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http://www.omniture.com --> Email Story to a Friend July 16, 2006 SOU ups marketing ante; hopes to boost enrollment By john darling for the Mail Tribune After being stunned by a sharp drop in fall enrollment two years ago, Southern Oregon University has shifted to a more intense recruitment strategy based on making personal contact with prospective students and marketing its greatest asset — its size. "A big selling point is that this is a student-centered university, where you don't feel like a number," said Barbara Porter, who last March filled the new post of associate vice president for marketing and public affairs. "You get individual attention and that's borne out by alumni and students," Porter said. The university has begun marketing its offerings year-round, purchasing ads in high school and college newspapers that tell stories of successful graduates. In these ads and on the SOU Web site, Porter said, "you see the graduate one to five years out saying 'this is what I'm doing and my academic advisor got me this job.' You're not one of 300 people in a lecture hall." The school also hired a Portland recruiter who makes personal contact with high school and community college students from Salem to Seattle, Porter said. And perhaps most helpful to students, SOU now offers "on-the-spot enrollment" to those with transcripts so they walk out with an admission certificate in their hand, said Admissions Director Mara Affre. "They like this. This is the 'now generation' and a couple weeks' wait would be too long to find out if they're in," said Affre, noting enrollment also can be done online. SOU's enrollment dropped 6.2 percent in fall 2004 to 5,161 students. In fall 2005, it languished between 5,000 and 5,100. Last spring, enrollment was 4,967. Enrollment now is ahead of last year at this time, Affre said, but hard figures usually aren't known until the fourth week into the term. Porter said SOU is drawing lots of recruits from Willamette Valley high schools, where future college freshmen often have second thoughts about the half-dozen larger universities there. "Most of my friends were talking Portland State and OSU (Oregon State University), but I couldn't see myself operating at one of those gigantically large schools," said Ben Richards, a recent high school graduate from Portland who was undergoing orientation on campus Friday with about 200 others. What swung him to SOU, Richards said, was its smallness, which "left room for personal growth. Plus, it's beautiful here. Leaving all the rain and clouds in Portland and coming here to this perfect weather, that was great." Incoming freshman Bailey Talbot of Sublimity hopes to earn a degree in hotel and restaurant management. "I fell in love with this place," she said. "It's a great location and the people are really friendly." What hooked her, she added, was the repeated personal contact from the school by e-mail and regular mail and by interaction with the SOU Web site, which "always had new stuff." An uncle who went to SOU in the '70s persuaded Benjamin Roberts, a South Salem graduate, to try Ashland. "I didn't want to be one of thousands, getting lost at OSU," he said. "I'll get to know a lot more people here — and the science is strong." SOU tries to personalize the whole admissions process, Porter said, "by being responsive to every inquiry and then follow up, follow up, follow up." When her own son enrolled last year, while the family was still living on the East Coast, Porter said, "we got about 35 mailed brochures" and did on the spot registration online. Many potential students living in the Rogue Valley have the mindset that the local university won't do and they should go away to school, Affre said. But as time draws near to fall term, word of mouth — the best marketing tool — kicks in and "we get more and more applications from Central Point, Medford and local cities." SOU admits students with grade point averages of at least 2.75, compared to 3.0 at University of Oregon. The average at SOU, however, is 3.2, Affre said. SOU created a temporary budget for its new marketing approach and will evaluate it after a few more years, Affre said, adding, "We're really optimistic about the new strategy, especially about marketing from Portland and more intense use of electronic (Internet) marketing." John Darling is a freelance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at [email protected]. Advertisement s Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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