Community Colleges Bank On Cable TV Ad to Boost Enrollment

When Greg Leitzel’s professor asked him to escort a two-man cable television crew through Moorpark College’s new performing arts building Thursday, he didn’t hesitate.

Leading the TV team, the 20-year-old Moorpark College student ducked his head into classrooms--alerting students in mid-plie at ballet barres, delivering speeches to their classmates or listening to lectures--that they were about to star in a cable television commercial touting the benefits of Ventura County’s three community colleges to about 180,000 households.

The commercial caps a two-year push by the district to raise awareness of its programs in the community. The 30-second message will be a montage of scenes featuring Moorpark College’s new performing arts center, Oxnard College’s new gymnasium and letters and science complex, and Ventura College’s popular automotive technology program.

The campaign, which mirrors efforts around the state, could also help combat declining enrollment at the three campuses, officials said. The district is spending about $14,000 on the video message, which will air on cable channels offered by the county’s three major providers from Nov. 17 to Dec. 10.

“I think district money should be spent on telling our story,” said Norm Nagel, a trustee for the Ventura County Community College District. “The community college system in the eyes of some people is the best-kept secret around. I am a firm believer in getting the message out.”

But some officials say that the $46,000 devoted to advertising this year, up from about $30,000 last year, could be better spent.

“I would like to see those public relations funds go toward sending out the course schedules. That is our best advertisement,” Trustee Jim Hirschberg said. “Right now we have waiting lists in math, English and science at all three colleges. Rather than throwing money into bumper stickers and advertisements, let’s put them back into classes.”

When filming began on Thursday, though, many students came out of their classes and into the spotlight, saying they hoped that the commercial will help shake the negative reputation of community colleges.

“Junior colleges are misunderstood by many students,” Leitzel said. “You should hear what they call Moorpark. It’s MIT: Moorpark in Town. Or the Kraproom, which is Moorpark spelled backward. Community colleges get a bad name because they are close and kids don’t think they are as good as four-year colleges.”

District officials are counting on the commercials to do more than just boost the colleges’ reputation.

They hope that in combination with other advertising efforts, the cable TV ad, which urges students to “register now” for spring classes, will help combat a four-year slump in enrollment.

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The airing of the cable television ad will coincide with a direct mail brochure aimed at students with baccalaureate degrees who once attended one of the district’s three colleges in pursuit of further interests.

Many of those students left the district two years ago when the state increased fees for students who held a bachelor’s degree from $6 to $50 a unit. That left enrollment low enough that the district risked falling below the state’s enrollment cap, which guarantees maximum funding for each student.

In response to the drop in enrollment and the loss of public relations officials at two colleges, the district allocated $22,000 to advertising and centralized outreach efforts for all three colleges at its Ventura headquarters.

Now that the $50 fee hike is expiring and will not be renewed, some district officials say the only way to recapture students with bachelor’s degrees--1,500 districtwide in 1992--is to get the word out that they can now take classes for only $13 per unit.

Others argue that slick television commercials, brochures, newspaper ads, bumper stickers and buttons won’t attract students to community colleges.

“They already promote the community colleges at the high schools,” said 20-year-old Dave Dunlap, a Moorpark College student. “I would like to see them put money back into the schools rather than wasting it on a commercial.”

But Barbara Buttner, director of the district’s governing board relations, says that without the advertising, there will be no students.

“You have to go to the market to get the students to come into the classrooms,” she said, “because without the students, there will be no need for the instructors. This is one way of supporting the colleges.”

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Jennifer Aries, director of the Community College Public Relations Organization of California, said success with cable television ads has sparked a statewide trend in cable advertising among community colleges.

Officials at 11,000-student Santa Barbara City College credit cable television, radio and newspaper advertising with boosting enrollment at their campus. In an informal survey of 2,000 students who registered this fall, 58% said they had heard of the college through radio and television ads, said Lynda Fairly, vice president of student affairs.

The 52,000-student Coast Community College District in Orange County spends about $100,000 annually on advertising its three community colleges, said Ann Garten, public affairs director for the district.

“Community colleges need to advertise for the same reason that Coca-Cola does,” she said, “so people know their name and recognize it.”