San Mateo County Community College District ramps up outreach

Marketing teams form the district and each of the three campuses have been working closely with VisionPoint Marketing, the firm tapped by the district to help develop its advertising plan over the past few months to develop the district’s short- and long-term plans for dealing with dipping enrollment.

Among the key objectives they’ve developed is to stabilize enrollment, increase representation among underserved and minority communities and raise awareness and elevate the perception of the district.

“Growing enrollments will happen overtime. The first step, though, is really to stop the bleeding so to speak and begin to level out overall enrollments across the district,” Matt Walters, vice president of VisionPoint Marketing, said.

Reducing barriers for enrollment was top of mind for trustees. Senate Bill 893, a measure that would allow the district to charge students less than $46 a unit to enroll in classes, is currently making its way through the state legislature but trustees argued other fees can be reduced or halted immediately such as parking and health fees.

By making those adjustments now, Trustee Maurice Goodman argued the district would have a better message to send out to potential students, especially those in underserved communities who, he said, currently feel like the district is not speaking to their needs.

“It’s not about how many times you say it. It’s about what you say and is it compelling and I think that’s very important,” Trustee Maurice Goodman said, arguing the district also needs to do a better job at outlining its classroom to career pathways.

Chancellor Mike Claire said he and staff “welcome the opportunity” to have further conversations of fee reductions while noting the district wants messaging to be “aspirational and practical.”

Walters also noted the advertisement plan largely focuses on outreach to minority groups and underserved communities and would center students and their experiences in campaign messaging.

But much work is still ahead for the district in forming relationships with local students and developing its brand and that of the three colleges.

Of the 100 visits campus ambassadors made to feeder schools, only one was to a middle school and Pimentel argued more should be added to that list. Claire said campus staff have worked hard to reach out to schools but conceded more could be done and he’d like to see outreach extended to students through the third grade.

Trustee Tom Nuris also encouraged campus staff to broaden its outreach to graduating high school seniors, arguing the number of students in that group is relatively small across districts. Kim Lopez, interim president of Cañada College said her team is already working on a pilot program with Sequoia Union High School District in which the district would send out letters to seniors this spring on behalf of the college campus, protecting student data while getting out the districts message congratulating and students and informing them of their admission to the institution in the fall.

Speaking to his fellow trustees, Nuris said staff would likely need additional funds to support the work the board was asking of them on top of their daily tasks.

“It’s going to cost more to do it. We can’t expect everyone who’s doing everything they’re doing right now to take on another heavy lift like this [without resources],” Nuris said. “It’s incumbent upon us to provide those resources to get the job done instead of trying to pass this work along. I don’t think it’s fair to tell [staff they] got to do all of this without giving you the resources to do it.”

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