Recruitment
materials and presentations accurately represent the institution’s
practices and policies.
_X_Compliance
___Partial Compliance ___Non-Compliance
Narrative
St. Petersburg
College is in compliance with this federal requirement because it
has an extensive process for developing recruitment materials so
that they accurately represent the College’s policies and
procedures.
Development
of recruitment materials
Institutional
Advancement (IA) is the department responsible for developing and
coordinating all College printed materials that are intended for the
public, including the College Catalog, College Viewbook, and
specific recruiting materials. The process of developing materials
generally starts with the department responsible for the content
initiating a request for recruitment materials. IA works closely
with the initiating department on layout and content and distributes
draft materials to other departments with content expertise to
ensure the content is accurate. For example, class schedule
booklets with maps and campus layouts are coordinated with
Facilities:
All new
recruitment materials are approved by the President of the College
or his designee after having been coordinated through all
departments that have content expertise.
Sample class schedule booklet approval
form
IA stays
current with activities and changes at the College through the
Director’s membership on the President’s Cabinet.
IA also uses
student focus groups and interviews to evaluate current designs of
publications and potential modifications. In “Student on the
Street” interviews, students indicate preferences for look and
layout from samples from other institutions. As a result of these
focus groups, for example, the Student Handbook’s look has changed
considerably, and now devotes half of the book (over 100 pages) to a
planning calendar for student use that includes the academic
calendar dates for the College. |
|
Sample page from Student Handbook
| The primary
repository of policy and practice is the College Catalog. While
this lengthy publication is not intended for use as a marketing tool
in the recruitment of prospective students, its content forms the
basis upon which collateral recruitment publications are developed.
As an institution with a multitude of educational and career
programs, its’ promotional and recruitment materials must accurately
reflect a snapshot of those offerings in an easily readable format.
This is accomplished by ensuring that publications which encompass
the College’s various degree and certificate programs provide
highlights for viewers taken directly from the content of the
College Catalog (e.g. the St. Petersburg College Course Schedule
Booklet). Additional policy information is provided to students
through the Supplement to the Faculty, Staff, and Student
Handbook, a publication that is issued Fall and Spring of each
year and contains verbatim extracts from board procedures for
academic, security, and disciplinary policies, as well as equity and
success statistics and practical safety information. |
Table of Contents from 2006-2007
Catalog
| Some
recruiting materials are developed to publicize specific programs.
These brochures provide sufficient information for students to make
some initial decisions on their eligibility for and interest in the
program. In the new International Business degree program brochure,
for example, lower and upper division requirements are listed (see
example page from the brochure, below), as well as mission and goals
of the program, career opportunities, unique courses, admission
requirements, financial assistance, tuition and fees, and course
descriptions. |
Sample page from B.A.S. in
International Business program brochure
| In addition,
targeted publications are designed to reach specific markets. For
example, Steering to Success, A Practical Guide to Financial
Assistance is produced to increase both parents’ and students’
understanding of the College’s Financial Aid process and policies. |
Steering to Success
brochure
| The College’s
Web site serves as another means of communicating practices and
policies. This Web site contains the entire Catalog in an
easily-accessible, user-friendly format. |
Excerpt from College’s
Prospective Student page (page continues with more links)
A number of
academic program Web sites are themselves suitable for recruitment
purposes:
Sample program Web page
Enrollment
Management
SPC Enrollment
Management staff consists of the Director, four recruiters, eight
call center information specialists, and approximately a dozen
Student Ambassadors (number varies during the course of the year).
Enrollment Management organizational chart *
includes part-time employees
| The Office of Enrollment Management (OEM) exists to provide
potential students with information and personal assistance for
enrolling at SPC. Additionally, the OEM assists in retention and
customer service related issues. It is the goal of the OEM to
recruit and retain as many students as the staff can help. Some of
the tasks performed by the OEM include: |
Recruitment:
·
Call
management, using a common telephone number in all advertising and
media, so that all calls are logged for follow-up action.
·
Database marketing
·
Provide Institutional Advancement data regarding marketing efforts
·
Admissions tele-advising
·
Increase the overall awareness of SPC in the community
·
Provide effective outreach to local high schools
·
Chair
Collegewide Recruitment committee
·
Conduct focus groups with high school students
·
Targeting meetings related to Associate of Science and Bachelor’s
degree offerings at the College
Quality Customer Service:
·
Streamlining processes, e.g. admissions/registration processes
(telephone registration)
·
Help
to produce updated, accurate and useful student publications.
·
Registration assistance
·
Members of Collegewide Customer Service committee
Retention:
·
"A-Z
Let's Talk SPC" volunteer program
·
Conduct Focus groups with currently enrolled students
Counselors and Academic Advisors at various campuses also
visit local high schools and small businesses to recruit new
students.
The following SPC Recruitment
Diagram provides a detailed description of the Collegewide
recruitment process: |
Recruitment
Presentations
The College’s
recruitment personnel must be consistent in order to be effective in
communicating offerings and programs to potential students at high
schools and to community groups. These presentations, whether the topic
is admissions, financial aid/scholarships or degree programs, are
derived from the language of the catalog. Materials handed out in the
community are provided to the Enrollment Management department by
Institutional Advancement (IA).
For Associate degree
programs, IA develops the various pamphlets of information with
Provosts, Associate Provosts, and Program Directors to ensure that
material is accurately presented to prospective students. For the
baccalaureate degree programs, the Coordinator for Program Development &
Marketing and the 4-year recruiters meet with the various Deans to
develop a marketing campaign that coincides with what the recruiters
will be presenting to the community. IA sends out material review to
Enrollment Management, Program Directors, Provosts and other College
staff annually. At the bottom of each pamphlet is a date indicating
when it was last printed. |
Sample SPC
recruiting brochure featuring Student Ambassadors on cover (with date,
bottom left)
| The Enrollment Management staff is constantly referencing the
SPC Web site, College Catalog and Student Handbook to ensure that the
recruiters are providing accurate information to our students and
prospective students. |
Sample Web page with relevant information for Enrollment Management
| Recruiters
often use PowerPoint presentations developed by IA to promote the
College at various recruitment functions. The presentation, “Everyday
Heroes,” originally prepared to celebrate excellent Faculty at the
annual Fall Faculty Breakfast, has been used for a number of recruiting
events to highlight the special attention and outstanding instruction
from professors that prospective students may be seeking: |
Sample slide from “Everyday Heroes”
Student
Ambassadors.
Student Ambassadors (SA) are a volunteer group of currently enrolled SPC
students managed by the Enrollment Management department who, in
addition to attending classes, represent St. Petersburg College in many
different ways: offering assistance at an SPC or community event,
speaking to a group of high school students about the SPC opportunity,
or giving a tour at a campus. Student Ambassadors offer a bird's-eye
view of what student life is like at SPC and share their experiences
with prospective students.
Information Center.
Another of the recruitment tools is the College’s Information Center.
Potential students can access assistance by telephone, (727) 341-4SPC,
(4772). The Information Center houses the College's state-of-the-art
call-center that serves as a clearinghouse for information and questions
regarding St. Petersburg College. The three critical areas of
responsibility for the call center are customer service, recruitment and
retention of students. They are accountable to the customers and
trained to know the answers to most of the commonly asked questions
regarding St. Petersburg College or they will connect the customer with
the appropriate contact. In the event that a prospective student
requests information related to admissions, the prospective student's
contact information is stored in a database for the purpose of
facilitating meaningful follow-up. Examples of the types of information
and services that the call-center provides include: |
§
Answering
questions on:
·
Hours of
operation
·
Important
dates (i.e. Registration, Drop/Add, CLAST and Graduation)
·
Times,
dates and information on special events and extracurricular activities
on all campuses
·
Obtaining
transcripts
§
Sending
copies of the Catalog, course schedule booklet, application, and other
brochures to customers who prefer printed materials
§
Support
services on navigating the Web to find general information
§
Assisting
customers with the use of SPC remote registration systems
§
Scheduling tours of the Clearwater, Seminole, St. Petersburg/Gibbs and
Tarpon Springs campuses
§
Processing phone registration for noncredit courses
Cyber Recruiting.
In addition to face-to-face presentations and the phone-based
Information Center, the Enrollment Management Web site exists to provide
potential students with information and personal assistance about
enrolling at St. Petersburg College. These tools allow students to
increase their knowledge of the processes and procedures necessary for
successful matriculation.
As part of the Web
site, SPC has an online chat with Recruiters or Student Ambassadors
available several times a week so the new generation of
technically-savvy students may address questions in a fun and
interactive format. The Chat feature includes the downloadable software
to access the chat room. Students may also address inquiries to the
College Cyber Recruiter through the Web address.
Excerpt from
online College Catalog on Enrollment Management
|
| Training of
information specialists and recruiters. New information specialists sit for one
week with experienced specialists (one senior specialist has 23 years of
service) to receive training for the position. Information Specialists
are trained in customer service skills. They are trained to answer
commonly asked questions from incoming calls or connect the customer
with the appropriate contact, to enter prospects into the College’s
student information system, and to assemble packets of information to be
mailed. Recruiters meet with Associate Provosts, Deans and other
College staff to go over the various aspects of the programs they will
be marketing and to become familiar with the contents of the College’s
primary information resources: the College Catalog, Student
Handbook, Supplement to the Faculty, Staff, and Student Handbooks,
and the College Web site. It takes 6 months to a year for new
recruiters to become fully versed with the understanding of the
recruiting needs for the College. For example, the two 4-year
recruiters hired when the baccalaureate program started each were given
half the 4-year programs. The recruiters met with the Deans of their
assigned programs, along with the baccalaureate specialists, to develop
a recruitment plan of action for each respective program. The recruiters
and information specialists constantly are being trained on information
received from Educational and Student Services or meetings with Provosts
and other College staff. |
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