Student Engagement: Off Campus Trips


Posted by Juhi Bhatt on 25 Jun 2012 / 14 Comments


As with any other student life office, ours aims to provide vast opportunities for student engagement. We work with student clubs to create day to day activities on campus to promote student involvement with karaoke events, scavenger hunts, video game tournaments, chess game tournaments, special showings of movies and so on. But more than that we work hard to book tickets for off campus events which we believe our students will enjoy and attend. Unfortunately, students do not always take part in these off campus trips.

Within my year of working within the office of student life, I have noticed how our students do not purchase tickets for our off campus trips. Rather, it is our faculty and staff that run to our office to purchase tickets for our baseball games and Broadway shows. Now, the first thought that comes to mind is that we are not picking the “hip” trips or events for our students but how can a Yankees game or a trip to see Cirque Du Soleil not count as popular events for students? If I can guarantee that students know and appreciate these types of events, then what is the problem in getting more students to attend our trips?

When thinking of what the problem may be the first thought that comes to mind is that the discounted ticket prices we offer for students are still too high. Or maybe students know that primarily faculty and staff attend these trips and so they do not want to attend. Indeed, our lack of popularity as faculty and staff is highly noted at times within our day to day job. However, could it be that at a community college it is truly hard to engage students who may be working full time to support themselves and their family? As a four year student who gets the privilege to dorm is it just easier to take part in on and off campus activities due to proximity?

Do you experience the same quandary with engagement within your student population? If yes then what do you do to combat this growing dilemma?

Written by Juhi Bhatt


  • http://twitter.com/garyalanmiller Gary Alan Miller

     I do experience a similar phenomenon when our office (career services) tries to take students off-campus to employer-based events or community-based networking events.

    My hypothesis has always been that it’s a comfort zone issue.  But, I’d love others’ insight.

  • Hope Miller Miles

    Juhi,
    We have had similar difficulties in the past with attracting more faculty and staff than students on off-campus events.  In the past year, we have overcome this slump, and have sold out every student trip we’ve advertised! One of the things we did was we gave the trip planning to the programming board.  By making this student-centered, we guaranteed we would have student buy-in and participation.  This one thing was key, I believe, in making these trips succesful. Another thing we did was we offered a steeper discount to students than to guests and staff.  This way, the incentive to buy was greater, and those who do not support the student activity fee on campus are not necessarily reeping the full benefit that students do. Also, we offered two sets of pricing. An early-bird price was offered well in advance of the trips, and then later participants paid a higher fee. This past semester, we sold out a bus trip to the Lion King on Broadway for $50 per student, a bus trip to Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark for $30 per student, and a local trip to Six Flags America for only $15.  I hope this helps!–Hope Miller Miles, Stevenson University Student Activities

    • Hope

      P.S. We are a small private university with a student population largely made up of first-gen college attendees who work as much as they can when not in class. We gave advanced notice on trip dates so people could get off work on those weekend days we had trips.

    • http://twitter.com/jbhatt12 Juhi Bhatt

      Hope,

      Thank you for your comment. We do exactly all the same things you stated. Discounts and all. We even open up sales to students for certain events before we do for the general public but as I stated to Laura I believe since many of our students are commuting, full time working students who are also non traditional, that gets in our way the most!

  • Laura Shepherd

    At my undergrad campus (UC San Diego), the activity coordinators planned for transportation. They provided buses for students to ride to the event. If the event itself was free (e.g., A Day at the Beach), then a $5 deposit was given by students when they reserved their spot. Then, when they arrived at the event or boarded the bus, they received their $5 back. I’m not quite sure of all the logistics at that time, but they made it work and events were always full. This was a large research institution.

    • http://twitter.com/jbhatt12 Juhi Bhatt

      Laura,

      We provide transportation to the from the events as well and take no deposit for even providing that transportation! However, I believe our primary issue is that our students are working whenever they are not on campus.

  • http://www.stevenharowitz.net/ Steven Harowitz

    Juhi,

    How much advertising is done to promote the off-campus events? Is it passive (a few fliers near box officeticket distribution) or campus-wide?

    • http://twitter.com/jbhatt12 Juhi Bhatt

      Steven,

      The events are campus wide and promoted every which way possible. Students, faculty and staff know of the events it’s just the lack of student particpation. Facult and staff are always there to buy the tickets.

  • DL

    Our students can’t or won’t commit in advance for events. They often have several jobs and family commitments that are ever changing and the idea of picking up a ticket in advance and then not being able to go and losing some money doesn’t appeal to them. 

  • http://twitter.com/coolsosa Sam Sosa-Rodriguez

    It’s a challenge for us to convince students to go to events for FREE.  This past week, our Campus Activities Board gave tickets (which included free food AND transportation) to the local water park.  Out of 50 expected, we had just over 36 attend.  Granted, it is summer, but this happens every so often.  It’s to the point where we intentionally overbook events, kind of like an airline.  This method usually ensures that we hit much closer to our mark.  One thing they will react and commit to are big name attractions, such as Cirque du Soleil. We had a line out the door for The Wayans Bros.

    • http://twitter.com/jbhatt12 Juhi Bhatt

      Sam,

      It is very true that big names do a lot. I remember at my undergraduate school, TCNJ, Chris Rock sold out weeks in advance! But those big names cost so much and as we know our budgets cannot handle those types of hits!

      • http://twitter.com/coolsosa Sam Sosa-Rodriguez

        Absolutely.  The only reason we were able to even work with these shows was because they were scheduled to come to through the University already.  

  • Adam

    Some of the tips that I have for making a successful program are:
    - Make sure the events are planned well in advance and the dates are well advertised. There should be no excuse for the students to not know something was happening.
    - Make sure the programs are something that the students are interested in. I agree that a Yankees game should be a sure hit, but can still be hard to predict. I would survey students on what programs they are interested in and how much they would be willing to pay. One of the simplest ways to do this would be to set up a table in the student union with a tally board showing the interest level for each event. This will give students a sense that it is truly “their program” which should boost participation.
    - Finally I would suggest making some demand for the programs. I know that we love to offer something every weekend to students make sure they have something to but if you are offering a large program every week, the mentality may be “if I miss this one it is fine because there is another one next week”. I would recommend continue doing a good number of small programs and a few huge programs. These larger programs should be heavily advertised and treated as a “can’t miss”.

    • http://twitter.com/jbhatt12 Juhi Bhatt

      We are definitely going to get a survey going for next semester and I love the idea of the tally board! I just may have to do that in our student center! Thanks! 

  • Latest Activity

  • Tags

    #sabest #sachat 9/11 acpa Advice advising career Community Conferences Education and Technology Education Theory engagement facebook Graduate Students higher ed Higher Education how to ideas interviews Job Search leadership leadership development NASPA Orientation Personal Poll professional development reflection residence life social justice Social Media student activities Student Affairs student affairs technology Student Development Student Engagement Student Engagement Theory students Supervision technology This and that Top Content Twitter Uncategorized video

  • Archives

  • Categories