Kimberley P. Collins, Assistant Vice President for Academic Services at Monroe Community College (MCC), and her colleagues asked themselves this question--"Do students hear us above the noise?"--as they conducted a communications audit in order to better meet the needs of a diverse student body.
鈥淥ur communications audit was designed to question whether more communication is necessarily better,鈥 said Collins in her recent Students sometimes feel like they are bombarded by messages that are often not relevant to them. We risk them tuning out, ignoring 鈥榮nail mail,鈥 and their overflowing college e-mail account.鈥
MCC also wanted to ensure all students understand the steps in the enrollment process. Staff from various offices, including admissions, placement testing, advising, registration and records, residence halls, health services, student life and leadership, orientation, technology services, and clubs, convened to discuss how they were informing students about enrollment.
鈥淲e took a step back and asked 鈥 what do we communicate, when do we do that, who do we target, and how?鈥 Collins said. 鈥淔urther, why do we communicate? What are our goals?鈥
MCC outlined the timing, frequency and delivery of messages, and found that it was sending an overwhelming amount鈥286 pieces鈥攐f enrollment-related communication to students. By tracking these efforts, Collins said, it 鈥渁llows us to minimize unnecessary exposure and increase the likelihood of consideration.
鈥淢ore isn鈥檛 better,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just noise that we need to cut through to get our message out.鈥
To learn more about how MCC changed its communication strategies to better serve students, visit
The issue of SEMQ also features articles by Stanley E. Henderson, University of Michigan-Dearborn; Luke David Schultheis, Virginia Commonwealth University; Seth Marc Kamen and Marcy Shapiro, Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges; Linda Serra Hagedorn and Jiayi Hu, Iowa State University; Monique L. Snowden, Fielding Graduate University; and James Roche, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Topics include SEM leadership, creating a culture of excellence, institutional initiatives for servicemembers, new international student pathways, competency-based education, and performance and persistence results based on application submission timing.