Engaging Campus Partners in Recruitment Activities

You can’t expect people to participate in something they don’t understand. Be strategic in how you communicate with stakeholders so they have a clear image of what you’re trying to achieve and how they can help.

 

As an admissions professional, it can be tough to get academic leaders, faculty, and other campus partners to readily participate in key recruitment touch points with prospective students and families. They might not think it’s their job, they might perceive recruitment activities like sales, or they may simply feel too busy.

In this lesson, we’ll spotlight how 3 large public institutions have found creative solutions for bringing campus partners into the fold while generating meaningful participation for their recruitment events.

Kennesaw State University

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University of North Georgia

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University of Texas at Arlington

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5 Tips for Engaging Campus Partners in Recruitment Activities

1. Make Participation Easy
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Make participation easy to get more involvement from your campus partners. Examples for making participation easy include:

• Providing campus partners with simple strategies for participating like waving and saying hi to visiting students.
• Sending departments the contact information of perspective students so they can reach out and connect with prospective students. These lists can be sent out before or after recruitment events.

2. Make Sure There is a Give-and-Take
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All 3 institutions we spoke with make sure their campus partners benefit from getting involved. Some examples of this are:

• Ethan has offered up his department for coursework. He’s made it known that if a class needs a real case study or stakeholder for an assignment his department will willingly participate. See the University of North Georgia’s profile in the above slides to learn more.
• Karen participates in the events of other departments. For example, she volunteers for the Career Center to help with their job fair each year.
• Meredith uses some time during her campus visit council meetings to learn what the other members are doing so she can find ways to support them.

 

 

3. Clearly Define Time Involvement
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Everybody is busy, and you may experience some reluctance from potential campus partners simply because they don’t have a clear sense of how much time participating in recruitment events will take.

Make sure to clarify the time you will need from your campus partners up front.

4. Don’t Assume Potential Partners Know About Recruitment
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Ethan, Meredith, and Karen shared that they encountered a general lack of awareness about recruitment that made it challenging to grow participation in their events. But, once their campus partners understood the role of recruitment better it got easier. Make sure to take the time to bring your campus partners up to speed so they understand how recruitment impacts them.

As an example, Ethan has tailored his messaging to deans and department heads to help them understand how their  involvement impacts the students they end up serving. The messaging really drives home the link between getting involved in recruitment activities and their core educational mission.

5. Survey Your Partners
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Leverage the combined intelligence, perspectives, and creativity of your campus partners by surveying them.

• Karen kicked off her campus visit council by sending the members on the campus tour. She then surveyed them to learn about their experiences and how they would change the experience.
• Meredith has also gathered the perspectives of her council members via survey to help identify needed improvements to the campus visit experience.

If you choose to survey your campus partners, make sure you communicate what the survey uncovered and how you plan on using the information.