3 Ways to Reflect Your School's Commitment to Diversity
The blend of students who make up the undergraduate population in this country is continuing to change. To cite just one example, students of color went from 29.6 percent of the undergraduate student population to 45.2 percent from 1996 to 2016.
Does your marketing reflect your campus as hospitable and welcoming to students with diverse backgrounds? Continue reading for three ways you can authentically and effectively convey your school’s commitment to diversity.
Highlight Relevant Stories and Services
This doesn’t simply mean featuring diverse students with stock photography in disingenuous ways. It means relying on stories, testimonials, and spotlights of students sharing—in their own words—about their experience.
Are you featuring a variety of voices on your student blog? What profiles and spotlights are you writing for your university magazine? Which students are you featuring in your videos?
Azusa Pacific University does a great job of highlighting stories from students with diverse backgrounds. Their feature "Life on Film" series, provides different perspectives about what it's like to be a student.
This principle also applies to staff and faculty features. Are you highlighting stories or profiles of faculty and staff—authentic members of your campus with diverse backgrounds? Not only can this help students feel more comfortable, but it reflects a campus community that is diverse across the board—not just within the student body.
Lastly, it’s important to highlight services that are available to students with diverse backgrounds. Make sure relevant clubs, offices, and organizations are easy to find on your website and prominently displayed on your marketing collateral.
Show Your School’s Accessibility for Students with Financial Needs
Most prospective students are eager to know about your financial aid opportunities. In fact, this is the number one reason high school juniors and seniors visit your website.
This information may be especially valuable for first-generation students or students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Make sure your website clearly lists all financial aid options available to students, including scholarships, work-study, loans, grants, and dedicated programs for first-generation or minority students if available.
Biola University has a clean, well-designed webpage detailing all types of aid available for undergraduate students.
It’s also important to encourage prospective students to connect with financial aid counselors who can speak with them and their families about options. The financial aid process is complex and sometimes overwhelming. It’s important to make it clear that real human beings are available to walk prospective students through the process.
You can do this with clear calls-to-action strategically placed on your website or through menu items. Students should quickly see the aid available and how they can easily reach out to someone via phone or email for more details.
Finally, by offering scholarships for students with diverse backgrounds or first-gen status you are demonstrating a commitment to inclusion of these populations at your school. It signals to them that you are making your campus more diverse through action—not just by talking about it. Be sure you’re highlighting these initiatives on your website and in your recruiting materials.
Wheaton College features its Building Roads to Intellectual Diversity and Greater Education (BRIDGE) program on its website. The program serves first-gen and low-income Latino and African-American students. This affirms the school’s claim that it values diversity. And by devoting a whole webpage to it, it’s likely more visitors to the website will see it.
Encourage Prospective Students to Connect
You can help students get an idea of the kind of support they would find at your school by connecting them to the right people. Are there faculty who are willing to have conversations with students of color or first-gen students and share about their own similar experiences? What about alumni and current students?
Whether over email, on the phone, or in person, this can be a great way to help address diverse students’ questions. You can even feature social media groups that let prospective students connect with current students or alumni of similar backgrounds.
The more you provide an accurate representation of what students can expect at your school, the more likely they will feel comfortable applying and attending. Of course, this assumes your school is actually offering a good experience for these students! But if it is, then the more you have someone on your campus with a similar background “vouch” for it, the better.
Lipscomb University has a well-designed webpage for the Office of International Development. Prospective students can follow clear calls-to-actions to receive a newsletter by email or book an appointment. This is a great way to encourage prospective students to reach out and to people on your campus who can relate to their unique backgrounds and circumstances.
For tips on making your campus more diverse, check out this previous post about Today’s Growing Minority Population and this one on Attracting International Students.
