pr campaign for the ccps

Table of Contents

Introduction …………………………………………….. 5

Secondary Research …………………………………. 6

Primary Research …………………………………….. 10

Objectives, Strategies and Tactics ……………… 14

Budget ……………………………………………………... 18

Timeline …………………………………………………… 20

Evaluation ………………………………………………… 21

Appendix ………………………………………………….. 22

2

Introduction

The College of Community and Public Service (CCPS) at Grand Valley State

University was founded in 2004 with the mission of “educate students for professional

careers through excellent teaching, learning, scholarship, and service that promote just and

democratic communities, and ethical and effective leadership” (“College of Community and

Public Service at Grand Valley State University,” n.d.). This school offers four different units,

School of Criminal Justice, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, School of Public

Nonprofit and Health Administration, and the School of Social Work, along with the best

Academic Advising Center at Grand Valley and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy, which

provide the enrolled students with an active experience during the learning process. The

people forming this school, does not only include professors, but other staff and individuals

from the community who are professionals in the field and have a wide range of

experience. The professors are dedicated to excellent curriculums by using inspiring ways

of teaching. They all aspire to be well known within the community and the university

(“College of Community and Public Service at Grand Valley State University,” n.d.). The

teaching philosophy is mainly related to a liberal education. Academic excellence in

learning, teaching, and research; diversity; community; or social justice are just some of the

values that the CCPS works with while addressing local, regional, national, and global

issues (“College of Community and Public Service at Grand Valley State University,” n.d.).

Dr. Paul Stansbie, who is an Associate Dean of the College of Community and Public

Service hired the students in the Fundamentals of Public Relations Class, to conduct a

campaign in order to advocate for an identity that creates engagement between CCPS,

GVSU and surrounding communities. Mr. Stansbie joined Grand Valley State University in

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2003 and since then he has been mainly working for the Hospitality and Tourism

Management Department. He does not just work for GVSU, but he currently serves in the

Board of Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association and the International Society of Travel

and Tourism Educators (“College of Community and Public Service at Grand Valley State

University,” n.d.).

Dr. Stansbie is concerned about the College of Community and Public Service. The

number of students enrolled is not as high as he and the people on top of this institute

would like it to be. It is believed that the main reason is that students are not aware of the

existence of this college. People in charge of the school have tried different ways to reach

out more students but these have not worked quite well. Communication letters, emails to

students, or advertising themselves on Facebook, seem to not be good enough to recruit

more students into the program.

The number of enrolled students is approximately 2500, and this number is actually

decreasing every year. If students knew about some of the beneficial things that the CCPS

offers (internship opportunities, co curricular classes, study abroad experiences,

professionals experiences, etc.), it would be easy to increase the number of students in the

program. Also by promoting the school in a better way not only within Grand Valley but in

high schools or other universities in the area, the numbers would definitely go up.

Due to the problems presented, there are three main objectives for this campaign: to

raise awareness about the CCPS, to increase the enrollment of students in the program, and

to make the school an engaged one by establishing connections between students, faculty

and staff, and the community. By accomplishing these objectives and keeping in mind the

main goal of the campaign (to advocate for an identity that creates engagement between

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CCPS, GVSU, and surrounding communities) the CCPS will form an outstanding and

personal brand, that will be recognizable by Grand Valley Students, future students, and

other people in the community. In this Plan Book, I will go over the necessary steps that the

client will need to follow in order to reach this goal.

5

Secondary Research

Methodology

The majority of this secondary research was conducted by using Grand Valley State

University databases. At the beginning none specific databases were used but just the

search box in the GVSU library website, because more than once it has happened to find

good information in here. The words used introduced in the search box were based on the

objectives (create a brand that stands out for this college, and create a connection between

the different schools in the college of Community and Public Service) and the goal (To

increase brand recognition through community engagement) for this campaign. Some of

the words used for the search were Hospitality and Tourism, enrolling students, or

declaring a major. However, the information got by using these words was not useful for

the research.

After that some databases started to be used. The first choice was Academic Search

Premier since it was the one used for previous research. By using the same key words the

information that popped up was not applied to the US, cause it was related to different

countries in Europe or Asia. Even when I included “US” in my keywords the information

was still not accurate to my topic.

The next step taken then was to look into the CAP 220 page that the GVSU library

has. On this page there was useful information about citing or evaluating sources,

psychographics or demographics and also specific databases, books, videos related to

Advertising and Public Relations. When the key words “college students,” “selecting a

major,” “hospitality and tourism,” or “enrollment” were introduced, some of the databases

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from this website like ABI/INFORM Complete, Business Source Complete and ProQuest

Social Science Journals were very useful on providing relevant information.

The search of information continued by using the University databases and the

subject box to narrow down the search. Advertising and Public Relations was selected as

the subject and some databases were founded. Nevertheless, the information provided by

these platforms was very specific about this field and not useful at all for my topic of

research.

The sources found on the previous databases were good to start the secondary

research. However, while typing out this paper some other concepts and ideas started to

come up and needed to be supported with sources so the Academic Search Premier

database was used again and by introducing the words “hospitality and tourism” and

“career” I found more results that could be used.

Finally it was decided to also use the CCPS website where information about the

school itself was provided and also about the different programs, the advising center, and

what an engaged college means for them.

Audience Analysis

According to Paul Stansbie and his client presentation the College of Community and Public

Service (CCPS) is being suffering a crisis lately. This school is in need of a Public Relations

campaign that promotes its programs in order to enroll more students. Their main concern

is that the CCPS’ brand recognition is not strong enough, so they are trying to create an

outstanding identity through community engagement (Stansbie, 2016)

After Dr. Stansbie’s talk, it was defined that the secondary research needed for this

campaign had to be focused on the factors that make students picking between one major

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or another. By figuring this out, the CCPS could find a better way to reach out students.

Ideally, the issues of this department would start to be solved and the number of students

that enroll this program along with its recognition in Grand Valley would increase.

The article Getting through school: A study of how students select their college majors

and plan for the future mentions how “College is an ideal time to examine whether students

are making well-informed choices and developing life plans,” (Pittaoulis, 2012, p. 18).

Different from High School, college can be considered as a precursor to pursuing a career.

Choosing a college major is in fact one of the most important moments of the college

experience. (Pittaoulis, 2012).

In the article Influences on Students’ Choice of College Major, it is read how future

college students considerate different factors while trying to pick a major. They keep in

mind their interest in the subject, the availability of jobs, their aptitude for the subject, and

the earnings potential related to that major. However, “results show that the interest in the

subject was the most important factor for the incoming freshmen, regardless of gender.”

(Malgwi, Howe, Burnaby, 2005, p. 6).

Regarding the gender of the students, there are some differences on their decisions

while picking a major. For example, in terms of the level of compensation in the field, the

major’s potential career advancement, and job opportunities male tended to be more

concerned about these. On the other hand, for females the most influential factor after the

interest in the subject was the aptitude in the subject (Malgwi, Howe, Burnaby, 2005).

Another interesting finding made by these authors is that high school courses, high

school advisors or even parents or any other family members did not have any kind of

influence on the kids when deciding the major they want to study. This was very surprising

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because people tend to think that freshmen might be expected to be more heavily

influenced by those factors but research proved it wrong (Malgwi, Howe, Burnaby, 2005).

Target Audience

After all the facts given before it is pretty obvious that the main target audience are

first year college students and senior students in high school.

As it has been seen, the main concern students have in order to pick a major is their

interest on the subject. This is why the main focus of this campaign should be promoting

the broadness of this program, so students can see that their interests could be easily

fulfilled. Including all the departments (Criminal Justice, Legal Studies, Hospitality and

Tourism Management, Police Academy, Public Administration, and Social Work) students

have a big range of different fields of study and even inside of each department there are

different specialties where they could emphasize their career.

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Primary Research

A primary research was conducted within Grand Valley State University students to obtain

qualitative and quantitative data about the students’ opinions, feelings, and thoughts about

the College of Community and Public Service. Although are the obtained results are

considered valid, the number of students that participated in this study was very small

compared to the total number of students at this school.

The realization of this primary research was important for the development of this

plan book since all the information was crucial for the later analysis and drawing of the

objectives, strategies and tactics that will provide the client with the solutions to his

problem.

Methodology

This primary research was conducted in two parts that took place in the same week.

The first part consisted of the conduction of a focus group with the purpose of getting

qualitative data.

This focus group, conducted on March 23rd at the Mary Idema Pew Library, was

moderated by Samantha Souza who lead the participants into the different topics of

conversation. Carly Armaly, along with taking notes, was complementing Samantha with

some other questions. Lindsay Floor and Gonzalo Rodriguez were observing the reactions

and behaviors of the participants when answering the questions and keeping the

discussion. 7 participants who were freshman, sophomores, or juniors formed the group.

They all were asked to respond the questions asked by the moderator, and try to keep up

with the conversation in a good and respectful environment.

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The second part of the primary research was a survey. This survey included 10

questions that were not only selected to benefit the plan book as a whole, but also to attend

the needs each of the conductors had for their individual researches. In less than 24 hours,

100 students took the survey in sent out with Survey Monkey that provided the researches

with some good quantitative data.

Results

Focus group

The focus group started with all of the 7 participants introducing themselves by

saying their names, class standing (all between freshman and juniors), major and location

of living. In order to make them feel more comfortable before starting the actual discussion,

they were also asked to share the animal they would like to be.

After that the conversation began. The first question that started everything was if

they were any familiar with CCPS. None of them were. The only thing that was mentioned is

that the first thing they heard/read about was at the survey they took a couple days

previous the focus group. This lead them to say that this school doesn’t have any kind of

presence on campus and that the CCPS advising center or the Johnson center for

philanthropy were unknown places for them.

The next topic of conversation was “majors.” The participants shared that most of

them declared their major during their sophomore year, except for a couple of them that

did it at the beginning of their freshman year. Some of the things that they had in mind

when selecting their major were: interest on the field, whether or not they will be able to

find a job after graduation, or the enjoyment in the field. Participants confessed that none

of them knew about any of the CCPS majors when they were going to declare theirs. They

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also said how they did not go to the GVSU advising centers because they got all the

information they needed by email or on the GVSU website. The freshman orientation topic

was also brought up with negative reviews. They considered them to be boring, useless and

at the same time overwhelming due to all the stuff they learned and how much emphasis

was put into choosing a major as soon as possible. The participants said how they would

have liked to hear more about the General Education program or other experiences outside

academics.

The next topic of conversation was service learning. They all agreed that service

learning was something very beneficial for students especially if it had something to do

with their major. They shared some previous service learning activities that they had done

like shadowing or volunteering experiences.

Finally, the focus group talked about advertising and how this is more effective in

students. The participants confessed that since they spend so much time on social media

they see so much online advertising. However, they skim or ignore it because it doesn’t

catch their attention. On the other hand they said that they were more likely to be

influenced by printing advertising. The problem about this is that they would need

someone to give them some kind of printed material because they would not be willing to

just take it by themselves.

Survey

Like it was said in the methodology, 100 Grand Valley Students took the survey

composed by 10 questions. The lower class students were better represented with a 65% of the

participants against a 35% between juniors and seniors.

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As it can seen in the graph below, the numbers were pretty similar when they are asked to

tell when they declared their major. Also, only 25% of them were part of the CCPS. Which is

related to the result that more than half of the participants agreed that this school is not popular at

GV.

Another result that is important to highlight is how 70% of the students agreed that the

advising centers were either moderately useful or useful.

Also, with the amount of students that are in social media these are the results got from

the question: if CCPS had social media, would you be more willing to follow them and read what

they have to say?

Finally from out of the 100 students 66 confessed that they were more susceptible to print

advertisement.

Freshman Year

Sophomore Year

Junior Year Senior Year 05

10152025303540

27

36

25

10

64%

30%

6%

Yes No

Maybe*

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Objectives, Strategies and Tactics

In order to move forward with the plan, three main objectives have been designed

in correlation with the goal that will help having a more organized and clear campaign.

Having strong objectives is also key for the realization of a successful campaign that will

provide us with a solution for our client’s problem. Each objective is accompanied by a

strategy that explains the overall plan, how the campaign will achieve the organizational

goals and objectives. Also, each strategy will be assigned a tactic. These are the activities

specifically created and selected to reach particular and measurable objectives. These

tactics are also the actual ways in which the strategies are executed.

Objective 1

The first objective for this campaign is to raise awareness for CCPS by 15% within

Grand Valley Students by the end of Winter 2017. One of the first things that will be done in

order to raise this awareness is to work with the general advising center on campus. The

advisors will receive all the information about the College of Community and Public Service

in order to help the students to pick or change their major. They will be provided with

flyers, that student can take, with information about the CCPS programs, advising center,

and future careers. In addition to this strategy, with the development of technologies, most

of the students have smartphones, and therefore they own social media accounts. This is

going to be another way for us to raise awareness, with the use of social media. Facebook

and Twitter have been selected as the platforms on which the CCPS will be represented.

Posts providing information about the programs, advising sessions, and different events

will make the Grand Valley students who follow these accounts to stay updated. Finally the

third strategy regarding this objective is to make the Freshman Orientation a better

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experience for the incoming students. The way this will be done is by making the transition

leaders go through a training session where they will learn more about all the programs

offered at the school. This will offer them a better understanding of the academic aspect of

the school. After this training, they will be able to advise the freshman more effectively. At

the end of Winter 2017 semester, the same survey that was conducted during Winter 2016

asking Grand Valley students about what they knew of CCPS will be conducted again to see

if there is an increase on this awareness.

Objective 2

The second objective for this campaign is to increase the enrollment of students in

the CCPS by 200 more undergraduate students for Fall 2017. According to the data the

CCPS released last year with the number of enrolled students, the class that had the lowest

amount was the freshman class. To solve this problem, faculty and stuff from this school

will attend some of the big high schools around the area to do some orientation about

college majors emphasizing the majors offered by the CCPS.

One of the reasons of why the number of sophomores, juniors, and seniors enrolled

in this school is higher than the freshman class could be that they are getting students that

were unsatisfied with their previous majors. Therefore, another strategy will be to

increase, even more, the number of students who switch their major into one within the

CCPS. One of the tactics used for objective will be used for this strategy as well. The general

advisors at Grand Valley will receive all the information about the College of Community

and Public Service in order to help the students who are willing to change their major. The

advising center will be provided with flyers that students can take with information about

the CCPS programs, advising center, and future careers.

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Finally, the third strategy that goes along with this objective is to increase the

number of transfer students who are at schools that do not offer the majors existing in the

CCPS at Grand Valley State University. The advising centers at these schools will receive

some paperwork with basic information recommending the CCPS. This will let the students

contact the GVSU advising center asking for more information about the program.

Objective 3

The final objective for this campaign is to increase the engagement within the CCPS

students, alumni, faculty and staff by the end of winter 2017. This was considered another

major objective due to the complaints done by the client about the lack of engagement

within this school. To accomplish this objective the first strategy will be to get the alumni

involved. The client reported how he would like to have some of the alumni offering

internships to the actual students or making donations to the school. In order to make this

happen, the first thing that needs to be done is to make the alumni feel that they are still a

part of the school; that they have not been forgotten. The school will be organizing

community gatherings once a semester inviting professors, enrolled students, and of

course, alumni, where the attendants will have the opportunity to hear from faculty about

what has been accomplished that semester; the students receiving awards and

scholarships due to their excellent performance; and some alumni will give a speech about

what they are working with in the moment or just giving some advice to the

undergraduates. After the formal part of the event, food and drinks will be provided so all

the attendants can hang out, get to know each other, and establish some connections.

Not only alumni should be engage with the school but also the enrolled students

themselves. Establishing connections within the different programs that the CCPS offers

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and the community will be a good solution to increase the engagement in the school. This

will be done by helping real companies planning and organizing events or other

opportunities that they may offer at the end of the semester, where students can apply all

they have learned during the semester and also work together making this event to run

smoothly.

Finally, the last strategy for this third objective is to make CCPS students to be more

engaged with the community by doing volunteering and service hours. Volunteering

services have a big impact on students. It is not just a way to be more involved with the

community, because volunteering make students learn and develop new skills, have a

motivation and sense of achievement, boost their career options, allow them finding more

interest and hobbies and provides them with a full of new experiences. To measure if the

tactics proposed on this plan book have been effective in order to accomplish this third

objective, a focus group will be conducted at the end of Winter semester 2017 between

members of the CCPS, where their answers to the questions and their reactions to them

will allow us see if the engagement has increased.

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Budget

Below is the estimated budget needed for the execution of the campaign designed

for the college of community and public service at GVSU. The company’s finances are

allocated in a very strategic way in order to use the money in the most strategic way

possible. In the first objective much of the money has been allocated to staff members that

can best promote the CCPS through public relations and marketing. In order to promote

best they also have a significant budget to create fliers and materials to use to get the word

out. The second objective, or the second part of the process following getting the students

to become aware of the CCPS, is to get them to enroll in the school. Over half of the money

is allocated to support staff for ease of enrollment and transition into the school. Magazines

are also used to inform the students about everything they could ever need to know about

this college. The third objective following getting students to enroll is to get them as

engaged into the college as possible. Posters and food get them to CCPS events beyond just

the classroom so they can explore everything about the school and people behind it.

Item Price Unit Amount TotalObjective 1

Tactic 1

Staff $10.00 Hour10 Hours/Month x 2

Months$200.00

Flyers $0.10 Unit 2000 Flyers $200.00Tactic 2


Months$3,600.00

Tactic 3


Months$800.00

Material $20.00 Pack 50 Packs $1,000.00Total $5,800.00

Objective 2

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Tactic 1


Months$1,600.00

Tactic 2


Months$200.00

Flyers $0.10 Unit 2000 Flyers $200.00Tactic 3

Staff $10.00 Hour 50 Hours/Month x 1 Month $500.00Magazines $2.00 Unit 500 Magazines $1,000.00

Total $3,500.00Objective 3

Tactic 1


Month$6,000.00

Posters $1.00 Unit 400 Posters $400.00Food $1,500.00 Event 2 Event $3,000.00

Tactic 2


Month$6,000.00

Tactic 3Posters $1.00 Unit 150 Posters $150.00

Total $15,550.00

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Timeline

This Gant chart explains how each objective will be focused by time when it comes to

planning, execution, and evaluation. Most of the planning needs to be done in the spring

and summer of 2016 to ensure all departments are ready for students in the fall. The fall

and winter will be used for realization, or implementing all the tactics designed for the

campaign. Spring and summer of 2017 and for objective 2, Fall 2017, will be used mostly

for evaluation of how everything they did worked out.

ItemSpring/Summer

2016Fall 2016

Winter 2017

Spring/Summer 2017

Fall 2017

Objective 1Tactic 1Tactic 2Tactic 3



Key

Planning Realization Evaluation

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Evaluation

This evaluation will provide the client with the necessary things to do in order to

measure the success of the campaign. The objectives for this campaign were: (1) to raise

awareness for CCPS by 15% within Grand Valley Students by the end of Winter 2017, (2) to

increase the enrollment of students in the CCPS by 200 more undergraduate students for

Fall 2017, and (3) to increase the engagement within the CCPS students, alumni, faculty and

staff by the end of winter 2017.

The way the first objective will be evaluated is by conducting, at the end of Winter

2017 semester, the same survey that was conducted during Winter 2016 to ask Grand

Valley students about what they knew of CCPS, to see if there is an increase on this

awareness.

In order to make sure that the second objective is met, the number of enrolled

students at the beginning of the Fall 2017 will be checked and compared with the number

of students right now to check if there has been a growth.

Finally, to see if the engagement within the College of Community and Public Service

has increased, a focus group will be conducted with some of the students, faculty, alumni,

and community members in this school as participants. They will be the ones determining

if this objective has been fulfilled.

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Appendix AReferences

College of Community and Public Service. (n.d.). Retrieved January 27, 2016, from

https://www.gvsu.edu/ccps

Malgwi, C. A., Howe, M. A., & Burnaby, P. A. (2005). Influences on students' choice of college

major. Journal of Education for Business, 80(5), 275-282. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/docview/202821294?

accountid=39473

Milman, A., & Whitney, P. A. (2014). Evaluating Students’ Experience and Satisfaction at a

Hospitality and Tourism College Career Fair. Journal Of Human Resources In

Hospitality & Tourism, 13(2), 173-189. doi:10.1080/15332845.2014.847304

Pittaoulis, M. (2012). Getting through school: A study of how students select their college

majors and plan for the future (Order No. 3494134). Available from ProQuest

Education Journals. (920120438). Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/docview/920120438?

accountid=39473

Stansbie, Paul (2016). Client Presentation [Lecture]. Grand Valley State University.

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Appendix BSurvey

IntroductionThank you for taking the time to share your opinions on the topic, we appreciate your input. The objective of this survey is to gain insight on your thoughts about the College of Community and Public Service at Grand Valley State University. This survey will take approximately 2-5 minutes to complete. Be assured that your answers to this survey will be confidential

Common goals Finding information about digital marketing and how it pertains to students How students went about choosing their major Finding information about how much GV students know about CCPS Finding more information about target audience

Questions

1. What is your standing in school?a) Freshmanb) Sophomorec) Juniord) Senior

2. Is your major any of the following?a) Criminal Justiceb) Hospitality and Tourism Management c) Social Workd) Public and Non Profit Administratione) Health Administrationf) Legal Studies

3. When did you declare your major?

4. Where did you get the information about the programs at GVSU?a) GVSU Websiteb) Career Fairc) Freshman Orientationd) Other

5. If the Seidman College of Business was considered a 5 in terms of popularity on campus, what would you consider CCPS?

1) No one knows about it2) Not popular3) Somewhat popular4) Popular

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5) Very Popular

6. Do you feel that your choice of major would have been impacted if orientation was more informational and acknowledged a larger variety of career paths?

7. If you were aware of CCPS and its majors while being an incoming freshman, would you have explored a major in this college?

8. On a scale of 1-5, how useful do you think the advising centers at Grand Valley are?

9. Do you think you are more susceptible to advertisements:a) Printb) Digital

10. If CCPS had social media, would you be more willing to follow them and ready what they have to say?

Appendix C

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Moderator Guide

Focus Group: March 23rd at 6:00PM in room 305 of MIP.

I. INTRODUCTION Welcome to our focus group, my name is Samantha Souza and I am your moderator

for today. Thank you for taking time out of your evening to attend this group and share your

opinions on the topic.

The objective of this focus is to figure out your opinions and gain insight on your thoughts about the College of Community and Public Service at Grand Valley State.

I am a student at Grand Valley and I am conducting this focus group for my CAP 220 class. Carly will be here to take notes and ask any additional questions. Gonzalo and Lindsay will be here to take additional notes and observe body language.

It is important to keep in mind that your participation is voluntary and you may withdraw at any time without penalty, if you feel the need to do so.

At this time we will pass around a compliance form for you all to fill out. Please read through it thoroughly and sign below if you are in agreement.

All information is completely confidential and will be used to write a report. Does anyone have any questions before we begin? Please turn off all devices including cell phones, iPads, laptops, etc.

II. GROUND RULES This session will last about 45 minutes. This session will be recorded, but the information will only be used in a report for

class. Please answer each question honestly. There are no right or wrong answers. Everyone needs to talk but each person doesn’t have to answer each question Please do not speak at the same time. Talk in a clear voice and avoid side conversations. It is distracting to the group and I

don’t want to miss any of your comments. Exchange points of view with each other - you do not need to address all the

answers to me. Does anyone have any questions before we begin?

III. BACKGROUND (5 minutes) We are going to go around and introduce ourselves to each other. Please state your name, class standing, major and location of living.

o (Allendale campus, Downtown campus, on-campus, off-campus) If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?

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IV. PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE (5-10 minutes) Are you familiar with the College of Community and Public Service?

o After they answer question read our definition: “CCPS stands for the College of Community and Public Service. It is a

college at Grand Valley that includes majors in Criminal Justice, Social Work, Legal Studies, Hospitality and Tourism Management, Public, Nonprofit, and Health Administration. Additionally, this department houses an advising center and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy.”

Do you feel that they have a presence on campus? Have you ever been to the College of Community and Public Service advising center?

o Do you know where it is located? When did you declare your major? Are you familiar with the Johnson Center for Philanthropy?

V. ENGAGED COLLEGE (20 - 30 minutes) What do you feel that an engaged college is?

o After they answer question read our definition: “Grand Valley has long been engaged with community partners, many

through individuals or discipline-specific ties. In addition, students across campus are encouraged to engage in service-learning activities both in classroom and extracurricular contexts. As CCPS, and GVSU as a whole seeks, to elevate community engagement to solve social and community problems as a core part of our mission and vision, a higher premium will be placed on the creation of interdisciplinary, inter-professional, and inter-sectorial project teams of faculty and staff experts and more in-depth integrated learning experiences for students.”

What does engagement within a college program mean to you? Do you feel that CCPS represents an engaged college? Are you familiar with service-learning?

o After they answer question read: “A course-based, credit-bearing educational experience in which

students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community need, and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility.”

Do you feel that service learning would be beneficial to your education? o If yes, how so?

Would you be interested in completing service-learning while at Grand Valley? o If yes, what types would you be interested in? o If no, why not?

VI. COMMUNICATION (10-15 minutes) Why did you choose your specific major?

o What’s important to you when looking into majors?

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o When you did declare your major, were you familiar with what CCPS had to offer?

Where do you get information about the programs offered at Grand Valley? o Advising center, GVSU website, flyers, talking to professors…

Have you ever visited the advising center? o How often? o Why do you usually go there? o Do feel that the advising centers are useful?

How does your college communicate with you? o What do you feel is most effective?

How was your freshman orientation experience as a whole?o Was it helpful or more overwhelming with questions towards your major?

VII. ADVERTISING/PR (10-15 minutes) Have you seen any advertising/PR for CCPS?

o What type of advertising/PR have you seen?*Show advertisement from CCPS Twitter*

Do you think this advertisement is effective for creating an engaged brand for CCPS? Do you think a digital newsletter effectively connects the majors within a college? Do you think digital media or print media is a better way to capture Grand Valley

students?

VII. CLOSE (2-5 minutes) We have almost come to the end of our focus group session. Is there anything else

you would like to add to this discussion? Do the observers need clarification on any points? Thank you all so much for your participation. We really appreciate your help in our

research.

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Appendix DTranscript of the Focus group

CAP 220 Focus Group Notes: Cassie – sophomore – Ad/PR major Anthony – junior – supply chain major / finance major Brad – freshman – AT major Hailey – freshman – phys ed major Liz – freshman – special ed major Baily- sophomore – exercise science major Taylor – sophomore - liberal studies major Nobody knew what it was but saw the name on the survey we sent out Nobody feels it has a presence on campus Nobody has been to the advising center for CCPS and does not know where it is

located All students declared major sophomore and freshman year Did not know what Johnson center for philanthropy is Engaged college - GVSU as a whole - giving students opportunities to find work / job

fairs, internships and after college jobs Getting all the students involved in clubs, activities, freshman land stuff Engagement within a college program – emails from exercise sciences majors, in

class people come in (real life professionals) related to your major, being able to see why you actually are taking certain classes, bringing in heads of businesses, students engaged with their professors and feeling comfortable to talk to them

Does CCPS represent an engaged college – no, because they don’t know what it is Social work – lots of community service – so it seems engaging, hands on in the

community Service learning – they have heard the term but don’t know what it is Yes it's beneficial – more than sitting in a classroom or reading a book, actually

experiencing things like an internship All feel that service learning would benefit Would be interested in completing service learning – going into classrooms and

helping with kids, working with different athletes, clubs that work with special needs kids, shadowing athletic trainer or real professionals in your field, someone could come in and show you big picture because he feels like classes are separated and hard to see big picture sometimes

Less interested if it didn’t directly relate to the career you wanted Why they choose specific major – like working with kids so wanted to go into

teaching, mission trips got to work with special needs kids What’s important when looking into majors – interest, whether or not you can find a

job, enjoying the field of work When you declared major – were you familiar with CCPS? None were Get info from programs – from emails, grand valley website, look at subject and if it

doesn’t relate then delete it

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Advising center – twice since gv, twice, once, once, never, one had an email conversation, twice

For those who do: Went to figure out major, and she felt it was useful and showed her the options she had, and another went for scheduling and changing her major, one didn’t think it was helpful

How does college communicate with you – blackboard, email Do you find emails are effective – not that effective because there are so many Too many surveys, if they sent out less they would feel more inclined to read them,

feel like its spam When they see internship opportunities, speakers, that’s good Surveys not helpful 100 a month, you would 20 a month – Seidman The other majors don’t get as many but still feel like they get a lot Freshman orientation – overwhelming, one thought it was helpful, one didn’t know

they had to declare anything and she was overwhelmed and felt pressure to declare that day by the faculty/advisors, they kept saying to pick something now and you can change it later but then people end up taking classes they don’t need when they change their major, makes it seem like major isn’t important to declare

Want less emphasis on picking a major – focus on getting gen eds out of the way and pick a major from there once you get more experience for what there is to offer, warn the students they will pick major / classes at orientation, give them info before so they can look at it before orientation

Advertisements for CCPS – they have seen if any hospitality and criminal justice They have seen flyers or emails Showed ad – they think it promotes engagement, most wouldn’t click on it, doesn’t

draw you in, generic If it looked more interesting – would you click on a GV ad on Facebook – yes,

especially if you didn’t have a declared major Digital newsletter – yes, maybe once a month rather than emailing all the time, make

it worth it if it's less often, philosophy newsletter – had speaker coming up, class recommendations, helpful info

Your college newsletter – yes they would read them if it was their major, comes down to how often – once a month, not every single day it causes stress

What media is a better way to capture you for info : digital is better because of how much social media is prevalent on college campuses, digital, digital, practicality – digital, but print he thinks he would take more from it, but it’s the problem of getting it into his hands is harder. More inclined to read digital, but print you take more from.

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Appendix EVisual Tactic 1

30

Appendix FVisual Tactic 2

31

Appendix GSurvey Results

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Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior 0

10

20

30

40

28

37

25

10

What is your standing in school?

4

2 2

7

85

Is your major any of the fol-lowing?

Criminal Justice Hospitality Social Work Public Nonprofit Health AdminstrationLegal Studies Other

Freshman Year Sophomore Year

Junior Year Senior Year 0

10

20

30

40

27

36

25

10

When did you declare your major?

33

41%

6%

43%

10%

Where did you get information about the programs at Grand Val-

ley? GVSU Website

Career Fair

Freshman Orientation

Other (advisors, highschool, or peers)

No one knows a

bout it

Not popular

Som

ewhat

popular

Popular

Very Popular

0

10203040

20

34 30

14

2

If the Seidman College of Business was con-sidered a 5 in terms of popularity on campus,

what would you consider CCPS?

67%

33%

Do you feel that your choice of major would have been impacted if orientation

was more informational and acknowl-edged a larger variety of career paths?

Yes No

34

43%

57%

If you were aware of CCPS and its major while being an incoming freshman, would you have explored a major in this college?

Yes No

Not use

ful

A littl

e use

ful

Moderate

ly use

ful

Usefu

l

Very U

sefu

l 0

2040

On a scale of 1-5, how useful do you think the advising

centers at Grand Valley are?

34%

66%

Do you think you are more susceptible to advertisements

Print Digital

35

64%

30%

6%

If CCPS had social media, would you be more willing to follow them and read what they have

to say?

Yes No

Maybe*

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Appendix HPress Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gonzalo RodriguezGrand Valley State [email protected]

CCPS breaks its boundaries and reaches out to High School Students

Allendale, Michigan – In order to raise the number of students enrolled in the program, the College of Community and Public Services at Grand Valley State University will start some orientation sessions at different high schools in the area.

The orientation sessions, provided by professionals from the CCPS will be around two hours long and will inform the students about the Liberal education system offered at Grand Valley, along with wide catalog of majors where they can pick from; making a particular emphasis on Hospitality and Tourism Management, Legal Studies, Criminal Justice, Public Administration, and Social work.

With this new way of recruiting students, the CCPS is mainly trying to reach their goal number of students for the Fall 2017.

The sessions will, of course, be free and the CCPS professionals will stick around at the end of them to answer all the questions and concerns students may have.

###

About the College of Community and Public Service:The College of Community and Public Service builds vibrant communities through scholarship, research, and collaboration. Our accomplished faculty and staff members have a wide range of expertise in the arenas of public service, philanthropy, human welfare, hospitality and tourism, and health administration, providing students a dynamic learning experience and empowering communities with quality research and data.

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pr campaign for the ccps

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