In This Issue Current Issue Archives

June, 2007

Recruitment & Retention - June, 2007 - Full issue PDF
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Reconsidering Financial Aid Communications
By Catherine Stover
Are the best writers and communicators on your campus in your financial aid office? Probably not. And yet perhaps they should be. The financial aid office has three very important communication tasks, all of which are high-profile. First, the office writes financial aid award letters. Second, the office must now answer policy questions about its relationship with lenders. Third, the office helps students understand their financial aid packages. In recent weeks, controversies have highlighted how important effective communication is in all these areas and how easy it is to miscommunicate.

Newswire
Sharp increase in Web spending: According to a nationwide study by Lipman Hearne, Inc., and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), colleges are spending 50 percent more on marketing programs than they did in 2000. Much of the increase in the marketing budget went to support increased interactive and Web spending. The study is available at www.lipmanhearne.com/resources/. More news items follow.

Avoiding Excessive Activity Syndrome in Retention Planning
By Cindy Skaruppa
In retention planning, it’s easy to attempt to do too much. The tendency to take on too many projects and strategies simultaneously is so common that it has become known as what Richard Chang calls “excessive activity syndrome.” You know that you are doing too much when many different activities have been widely implemented, with limited measurable and visible results to show for the effort over a reasonable period of time.

75 Possible Retention-Related Actions/Strategies
The following list identifies 75 retention actions and strategies.

More Selectivity, Anxiety, and Wait Lists: Trends in Admissions
By Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti
What do the current trends tell us about next fall’s students? “The story continues to be reconciling [the tension] between the record number of applications and recruiting to enroll,” says David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).

Let Data Speak for Itself: Campus Safety as a Recruitment Issue
By Ralph L. Hatley
After the tragic events at Virginia Tech, we invited campus security consultant Ralph Hatley – who has previously written in these pages about taking a student developmental approach to campus security – to describe how campus security has become a recruitment issue.—C.S.