Increase The Number Of Undergraduate Students

As a result of enhanced student recruiting and marketing efforts, there will be an increase in the number of undergraduate students.

We will utilize the Undergraduate Exit Survey to review what has been successful in the areas of mailings, advertisements, special events, email blasts, social media, and press releases and which media is most effective in producing inquiries and, finally, recruiting new students.

By utilizing online advertisements, events, professional conference advertisements, e-mail blasts, news stories, press releases and social media the college, has made several efforts in improving its visibility to prospective students, as well as working professionals, alumni, and academics in the criminal justice field.

Advertisements: This year the College has worked in conjunction with Enrollment Management to fund online advertisements for the undergraduate programs.  Facebook and Pandora were used with Facebook having the biggest response.  With the use of Google Analytics, we have been able to identify a substantial increase in web page activity.  Every time someone clicks our Facebook/Pandora page or advertisement web activity is registered in Google Analytics.

 We build on the visibility of our graduate programs through advertisements in printed programs for the ACJS and ASC annual meetings. With the use of criminal justice practitioner relationships through the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas and the Correctional Management Institute of Texas we have placed advertisements on their websites

Events: The College has worked with the Visitor Center to set up tours for local high schools all year.  Saturday’s@Sam is an event in which the college has seen ongoing success and since had to move the event to accommodate the crowd.  We also held a Criminal Justice Job Fair, and an Undergraduate Conference, and Graduate Studies Open House as resources for current students.

Electronic Mailings: We emailed recruitment materials to over 22,000 alumni including doctoral student alumni, many of whom are working in the field or at undergraduate colleges, to inform their students of our academic programs and to maintain the connection with alumni.

Products: We have produced a number of print products, including a new undergraduate brochure, a Master of Science in Criminal Justice Online brochure showcasing our new online program.  Finally, our communications officer has written over 180 news stories. Some of these news stories were sent for press release and published in various newspapers as well as featured in television news stories in Houston. Implementing social media with our news stories has increased the visibility of our Facebook page; working in conjunction with SHSU Marketing Dept. we have the ability to increase our hits on our website.

The Exit Survey indicates that 40% of students were most influenced by family and friends and word of mouth when asked how they found out about SHSU/College of Criminal Justice.  Over 38% of those students surveyed stated that high school/college fairs impacted their decision the most.  After these, post acceptance decisions, social media, and direct mail made up the additional 22% of how students found out about our college.  With this in mind, we believe increasing our direct contact with those high school students seeking post-secondary education is the most effective.

With an increase in recruiting efforts, enrollment will increase by 2% from 2010-2011. 

During academic year 2011/2012 recruitment efforts were increased by 5%. The college participated in TACRAO recruitment activities in Houston, these activities included visits to high schools and community colleges. Most importantly, these schools offer criminal justice courses, so there is direct contact with instructors as well as students who are directly interested in pursuing a career and education in criminal justice.

The college has also taken over the sponsorship of the High School Criminal Justice Instructors Training (HSCJIT), as well as hosted several forensic science training for high school teachers. These teacher-training programs in particular build a reputable relationship with high school criminal justice teachers by incorporating an overview session about the university and college detailing what is available here for their students.

The college's involvement with the Bill Blackwood Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas and the Correctional Management Institute of Texas has encouraged an involvement in recruiting at criminal justice related conferences. This year the college has had a presence at the Texas Jail Association, American Correctional Association summer and winter conferences, as well as the  American Probation and Parole Association, thus increasing awareness of undergraduate and graduate programs dedicated to working professionals.

Enrollment numbers have increased by 14.6% by evidence of the enrollment report of Fall 2010 to Fall 2011.

We have actively met our goal and objective through aggressive recruitment activities which we have increased by 10%. The college's participation in TACRAO recruitment activities in Houston, including visits to high schools as well as community colleges, provides face-to-face interaction with prospective students and parents. Our participation in Saturdays @ Sam as well as Parent's Weekend, and an open house for the forensic science program has increased awareness. The success of the High School Criminal Justice Instructors Training (HSCJIT), as well as on- campus visits, continue to enhance enrollment. This training in particular continues to build a reputable relationship with high school criminal justice teachers. The college's involvement with our training institutes have encouraged an involvement in recruiting at criminal justice related conferences. This year the college has had a presence at the American Correctional Association conference, Texas Jail Association, and the American Probation and Parole Association, thus increasing awareness of graduate programs dedicated to working professionals. The American Corrections Association in particular was attended twice this year thus enhancing the awareness for our new online programs for working professionals.  Recruitment efforts have remained a success by our ongoing initiatives. We will participate in high school and college nights as well as remain a venue for on-campus visitation.  We will also continue to be a bridge for those attending training programs wanting to continue their education.

 Ongoing Marketing Efforts

In collaboration with Enrollment Management we have identified which online advertisement outlet works best for us.  All of our planned mailings, advertisements, events, and products were carried out successfully. Our electronic mailings have been sent to thousands of contacts, with The Criminal Justice Mandate online alone reaching approximately 22,000 individuals. Advertisements have been successfully placed in the conference programs for ACJS and ASC. Our online and print products have all achieved their intended goals to enhance our image and visibility.

Marketing is an ongoing effort. In order to achieve and build upon our objective, we will carry out successful projects on a regular basis.  Utilizing the academic advisors, we will be able to commit to additional events that will promote the college and bring more visibility to our programs.  Additionally, in order to better evaluate online marketing success, we have proposed an extended run time of online advertisement to better identify those peak months that are most successful.

As a result of increased exposure and awareness of Real Talk series, there will be an increase in attendance at the event.

As we indicated last year, the senior exit survey will be modified to poll students regarding how they became aware of the Real Talk series. Our goal is to increase student participation and determine the most effective ways of advertising the events using the Senior Exit Survey.

Of those students who responded to the survey, 37% stated they found out about Real Talk from classroom professors who announced it in their classes, 36% stated they found out about Real Talk from posters and flyers posted in the CJ center, and 5% stated they found out from Facebook.  No student stated they found out from the Undergraduate newsletter.

In 2011/2012, we did see an increase in our attendance at the Real Talk series.  We believe this is in part to the quality of speakers we had participate.  We will promote this event with posters and flyers and asking our professors to include at least one Real Talk in their syllabus for attendance.  We believe increasing social media alerts will also prove to be helpful, i.e., twitter, Facebook.    Our marketing/publications department will collaborate with university communications to expose current students through Today at Sam and SHSU Facebook page.  We now have new technology in the CJ center for advertising and we will utilize these local area network monitors to advertise the dates.

Each year, the College of Criminal Justice Career Fair is well attended.  We hope to increase the preparedness of our students for this career fair and also the attendance.

We will expect a 5% increase in student participation at the CJ Career Fair. We have increased our percentage of student satisfaction from 80% last year to 85% in 2011-2012.  We are keeping the 80% of interviewing agency representatives but adding that the average rating will be 4.5 out of 5. Additionally, we will ask in what ways both students and agency representatives believe we can improve the Career Fair.  

Students attending the Career Fair increased by 4.3%, just falling short of our 5% goal.  Over half of the agencies who returned surveys gave the Career Fair a rating of 5.0 with another 1/3 rating it at 4.0.  Students stated that overall they were pleased with the Career Fair but would have liked to have seen more agencies that dealt with forensics, federal jobs, and attorney positions.  Agencies suggested that students research agency websites prior to attending, have better questions and practice their communication skills, and dress more appropriately.

This year, we introduced the Career Week leading up to the Career Fair.  We had speakers who discussed interviewing, dressing for success, and resume writing.  We will once again offer this next year with more emphasis on who will be attending the Career Fair so students can research these websites.  We will fine tune our database over the summer so we can develop a more updated contact list and we will send out a "save the date" notice to them in August/September.

Improve the mentorship and oversight of Master’s of Arts in Criminal Justice students; thereby, ensuring students’ increased rates of successful and t

[1] Develop a Director of CJ Master’s Programs position targeting a faculty member within the College of Criminal Justice who will lead efforts to oversee the improvement of CJ Master’s student mentorship, program development and recruiting efforts.

2] Decrease the number of existing All But Thesis (ABT) students in the College of Criminal Justice who have a residency of three years or greater through increased faculty mentorship by the Director of Master’s Programs, thesis chair, or if appropriate, degree completion in an alternative degree tract (online, Master’s of Science, etc.).

 The Director of CJ Master’s Programs will be named by Fall 2011.  This person will mentor students in such a way that they will acknowledge increased mentorship over 2010-2011 and be able to identify how they were mentored. Additionally, the number of ABTs will decrease. 

Dr. Gaylene Armstrong was named as the Director of the College of Criminal Justice Master's Program in Fall 2011.  Dr. Armstrong worked closely with recruiting and the online program to increase the number of students in these programs and to bring awareness to these programs.

First and second year M.A. students had meetings with the Director where they discussed their progress in the program, were encouraged to select their thesis chairs and topics, course selection, and were given guidance on progressing through the program.

Those students with a three year residency were contacted and moved to the MS Online program with three of the students graduating in May 2012 and one more to graduate in August 2012. Thus, the number of ABTs decreased.

With the Director position now in place, there will be a more concentrated effort in the master's program with regular meetings scheduled at the beginning of the semester and increased mentorship occurring.  Students in the Master's program will have greater opportunities to be advised and there will be more attention on this program and the student's needs.  Separation of the Master's program from the Ph.D. program will enhance the visibility of these students and their requirements.