Undergraduate recruiters dialogue notes

Undergraduate recruiters dialogue notes 3.18.19

Assumptions

• Transfer students go down when economy is good
• HS graduates flattening, slight increase comes main from Hispanic growth
• Greater presence of outside-state recruiters necessary
• Students looking for financial aid options; some program-specific issues
• Increasing competition for students
• Lots of AP, Running Start, — becoming more the norm; students aiming to graduate in less than 4 years
• Reputation increasing with parents
• More high-ability students interested in WSU; WSU seen as higher quality
• Running Start: incoming freshman with lots of credits
• Other campuses see more non-traditional students
• More non-traditional students will go to Global, more opportunities becoming available there
• Technology” More integrated system-wide, better, few andmore powerful systems
• More efficient data storage
• Limited numbers regionally, so more strategic course offerings needed
• First gen will go down! A trickle-down effect for future gens of first gens having succeeded.
• California access problems increase draw of WSU programs
• To compete more effectively: Some state (e.g. Colorado) encourage “gap years” but we are not gap-year friendly.
• We don’t go as deep in financial aid awards – hurts competitiveness

Mission

• Embodies “Coug”
• Cougs leads Cougs resonates

Values

• How are these evaluated?
• In general we do live these values
• We are doing less well with African Americans in terms of diversity
  • Lack of people of color in the community hurts us
• Core values of institution v of people?

Drive to 25

• Requires a lifestyle change more than other campuses; need better delineation of what each campus offers
  • g. program plans and credits required to graduate—they differ across campuses, e.g. MIT at TC
• We will be more coherent as a system
• Better able to articulate outcomes; more consistent data
• Job placement for alumni working in their field
• Grad programs placement – tracking
• Better access to data
• Research experience as a student; currently hard to find opportunities
• “research” needs to be more encompassing of scholarship, arts, etc
• Revenue, more $ for scholarship packages
• WSU evokes feelings but not a lot of numbers to back them up
  • Go Cougs
  • Community feel
• Concern re mismatch between access and land-grant mission
• Not everyone interested in research, so why does that have value for their experience?
• We need a new word: Not “research” – this isn’t meaningful to students and comes across as “cold” and “sterile”
• Student like helping humans, community betterment
• How research affects popular culture
• A way to call out student/alum achievements
  • Ted Baseler ad was good
• “Top tier” comes across as elitist
  • How about “Top accessible U”
  • Value for the cost
  • Happiest grads
  • ROI for outcomes (using what they gained)
• Concerns: All attention seems to be going to the research; otherwise people are just here without being valued
• Unfair emphasis on research suggests a “lack of” emphasis on everything else
• Would be good to have more students who don’t graduate with debt

Short-term goals

• We will be more data informed
• We can quantify the “feels”
• Why WSU: Answer of “Top # for this”
• Stories about what students are doing
• Knowing who we are – branding: More convergence, more confidence in our identity
  • g. grit, scrappy
• Better national and international recognition
• More international presence
• A leading institution nationwide—not just for research, but for job placement etc.
• More reflective of what our state is known for, i.e. LGBT, undocumented student policies, progressive policies