Saturday, September 17, 2005
The university is working on a campaign to increase enrollment rates.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown State University is urging prospective students from five western Pennsylvania counties to, "Cross the Line."
The university has experienced a flattening of applications and enrollments from western Pennsylvania in recent years, said Walt Ulbricht, executive director of marketing and communications.
Undergraduate enrollment from the targeted Pennsylvania counties (Mercer, Lawrence, Crawford, Beaver and Erie), was at 611 in fall 2000, rose to 681 in fall 2002 and declined to 646 in fall 2004.
Graduate student enrollments from the same counties stood at 741 in fall 2000, rose to 807 in fall 2002 and dropped back to 754 in fall 2004.
'Cross the line'
It was Ulbricht's department that came up with the "Cross the Line" campaign designed to attract more undergraduate and graduate western Pennsylvania students to YSU, and it's the first time the university has launched such an effort in a specific geographic area.
The drive was launched in July and involved the creation of a specific Web site (www.wpa.ysu.edu), development of an advertising campaign that includes billboards, radio, cable television and newspaper spots and a mailing to 1,000 students from the target area who had inquired about admission to YSU but didn't apply.
There is even a 30-second video that plays at the beginning of every movie shown at the new 12-screen Shenango Valley Cinemas complex in Hermitage.
The Web site has been averaging about 100 visits from off-campus locations each week since it went online July 24, Ulbricht said.
"The initial response is very positive. It's doubled my expectations," he said.
Ulbricht doesn't know yet what impact the campaign had on this year's fall enrollment. Those numbers should be available in a couple of weeks, he said.
Todd Pilipovich, a YSU admissions coordinator who works the Pennsylvania side of the border, is featured on the "Cross the Line" Web site. Interested students can e-mail questions directly to him, and he said he's been averaging between 10 and 15 inquiries daily from people asking for more information or for a direct contact from the university.
"It's definitely a better way for us to track student interest from western Pennsylvania," he said.
The Web site also offers basic information on the university, enrollment details, comparisons of undergraduate and graduate tuition rates with western Pennsylvania colleges and universities, details on financial aid and housing assistance and even a slide show depicting student life.
Need for advertising
YSU needed to launch this campaign because it is at a disadvantage to other Ohio schools located adjacent to borders with other states that have reciprocity agreements with those states regarding tuition rates, Ulbricht said.
Ohio doesn't have such an agreement with Pennsylvania, and the university needs to target western Pennsylvania more aggressively, he said.
"We represent an outstanding buy," Ulbricht said, pointing out that students from the five-county target area are eligible for a special regional tuition rate that is more than $2,700 less that the normal out-of-state tuition charge.
That regional rate has been in place for the same counties for a number of years, he said.
"We're close; we're affordable, and we offer high-quality academic programs," Ulbricht said.
"Cross the Line" is an outgrowth of a larger campaign designed to maintain YSU's dominant impact in Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties as well as to expand its market base into northern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, said Dr. George McCloud, special assistant to the president for development and public relations.
The entire western Pennsylvania campaign was written and produced in-house to help control costs, Ulbricht said.
Another version of the radio and print advertising focusing on the Web site will come out in October, and it will be revamped again in January or February as the campaign continues, he said.