The certified head count is down from 6,231 students in the Spring of 2000 to 6,079 students in the Spring of 2001, a decrease of 152 students, according to Velda Villareal, Dean of Student Services at Palo Alto.
Spring enrollment has been gradually going down since Spring of 1999, when 6,287 students dropped to 6,231 students in the Spring of 2000. One of the reasons Palo Alto’s enrollment decreased was the opening of Northwest Vista in 1999. Two of Palo Alto’s top student ZIP codes were 78250 and 78245, but now those students are closer to Northwest Vista.
Another reason our enrollment might have decreased is because of generic marketing. The district’s all-purpose advertisements do not pinpoint Palo Alto’s academic strengths, and that is what hurts us, said Ginger Hall Carnes, Director of Community & Public Relations at Palo Alto.
Carnes’ marketing budget is $27,000. Stacey Johnson, now Chair of English, Communications, Foreign Language and ESL, was Carnes’ predecessor 10 years ago, and Johnson had $80,000 in her marketing budget.
“You go from $80,000 down to twenty-seven and twenty-seven is not marketing. Twenty-seven is all my supplies, all the postage mail and news release, everything,” said Carnes.
The Public Relations budgets at the other colleges in the Alamo Community College District are: Northwest Vista College, $48,000; San Antonio College, $46,755; and St. Philip’s College, $31,500.
The lack of marketing hurts some courses. Many courses get dropped before the semester begins, and some students are frustrated with courses that get dropped with little notice.
Armando Rodriguez, a sophomore Computer Science major, was dropped from his Physics II class the Friday before classes were to begin this Spring. Rodriguez said he was angry such an important class for him was dropped because of low enrollment.
On a more positive note, accommodations are being made by the Alamo Community College District and Palo Alto to improve enrollment. A variety of advertising techniques are being used to help our enrollment improve.
Last spring Leo Zuniga, the Alamo Community College District’s Director of Governmental and Community Affairs, helped Palo Alto by sending a direct mail piece with specific information about Palo Alto to the 78242 ZIP code. Direct mail pieces were sent to that area because there was a low number of eligible college applicants enrolled at Palo Alto. This was a rare occasion, because the Alamo Community College District usually advertises for all four colleges.
All of the colleges are advertised in a media mix–a group of advertisements showcased in venues like radio, print, television, direct mail pieces and movie theatre advertisements.
The Alamo Community College District is planning to market registration through theatre advertisements this summer. The theatre advertisements will appear on screens before movies start. ACCD is also gearing itself for more radio advertisements than print. Surveys suggested that radio advertisements catch a broader student audience.
Palo Alto College has been trying to accommodate its students’ needs by offering web, dual credit and flex courses along with traditional semester-length courses. A dual credit course allows participating high schools to give students a chance to earn college credit. Web courses are now being offered during the traditional semester, plus Flex I and II.
This past Fall two street banners were hung across Zaramora at Hutchins and Military at Somerset. Some radio advertisements were also broadcast in the Fall in an effort to increase Palo Alto’s enrollment. In addition, a couple of bus ads were placed sporadically, and Palo Alto College brochures were inserted in the Kelly and Lackland AFB newspapers.
“Yesterday, we had a luncheon with Henry Cisneros,” said Carnes, “We’re working with the Lago Vista neighborhood that he’s building over here to try to get people to take classes here. It’s some of the grass roots things that we have to do, because we do not have a marketing budget.
Texas A & M-Kingsville has also given Palo Alto some great free publicity. According to Carnes, many students think the Kingsville Javelinas are going to assimilate Palo Alto. That is not the case. When A & M-Kingsville reaches 3,500 full-time equivalent students, it will become a new university in the Texas A & M University system.
Michael A. Baca, Palo Alto Recruiter/ Adviser, goes out to high schools in the area. A booth is setup in the establishment where students fill out an Interest Card. The Interest Card allows the recruiter to give students information about how Palo Alto can help them reach their goals.
“It’s not like one department and person takes care of recruiting and marketing,” said Carnes, “We have a recruiter on campus, but you can’t depend on one person to recruit. We’re all recruiters. We’re all marketers, and if we all aren’t out there saying positive things about the College and encouraging people to go, then we all aren’t doing our full job.