Simply sending a T-shirt isn’t enough to boost enrollment with increasing competition to recruit new students. St. Bonaventure needs to keep up with other schools and provide students with technology incentives.
St. Bonaventure’s admissions team’s strategic decision to distribute Samsung Galaxy 7 tablets to prospective students at the Scholar’s Dinner and declared students at Spring into Bona’s thrusts Bonaventure into the world of digital learning. And, they certainly aren’t the only school to do this, so why be the last?
Seton Hill University, a small Catholic liberal arts college in Greensburg, Pa., gives all full-time students not just an iPad mini, but also a MacBook Air. Seton Hill allows students to keep both devices after graduation. All full-time undergraduate students at Long Island University, a larger school with a population of 25,000 students, also receive an iPad for keeps. Another small Catholic liberal arts college, Regis College in Weston, Mass., rents iPads to all of their full-time students until they graduate.
According to a study by Pearson Research, 83 percent of college students believe tablet usage will transform the way students learn in the future. Sixty-eight percent of students say tablets help them study more effectively and 62 percent say they perform better in class because of their tablet.
Monica Emery, director of recruitment, sees the importance of providing these incentives in terms of enticing new students.
“We saw a substantial increase in the number of confirmations between this year’s two events compared to previous years,” Emery said.
According to Emery, attendance to the event also increased significantly. In 2013, 153 prospective students attended Spring into Bona’s, compared to the 225 who attended this year. Emery added that 64 students confirmed on-site, a higher number than in previous years.
“We need to solidify their decision to enroll this fall by keeping them excited about Bona’s,” Emery said about declared students. “The programs and incentives we put in place helped position us to do exactly that.”
Whether it’s renting out technology to students or giving it as an educational gift in order to bring St. Bonaventure into the future with a sustainable enrollment, providing technology incentives to incoming classes is a necessity.
It may irk some of us who only wound up with a T-shirt, but admissions made the right move by offering these tablets.
This editorial represents the opinion of The Bona Venture staff.
