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COMMUNICATIONS AND

OUTREACH PLAN AY 2016-2017

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OVERVIEW For 96 years, Honolulu Community College has been serving the public in the area of higher education. Known as the Territorial Trade School in Kapālama, it opened its doors on February 2, 1920 to 42 students in the halls of the Old Chinese Hospital. Today, Honolulu Community College offers a comprehensive liberal arts program and strong Career and Technical Education programs that are industry focused. The College offers 23 programs, 26 associate degrees and 39 certificates. Some of the unique programs only Honolulu CC offers are: Music Enterprise Learning Experience (MELE), Small Vessel Fabrication and Repair, Aeronautics Maintenance Technology and Diesel Mechanics Technology. In addition, Honolulu supports apprenticeship training for the State of Hawai‘i with approximately 2,000 students in fields ranging from carpentry, masonry, and roofing to name a few. Students enjoy high-quality education at affordable tuition rates and receive instruction in small class environments taught by well-credentialed faculty who are dedicated to excellence in teaching. The Main Campus of Honolulu Community College, a short distance from the heart of downtown Honolulu, occupies over twenty acres on Dillingham Boulevard in the Kapālama area. The College also has facilities near Honolulu International Airport for the Aeronautics Maintenance, automotive and heavy equipment shops on Kōkea Street, and the Marine Education and Training Center at Sand Island. Honolulu Community College is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges and the National Coalition of Advanced Technology Center and has been continuously and fully accredited since 1970 by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Honolulu Community College is proud to celebrate its history educating a diverse student population and is committed to continuing the tradition of delivering excellence in higher education.

RATIONALE With enrollment on a downward trend system-wide, the college is committed to increasing enrollment with our targeted audiences and to sustain the tremendous efforts that were put into engaging our high school and community partners. To remain competitive in the educational arena especially with the growing usage of social media, and devices that deliver information almost instantly such as smart phones and iPads,

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Honolulu Community College must leverage new media and smart technology to establish itself as the premier post-secondary choice for graduating high school seniors as well as non-traditional or returning students looking to enhance their current skill set. As social media surpassing email and Internet usage, there is great potential to tap into this technology to not only recruit by to also retain current students. Today’s high school students were born when Google began and in grade school when Facebook took off. Developing new strategies targeted towards these new technologies will keep Honolulu CC at the forefront of innovation in education giving accessibility to all who want to learn. As of October 2014: 64% of American adults own a smartphone; this is up from 35% in 2011.

As of January 2014: 90% of American adults own a cell phone 32% of American adults own an e-reader 42% of American adults own a tablet computer 67% of cell owners find themselves checking their phone for messages, alerts, or calls — even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating. 44% of cell owners have slept with their phone next to their bed because they wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any calls, text messages, or other updates during the night. 29% of cell owners describe their cell phone as “something they can’t imagine living without.” According to a study by Hanover Research in March 2014:

§ Perhaps the largest area of innovation and growth in higher education marketing and branding, as well as in recruitment, is in the online and digital space. Although there is still some doubt that institutions are using technology to its full potential, particularly with social media and other emerging platforms, a recent survey by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth indicated that nearly 100 percent of institutions polled use some form of social media as part of their marketing and overall operations.

§ Among the most important tools for social and online marketing is an effective and intuitive website, which should be considered the “ultimate brand statement” for an institution. Websites often feature elements and layouts so as to streamline and highlight content, including navigation bars, engaging visuals such as slideshows, and prominent “call to action” buttons that encourage students to apply, for example.

§ Despite increased digital activity, a recent survey found that the most effective marketing strategies for universities are nevertheless events‐based and involve direct interaction with potential students. Radio ads, asking current students or alumni for applicant referrals, and online college fairs were deemed least effective, while the most

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effective methods of outreach were open houses and campus visit days for high school students.

§ Recruitment strategies in higher education increasingly focus on international students

and non‐traditional and adult learners. Colleges and universities in both Canada and the U.S. are competing for international students on a growing scale, with Canada increasing its international enrollments by 94 percent over the last decade, and the U.S. increasing international enrollments by nearly ten percent over last year.

WHO ARE OUR STUDENTS Below is a snapshot of who we are as a campus and the students we serve.

WHAT OUR STUDENTS ARE TELLING US In the fall of 2014, 2,716 current University of Hawai‘i Community College students took a Media Preference Survey. The results revealed students’ TV viewing and music listening

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habits, their online and social media activities, and more importantly, it revealed their preferred communication methods for school and social purposes. Here are some highlights from the survey results. The complete data summary can be found on the Honolulu CC intranet under Marketing Documents: http://programs.honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/sites/programs.honolulu.hawaii.edu.intranet/files/REDUCED WhoAreOurStudents_reduced.pdf Recruitment: 32% of our students selected on-campus tours as recruitment method that would have the most impact; but only 2.13% said the information from on-campus tours was useful. 37.8% of students college website is the most popular source of information students found useful when helping to decide on a college. Almost 24% of our students selected the Workplace as the source of most useful information, 2nd after the website. This tells us that word of mouth is a very powerful recruitment tool. Ensuring positive experiences for current students and alumni are extremely important. Via social media outlets students share their experiences. YELP, negative “…they never pick up the phone.” Twitter, negative “Your front line staff are worse than going to the DMV.” How do we improve customer service at each point? College email is the preferred method of receiving information from the college, over 40% in most cases and regarding event and college activities approximately 75%.

BEST PRACTICES According to an Inside Higher Education article on community college student orientation: “Students kept on telling us that they were overwhelmed that they were just receiving too much information at one time.” Tallahassee Community College’s New Student Orientation breaks up student by type for advising: transfer, high school, first time in college, etc. CCSSE High-Impact Practices for Community College Student Engagement promotes developing different orientation experiences for different types of students.

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“Orientation should provide new students with “just-in-time” information they’re “ready to learn” because it can be applied to meet their current needs; it shouldn’t overwhelm students with “information overload” that results in disorientation rather than orientation.”

National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience Campus Climate remained the most significant predictor of student persistence across all class levels, with odds ratios ranging from 1.67 in the first year to 1.15 in the junior year. These odds ratios indicate that for every one-unit increase in satisfaction with the campus climate, there is a 15 to 67 percent increase in the odds that a student will persist.

The Contribution of Student Satisfaction to Persistence

STRATEGY In the 2014 – 2015 academic year, Honolulu Community College combined the efforts of the Outreach Office and the Office of Communications & External Affairs to best align strategic messaging, branding and marketing to not only attract new students but also retain students with the college. This plan continues that partnership and deepens it with integrated strategies to optimize the efforts of both offices. In the summer of 2015, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Outreach, Counselors, and Communicators across the University of Hawai‘i Community College System came together to discuss the topic of integrated communications. There were seven touch points for communications that were identified and focused on to develop system-wide tactics.

1. Recruitment and Outreach 2. Application 3. Intake Process 4. Registration 5. First three-week of semester 6. Remainder of semester

There were seven hot topics that arose from the conversations: How do we better track students who didn’t show up or left us? How can we customize communications to target each diverse group? How do we customize “student orientation” to fit student demographics? How can we implement a communications calendar system-wide? How can we involve faculty and staff to improve communications? How can we improve campus tours? How can we better communicate through email & text?

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GOALS In alignment with the UHCC Strategic Plan, Honolulu CC is committed to increase the number of students enrolled. Specifically to meet system targets and/or to increase enrollment of the following populations:

§ High School graduates § GED recipients § Pacific Islanders § Working Age Adults § International Students § Fall to Fall Persistence/Retention

In addition, Honolulu Community College is committed to:

§ Continue to improve our relationships with high school administrators and counselors. § Establish new community connections. § Implement consistent messaging and branding while promoting and marketing the

college’s academic programs

OBJECTIVES 1. Improve the perception of Honolulu Community College as an affordable, high-quality

option for students. 2. Increase engagement amongst students, faculty and staff, alumni, donors and the

community. 3. Increase overall enrollment headcounts and SSH for each of the targeted populations to

meet the Hawai‘i Graduation Initiative.

TACTICS

SYSTEM-WIDE Timing Action

Utilize a Customer Relations Management System (CRM) to keep in constant contact with students (e.g. Starfish)

Year round

The UHCC Marketing and Communications Team met with the Financial Aid Officers to help integrate their messages with the overall integrated communications plan. We are working on a plan to build awareness of the new Financial Aid

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timeline targeting current students and prospective students. Three things that happened this summer: 1) Radio campaign to increase awareness of the application deadline and to encourage people to register for classes. (June and July) 2) Reminder postcard to continuing students who have not yet registered (those students who attended classes last semester; but didnʻt yet register for Fall 2016). Postcard to drop June 24, 2016. Message will include payment options information and payment deadline. 3) Customized Starfish message to remind students to register. Rollout in 1st week of July. (Message will include payment options information and payment deadline.)

Establish a system-wide communications calendar to provide just-in-time information that is relevant to a student at the time he/she needs it. Create ad-hoc committee to agree on key academic, financial and other deadlines in order to develop a system-wide communications calendar.

On-going

Creating messages via Starfish to promote system wide deadlines or announcements.

Establish a system-wide registration guide for consistent and clear directions for student to follow, no matter which campus they attend.

TBA

Establish UHCC Student Ambassadors who not only represent their campuses; but also represent the entire UHCC system. Student ambassadors will do outreach, campus tours, media interviews, speaking engagements, etc.

Fall 2016 Campuses are identifying individuals and developing training and responsibilities list

Redesign of hawaii.edu website and new campus page on the UH Foundation website

Fall 2016 Provide content and photos for redesign

SYSTEM-WIDE AND HONOLULU CC Timing Who

Conduct surveys of student to find out why they left us or why they applied but didn’t register for classes.

§ UHCC System will conduct a student survey on

September

UHCC Marketing & Communications

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media preferences that include customizable questions.

§ HonCC Administration Team to survey a sample of students and conduct focus groups

2016 Oct. - Nov 2016

Committee HonCC Administration / IRO

Utilize current technology to improve communications with students (e.g. mobile apps, text messaging system, improved websites, etc.)

§ Continued improvement of mobile app working with the KapCC IT Development Team

§ Continuous improvements to the HonCC website - Creation of a new Welcome landing page - Revamp Outreach page - Revamp Online Orientation page - Creation of Online Orientation Video

§ Update social media plan to keep up to date with latest trends; look into establishing a presence with LinkedIn for alumni engagement

§ Utilize iPads as part of Outreach Kit. iPads to include videos and photos of all programs.

§ Improve website training/handout for students and targets schools

§ Text messaging

On-going On-going Fall 2016 Fall 2016 Spring 2017

Communications & External Affairs/ KapCC/ Web Programmer Communications / Outreach Communications Outreach/Communications

HONOLULU COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Customize New Student Orientation (NSO) to the audience’s attributes (e.g. part-time, working adult, traditional high school, online, transfer, etc.)

§ Evaluation of current NSO § Research national NSO best practices § Build new online NSO webpage for Spring 2017

roll out that is user friendly § Create an online orientation video § Welcome Tables every semester

Fall 2016

Outreach/Communications in consultation with Acad. Counseling Web Programmer

College Orientation Help Desk where students can acquire information and/or seek answers to their question.

§ Brainstorm the concept to fit in the new space in the administration building (i.e. layout, technology, staffing, hours of operation)

§ Customer service training § Outreach training for faculty and staff § Pending office move from portables to ‘Olani -

Spring 2017

Outreach

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Building 6 § Revise Outreach page on the website

Fall 2016

Outreach/ Communications/ Web Programmer

Enhance campus tours by integrating Hawaiian sense of place. Engage faculty to help create the walking tour of campus with historical factoids and other interesting campus stories. (Title III grant)

§ Transcribe current campus tour and incorporate Hawaiian points of pride

Create a data system for identifying the number of tours per year and number of students who visit. Incorporate more interactive activities during campus tours as well as including different support services programs such as Student Life.

Fall 2016 training and rollout Fall 2016, Ongoing

Outreach/Hawaiian Studies/Communications Outreach Outreach/Student Life/ Hawaiian Center

Increase internal communications to faculty/staff to build pride, partnerships and participation in our communications efforts (e.g., campus blogs, online newsletters, sharing opportunities where departments, units, offices can share what they do, etc.)

§ Communications office continues to do weekly email blasts (Honolulu in the News) and blog posts (Water Cooler)

§ The promoting events on campus procedures were updated and will be shared with the various committees and groups around campus

§ Communications and Outreach Trainings for Faculty

§ Outreach Office to have semester updates on Outreach Events and Dual Credit

§ Outreach Office to coordinate faculty volunteers for college fairs and high school visits

On-going

Communications Communications Communications/Outreach Outreach Outreach

We Are Honolulu Community College § Create a :30 commercial with this theme § Capture images and stories of new, and current

students, alumni, faculty and staff and share their stories of why they choose HonCC

§ Campus mall banner display

Summer 2016 Ongoing

Communications / KITV Communications/PTK partnership

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§ Create promotional ad campaign to include print, radio, and digital to promote summer and fall registration

§ Creation of new outreach landing page Welina § Creation of new tabletop banners.

Outreach

Revise Collateral Material § Update fact sheet § Update program rack cards § Create new admissions rack card § Revise program info on website § Revise desk reference guide

Develop sustainable materials for prospective students that serve as an instructional guide for next steps and as a resource for them to continue to use.

Fall 2016

Communications/ Design Center Outreach

Annual Report to the Community 2015-2016 § Provide shareholders of the college a document

that shares how the college has been performing. § Develop theme and story ideas § Write, copy edit, and design annual report § Annual report distribution

Begin Fall 2016 Distribution in Spring 2017

Communications / Design Center

STAR Registration § Develop communications plan to include social

media campaign, advising month, banners, web banner, star centers

September 2016 for October 2016 rollout

DoSS / Communications / Counseling

Donor and Scholarship Mahalo Reception § Plan reception to thank donors and to celebrate

our students

November 2016

Communications / UH Foundation / FinAid

Full Circle Fashion Fundraiser § Plan fundraiser to raise funds for the fashion

technology program with a dinner, fashion show and silent auction

Fall 2016 planning Feb 2017 event

Communications/ UH Foundation

STEM marketing and recruitment plan § Finalize and deploy Mars curriculum § Partner with Central DOE Complex for their

Science and Engineering Fair in 2017 § Mentor and judges for fair

Fall2016 – Spring 2017

Communications / STEM marketing sub-group

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Community Partnerships § Kanu Hawaii § McKinley Community School for Adults § RobotX § Kupu Hawaii

Perkins § Develop materials with a CTE focus that include

how to prepare for the programs, how to be successful in the Trades, as well as starting wages

§ Plan and implement a campus-wide CTE event for Counselors

Ongoing Spring 2017

Outreach

Gear Up / Running Start / Early College § Refine plan for ECHS students § Develop consistent method of processing MOA’s § Develop consistent method of establishing

instructors for ECHS courses § Develop standardized schedule for

recruitment/admissions, gathering medical clearances, COMPASS testing, registration, follow-up, and outreach

§ Continue to work with established partner campuses: Farrington, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Pearl City

§ Continue to work with GEAR UP partners and ECHS Technical Assistance to ensure course offerings are congruent with ECHS partner campus (Farrington) needs

§ Work on structured course offerings to allow for possible transfer opportunities

§ Continue to explore CTE offerings § Explore partnership with Kamehameha Schools

and Radford High School § Determine sources of institutional funding to

ensure stability of Early College programs

Ongoing DoSS / Outreach / Counseling / Admissions & Records / UC

Summer HS Programs

Construction Academy / Automotive / GenCyber/ Engineering

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Summer School

PCATT/Acad. Deans/Outreach/ Communications

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CAMPUS FOCUS All of the above mentioned tactics will move the college forward in deepening our relationships and utilization of technology to best communicate with our target audiences. Combining the efforts of the Communication and Outreach Offices will strengthen our recruitment and retention efforts. However, it is the responsibility of the entire campus to embrace the “student-centered, student-focused” philosophy to help the campus meets its strategic outcomes and performance measures. During this summer’s Integrated Communications for Recruitment and Retention workshop, the work groups from the seven community colleges agreed on the following tactics to help with the communication and identified the importance of customer service The College can accomplish this by working on the following actions:

Establish protocols for better communications (e.g. respond to emails within 24 hours; return phone messages within the day; answer phones rather than set phones to automatic answering machine; etc.) Faculty and staff training is vital if communications plan is to succeed (e.g. communications technology tools, customer service, etc.) Constant communication nudges will improve student flow through the recruitment, application and intake process. Student-focused messages will be better received by students (e.g. in their communication style, language, etc.) Common language and protocols will improve data collection and evaluation; as well as provide students with a positive experience as they navigate through the application, intake and registration process system-wide.