JACKSONVILLE JOURNEY
BREAK A SWEAT
The Eastern football team will travel to Jacksonville State Saturday to take on the Gamecocks.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle and avoid stress through exercise.
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“TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” Friday, October 28, 2016 C E L E BRATI NG A CE NTUR Y OF COV E RA GE E S T . 1 915
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Members Pumpkin party discuss admission strategies, branding By Kalyn Hayslett Editor-in-Chief | @DEN_News Workgroup No. 3, charged with analyzing Eastern’s enrollment management, ranked their suggestions separately and compiled them into one prioritized list during its meeting Thursday. Members use the four categories — targeted investments; improvement planning; decreasing cost and increasing efficiencies; and outsourcing or consolidation — to guide their recommendations along with using interviews and academic research articles. The group focused on improving Eastern’s brand and making admissions and recruitment efforts more personal. Josh Norman, director of enrollment management data analysis and reporting, said focusing on the public’s perception of Eastern is important when trying to rebrand the university. Workgroup chair Jody Stone, senior associate director of housing, said using the positive attributes like safety should be a part of the rebranding strategy. “I feel like our safer community could overshadow the feeling that is there is not much to do,” Stone said. “I know that perception is out there, and I do not believe that it is true.” Stone suggested rebranding the Gateway program because it is a beneficial program; however the name does not match its objectives. Stone said it would not be the workgroup’s place to change the name, but they will reach out to the department to help them. “The word ‘gateway’ is like a way in, but (what) we do with that program is equip students so they can thrive here,” Norman said. He said making sure the program has the brand of a name that reflects that mission is important. Besides rebranding, the workgroup also talked about marketing strategies. One of the trending marketing schemes is retargeting, Stone said. Retargeting is tracking what prospective students are interested in. When the student goes to other websites, then the Eastern website will pop up on their screen. There are already places on campus that become recruitment teams by adjusting some of the current student employment. “Looking at current students calling prospective students. Looking at my department, we have desk assistants, (but) half the time they are not very busy,” Stone said. He said the desk assistants still need to be present, so having them call five people every day could help create a recruitment team.
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OLIVIA SWENSON-HULTZ | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Madison Ragsdale, a kinesiology freshman cuts into a pumpkin as Inali Wahane, a sustainable energy graduate student stabilizes it as part of a pumpkin carving activity for Astronomy Club’s Halloween party in the Physical Science building on Thursday night.
Student services workgroup talks potential recommendations By Cassie Buchman News Editor | @cjbuchman Workgroup No.1, focusing on student services, talked about potential recommendations, including the reorganization of different student services areas, at their meeting Wednesday. Workgroup chair Rick Roberts, department chair of counseling and student development, said the workgroup are making their recommendations on what the administration should explore based on the four areas they were asked to cover.
student engagement. Roberts said the group would suggest the five areas report to the director of that area, who would then report to the vice president of student affairs. What the group is recommending is that the university try to coalesce these areas to make them more coherent to students, Roberts said. Roberts said they do not know if new people would have to be hired until all the personnel were looked at. “It’s something the vice presidents have to look at more,” Roberts said.
"Everything could be somewhat controversial, hopefully it’s helpful." Rick Roberts, workgroup chair “Everything could be somewhat controversial, hopefully it’s helpful,” Roberts said. Workgroup No.1 acknowledged that all student services are working within their means with a reduced staff. One of the stronger recommendations the workgroup has is reorganizing the student services into five areas: student wellness, student safety, student support, student housing and
The group said this would help with efficiency. “Right now there’s feedback from all over place; we need to figure out a way to centralize it,” Roberts said. Also suggested for reorganization was moving new student programs to the admissions office and the exploration of reclassifying Academic Support Personnel positions to Administrative and Professional status. Heidi Hawkins, assistant university
budget officer, said if this happened, the university would have to look at Eastern’s chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois’ contract to make sure they abide by the rules. Roberts said this was just a recommendation the group was exploring. “We would want the vice presidents to explore the use of academic support personnel in areas where it is possible to be reclassified,” Roberts said. He said they would look at exactly what each one of the positions was doing to see if some of the duties were more suited for one classification or the other. Areas the group thought could be explored more for outsourcing include dining and panther catering, though they said there are pros and cons to each of these options. “We’re looking into costs, possibilities that these are the things that could be outsourced,” Hawkins said. “We’re not recommending to outsource areas; it could be explored.” Peter Andrews, a mathematics and computer science professor, said he has a general bias against outsourcing, as the university would lose some control, though they would save money. Eric Davidson, interim director of
Health Service, said student insurance could be a good thing to outsource, as the school already does not have a lot of control over it. “Some years we’re making money, some years we’re hundreds, thousands in the hole,” he said. He said right now, the key thing is that the university is self-insured, and if they were to outsource insurance, they could look at what other institutions are offering. “If we were to outsource, most individuals who would be the outsourcers would be in it to make a profit,” Davidson said. Roberts said the reason the group is not recommending anything else be outsourced is that every student service plays a vital role in retention and recruitment. For areas that need increased resources, the group discussed suggesting in their recommendations that the administration invest more in career counseling, career coaches, filling positions in the University Police Department, a web marketing system to connect all the student services, and enhance literacy education for students with financial aid. Cassie Buchman can be reached at 581-2812 or cjbuchman@eiu.edu.