

Great recruiters routinely show love to their recruits by lavishing them with lots of attention, by sharing especially relevant and resonant information, and by making each one feel as though s/he is at the top of the prospective student V.I.P. list.

Technology now allows us to really pile on the love by sending “personalized” messages via every imaginable channel, each remarkably tailored to the recipient’s peculiar interests.

But the most influential of all “love gifts” that colleges and universities show prospective students comes in the form of scholarships and grants. Free money. Deep discounts. Great deals. All designed to help the recruits we love conquer what they view as the ridiculously high price of higher education.

[...]

Other than gift aid, what valuable symbols of affection can your institution offer students you want most? Here’s a handful of thought-starters:

• Priority/preferred registration.
• Priority/preferred housing or parking assignments.
• Athletic coach-like attention from music/theatre directors, student group leaders and sponsors, and other co-curricular personalities who are engaged in activities of interest to the prospective student.
• For new students with children, priority placement or discounted day care services.
• Assignment of a “career mentor” (an alumnus/a working in the student’s intended career field).
• Assignment of a “peer mentor” (college junior) who will be a senior when the prospective enrolls as a freshman.
• Assignment of a “peer family” (family of current student or recent grad) to provide unofficial, on-demand trusted counsel to incoming freshmen parents.
• Local host family assignment to offer first-year students a home-away-from-home.
• Academic advising/consulting during high school senior year.
• Multichannel outreach/attention (webinars, text messaging, social media initiatives, correspondence, event hosting, high school or home visits, etc.) by the student’s major professor or department chair.

Unorthodox thinking? Yes, by traditional recruitment standards. But to borrow (and butcher) an old saw, “Different times really do call for different measures.” It’s looking like that time is now.

Okay. So to start, dude used Maslow as an example (psychology/student affairs nerds like me will know what that means). Awesome.

But he's right; people want to feel loved. And, how else can we in the recruitment space show more love than to give students money to attend our institution.

However, I'm sure that I'm not the only admissions professional, nay, higher education professional that continues to see shrinking budgets and overzealous financial offices looking to scrutinize every penny that is spent. So, since offering students more money isn't an option, let's look at the "symbols of affection" that Mr. Sickler recommends.

While these ideas certainly are 'out of the box' thinking, I would want to be cautious. I have to take issue with the first two in particular. Offering a student priority registration or priority housing or parking could be a violation of the National Association for College Admission Counseling's Code of Ethics and Professional Practices (formerly known as the Statement of Principles & Good Practice or SPGP):

Colleges must not establish policies, engage in practices,
imply advantage, or offer incentives whose effect is to
circumvent NACAC’s Code of Ethics and Professional
Practices’ established deadlines. Incentives are allowed
when equally available to students who wait until the
established deadlines. Colleges will not guarantee
admission, specific college placement, or institutional
financial aid or scholarship awards prior to an application
being submitted, except when preexisting criteria are
stated in official publications.

...and offering incentives like parking, housing, or priority registration could be risky and put an institution out of compliance with NACAC's policies.

The other ideas, however, are more sound, if not for recruitment - for all students on campus. So long as you aren't playing favorites and providing the same services for everyone on campus, then the list that Sickler posits contains some great ideas.