It is not news that AU, like most universities, uses the Internet and e-mail as part of its recruitment tools; the university has been accepting on-line inquiries and applications since 1999. But after ramping up those electronic efforts to recruit the class of 2006, the results are news—big news.

Last year’s rousing success with e-recruitment—17 percent of all applications came in on-line—is a coup with long-range implications for recruitment. The e-strategy was kick-started by two events.

During the summer of ’01, while setting its recruitment goals for the year, admissions realized the status quo wasn’t good enough. “We always need to be ahead of the times,” says Dan Creasy, assistant director of admissions. “We wanted [our own] system where students could make inquiries and apply on-line.”
Creasy was tapped to work on that goal, and as part of a committee that fed ideas to Bob Keith, director of e-administration, he helped develop AU’s proprietary on-line application system.

Then came September 11, 2001. Unquestionably the attacks played a role in the rapid expansion of AU’s electronic presence that brought in strong numbers.
After the attacks last fall, AU’s recruitment team “was pulled off the road for a couple of weeks,” Creasy says. “We didn’t know how to react” when at prime recruitment time, people were in shock and mourning and not given to travel, figures for AU on-campus visits dropped precipitously.

The class of ’06 had to be filled, the clock was ticking, and Admissions went into e-gear, with Creasy spearheading the expansion of electronic support for admissions functions beyond student applications. The drill included organizing chat rooms that were calibrated to meet the needs of particular groups.

Creasy recommended to Sharon Alston, admissions director, that AU sign a one-year lease with Interaction Software, a company he had located, to help hone AU’s message, train staff, and market each chat. It was a good move, “If we told them we needed something done in an hour, they did it,” Creasy says.

In addition to hosting the six planned traditional on-campus events for prospective freshmen and transfer applicants, admissions hosted 30 on-line events between October 2001 and May 2002. These events were targeted at specific groups. International students, for example, can “virtually congregate,” giving them a chance to meet people who may become fellow students.

While the Internet is free, telephone calls are not, so international students gained another option for speedy responses to their questions. The format worked for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students as well. Students in those groups are sometimes more comfortable asking questions in a virtual environment than while on a group tour. Students also liked the informality and the ability to drop in and out of a chat group at will, and with AU ambassadors (current students who volunteer to talk with prospective students) participating in the chats, they weren’t an administration-applicant-only relationship.

The payoff was big and cost effective—30 on-line events drew 399 student participants from 40 states and 16 countries. They produced the highest conversion rates in AU’s history. Seventy-four percent of these electronically-generated prospects applied, 95 percent of all applicants who participated in on-line chats were admitted, and 53 percent of on-line attendees sent in their enrollment deposits.
AU’s expanded ability to listen and respond to large numbers of students one-on-one serves one other purpose. Those chatters who are also prospective students get a firsthand experience of the student first philosophy that AU is working to hone.

Story taken from 9/17/02 American Weekly. In this new monthly column, “In a day’s work,” American Weekly will highlight an individual’s or a group’s work that has made an unusual and significant contribution to excellence at American University.