Pace Paw Print

Results from Pace's new marketing campaign already seem to be prevalent: the number of prospective students had doubled since last year and application numbers have gone up significantly, according to the Interim Vice President of Enrollment Management, Robina Schepp, in a press conference along with Vice President of University Relations, Doug Whiting.

Newly designed mail outs, pamphlets and a comprehensive view book, released this week, are a big part of the campaign which is meant to give Pace a "distinctness that hasn't been clear up to this point," according to Whiting.

The campaign started three years ago when Pace hired the Art and Science Research Group to do research on how Pace was perceived by prospective students, both undergraduate and graduate, and also what students are looking for in a school.

The results indicated that Pace had a "blurred image". Whiting said that many students didn't know both the Westchester and NYC Campuses existed, often being familiar with one but not the other.

"You couldn't define a lot about the institution and that set off some red flags," said Schepp.

When asked why he thought Pace's image was weak, Whiting said transitioning between different administrations and different presidents may have been a part of the problem.

" All (presidents) have a different idea about what Pace is," he said.

"We went through a lot of slogans, none of them adhering long enough to establish what Pace is," Schepp added.

The last slogan, "Opportunitas" was "a hard concept for people to grasp," according to Whiting. Although the slogan has been changed to "Work Toward Greatness," Whiting said the old one has not been discarded.

"The professional experience we're able to give you…there's no better example of "Opportunitas" than that."

Research was also done within the Pace community. 80 faculty members, as well as several administrators and alumni were asked what they thought Pace was at it's core values. Whiting and Schepp said as they listened they heard three themes continually come up: Pace's academic excellence ( small classes, students engaging in research experiments, and the number of Fulbright Fellowships awarded to Pace students), it's metropolitan location being an asset to students, and the student's connection with the work force (teaching of theory in the classroom, service learning requirements and internships).

These three core values will be prevalent in each step of the marketing campaign, Schepp and Whiting said.

In addition, they also researched the position and literature of competing universities.

"Competing view books were much more comprehensive that ours were," said Schepp. "We shouldn't send the wrong message by sending out a smaller, briefer publication."

The new viewbook is filled with stories of actual Pace students and quotes from faculty ,along with clear, color photographs. One distinctive feature are the life prints, or word clusters surrounding some of the students depicted in the book.

"The clusters of words depict each student's Pace experience," said Whiting.

For example, some of the words surrounding a nursing student included: "Prof Collins, "35 minutes to Grand Central", "Coldstone," "Bio 153".

The word clusters will be used on the website, which Schepp and Whiting said would be updated soon.

The new publications were handed out at Sun.'s open house, but to a limited extent. The two agreed that they did not want to be wasteful or to over promote the new image.

Schepp and Whiting said that current Pace students can help in the new campaign.

"There's nothing better than critique from people closest to the people we are trying to reach," Whiting said.

Whiting offered students the opportunity to contact him directly at his email : dwhiting@pace.edu.

"The best marketing is word of mouth," he said. "Nothing will market Pace better than a good experience."

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