By Lian Bunny
News Editor
In an effort to raise enrollment, St. Bonaventure University’s Office of Admissions launched a virtual tour of campus Jan. 29.
According to Sharon Myers, director of admissions communications, a campus visit is one of the most influential factors in students’ college searches, but not everyone can make it to campus.
“The virtual tour becomes a gateway to our community and piques interest so a student and their family will make the trip to St. Bonaventure in person,” Myers said. “It also allows us to show our personality through technology. It also allows alumni to view their alma mater and share their college experience with others.”
The tour can be accessed through www.sbu.edu/#virtualtour.
As of now, the YouVisit site can either take viewers on a start-to-finish tour of campus through pictures, videos, audio and scripts to read, or viewers can click on certain venues to visit. The YouVisit company specializes in putting together campus tours.
“[When I started college] I didn’t know where I was going at all, to be honest, until the first week of school was over,” sophomore physics major Andrew Church said. “So I feel like it will be an advantage for kids because I really like the campus. It’s really pretty. I spent so much time wondering where I was, I didn’t get to enjoy the beauty early on.”
The idea for the tour stemmed from the admissions office’s desire to display Bonaventure’s campus at college fairs and high school visits partnered with marketing and communication teams.
After the website’s first week, the university’s cost per visit to the tour is around $4 per visit. Myers said the website was funded by a “general operating expense as a part of recruitment efforts,” but would not give an exact price of the investment.
“The longer we have the tour in use, [the] cost per visit will obviously decline,” Myers said. “In summary, it’s worth what we paid for it.”
Church believes this will make the university more appealing to potential students.
“Just the fact that it’s obviously more technologically savvy is a plus, because one of the things that struck me here was that they did a really good job presenting the place,” Church said. “It made the university look good. This adds another dimension, so that people who aren’t directly here on campus can see that.”
According to Myers, the media tour is the first step in a larger student recruitment plan. Bonaventure intends to launch a full walking tour, starting with YouVisit coming to campus in the spring to conduct a three-day photo shoot of campus along with 30 full-screen panoramas featuring the university.
“We will also look to audition interested students in the spring to appear on the tour as actual tour guides for the walking tour,” Myers said. “This process will involve shooting the students in front of a green screen, reading the tour script and then integrating them into the tour so that they appear at each tour stop as a guide.”
Myers also said the tour will be translated into two additional languages for international recruitment efforts. She said the languages have not been decided yet.
In addition, the walking tour will be accessible through a downloadable app and through GPS location services, allowing visitors to take a self-guided walking tour while on campus.
Myers said, “As the project develops, we will add photos and videos within each tour stop to further enhance the user-experience.”
