May 2016 Board Report

Illinois Valley Community College’s enrollment marketing plan for 2016-17 and beyond was a topic of discussion at Thursday night’s board meeting.

Associate Vice President for Student Services Mark Grzybowski and Director of Community Relations and Development Fran Brolley presented the plan that includes a “re-do” of the college website, implementation of a messaging strategy, creating a social media network and enhancements to program marketing.

IVCC enlisted the services of Interact Communications of La Crosse, Wis., a firm specializing in marketing for two-year colleges.

“Interact conducted market research such as a community image assessment and media preferences survey to develop messaging, strategy and sample advertisements in a comprehensive marketing plan,” Brolley said.

Grzybowski said, “Competition for students is only going to intensify and IVCC needs to stand out. We need to strategically reach out to both the traditional student and the working adult to get them to reconsider IVCC. We are a smart higher education choice.”

Interact’s community assessment survey of 500 district residents revealed three-of-four respondents believe IVCC graduates find good-paying jobs, four-of-five believe employers respect an IVCC education and 90 percent “somewhat agree,” “agree” or “strongly agree” IVCC is a good educational value.

“We can argue IVCC is not just the best education you can afford, we are the best education you can get,” said Brolley.

Website work will involve transforming IVCC’s site from informational to marketing-focused via the use of compelling photo images, persuasive language and video.

“We will transition from a text-heavy, list-based site to a sales-based site through images, video, integration with social media and mobile-responsiveness,” said Grzybowski. “Cleaner pages will help improve our inquiry-to-enrolled ratio.”

Program marketing will include landing pages, postcards, posters and templates to allow coordinators to self-market to their unique audiences. Year-round promotion of success stories will be showcased via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Several ad examples were shown including a testimonial from alumnus Jarrod Weishaar. Following completion of IVCC’s electronics program, Weishaar has gone on to flourish in a retail security career with Sennco Solutions of Plainfield.

IVCC plans to continue working with Interact through the 2016-17 academic year.

In other business, trustees learned more about a plan to enhance the dual credit program by waiving tuition for high school students who qualify for the Free and Reduced Lunch program as long as their instructor is an employee of the high school. If the instructor is an IVCC employee, tuition would remain at 75 percent of the rate. 

In addition, students who accumulate a minimum 30 dual credit hours by high school graduation, would pay the 75 percent rate for their next 30 hours at IVCC. The college hopes to have the program in place by fall.

In other business, trustees approved:

  • The resignation of 17-year nursing instructor Tina Nink effective Aug. 12. Nink plans to teach part-time in the fall before retiring in December.
  • Providing security for IVCC’s Ottawa Center at 321 W. Main St. by assigning a full- and part-time officer from the firm that provides main campus security, G4S Secure Solutions.
  • Placing both the AAS and certificate in paraprofessional educator on inactive status because the credential is no longer required for hiring in Illinois schools.
  • A tentative trustee budget for fiscal 2017 totaling $3,250. Trustees voted last month to drop out of the Illinois Community College Trustees Association, a savings of $11,334.
  • Keeping banking services with Centrue Bank. Of three proposals submitted, Centrue offered the best interest rate, a nearby location in Peru and a wide range of services. Board policy requires seeking proposals every four years.
  • Pepsi Beverages Company’s services for three years.

The board learned:

  • Susan Monroe has been hired as Career and Technical Education (CTE) Recruitment and Dual Credit/Dual Enrollment Coordinator. Monroe transitions from the Career Services office and worked formerly as alumni coordinator in the Foundation office.
  • Hailee Brayton stepped down as assistant volleyball coach, Mark Abbot resigned as a part-time math instructor and Mark Walczynski as a part-time criminal justice instructor. “Thank you so much for taking a chance on me by giving me the opportunity to teach at IVCC. I don’t know whether I’ve accomplished much here but I did my best to make a difference,” Walczynski said in a letter to Dean Ron Groleau.
  • A change order to the Building A chiller/air-handler replacement project. The new contract sum of $804,163 is up $5,063 from the original $799,100.
  • Business Employment Skills Team (BEST) has approached IVCC about having more of its staff on campus. “We’re exploring options to rent BEST 2,500 to 3,500-square-feet of space for six-to-nine members of its staff in the same way we’ve worked with University of Illinois Extension, and planning to do so soon with the newly formed Economic Development Corporation of North Central Illinois,” said IVCC President Jerry Corcoran.
  • An estimated 200 high school students toured the cadaver and natural science labs this spring. “Anatomy and physiology students from area high schools get to experience what the real organs of the human body look like and we use it as a recruitment event,” said Corcoran.
  • Approximately 500 job seekers and employer representatives attended the 25th annual Job Fair April 21.
  • Corcoran traveled to Springfield May 4 for the annual ICCTA Lobby Day. Prior to that, several student leaders accompanied student activities coordinator Cory Tomasson to meet with Rep. Andy Skoog, Sen. Sue Rezin and other legislators on ICCB Student Advocacy Day.