UTPB: Value-Added Recruitment

Situation

UTPB had a strong music faculty and therefore a strong music education program. The program was filling an important local need for music teachers throughout the region. The strength of the program was especially evident in voice, resulting in a particularly strong choir program. Because of the interest in choir throughout the region, the faculty for the music program recognized an opportunity to recruit students to the university. They recognized the value of the Woolston Inventive approach in recruitment by creating stronger singers.

Solution

We partnered with the music faculty to consider the kinds of music concepts that they wanted students to understand better coming into college. Because many of them were involved in honors ensembles such as all-state choirs and bands, they were highly aware of the knowledge and musical expertise that high school students had, as well as the limitations on that knowledge and expertise. We identified a handful of concepts that we wanted to illustrate and capture in a single place: the name and location of music notes on the keyboard, the way to identify key signatures, hand signs for notes (for sight-singing, a highly valuable skill), and several tools related to rhythm and meter. We used friendly caricature-style images to complement the concepts and make the content more inviting.

We used the highly versatile format of a three-hole punched sheet of paper, standard sized to fit into a music binder and made of heavy cardstock to increase durability. This gave the faculty a powerful tool that they could use in multiple situations: the guest-conductor posts they were invited to fill, their own classrooms and ensembles as they taught on campus, and most importantly their recruitment. Not only did they have a popular and desirable tool to share with schools throughout the region as they recruited in person, they were able to send stacks of the “Fundamentals of Music” reference chart to schools, ensembles, and other arts organizations throughout the state as the word got out and other teachers and conductors began to request copies.

Success

Thanks to the partnership with the faculty, the content experts for the subject matter, we created a tool that became not just wildly popular but immensely valuable; in fact it was wildly popular because it was so valuable. We found that we needed to do multiple re-prints as demand for the charts grew beyond prediction at each printing, and more to the point the music program actually did grow.