SPEAKER_02
You're listening to the Higher Ed Marketer, the podcast for marketing professionals in higher education. Join us every week as we talk to the industry's greatest minds in student recruitment, donor relations, marketing trends, new technologies, and much more. If you're looking for conversations centered around where marketing in higher ed is going, this podcast is for you.

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SPEAKER_01
Welcome to the Higher Ed Marketer podcast. I'm Troy Singer here with Bart Kaler and today we talk to Dr. Kim Kroll and Kelly Snedden from Butler Community College in tribute to National Community College Month.

We're familiar with Butler because they do a lot of things that are very innovative and both Bart and I thought it would be a wonderful month to feature a community college and this is one that we feel has a lot to offer, not only to other community colleges but institutions in general. Just in full transparency, I do some

SPEAKER_00
work with Butler Community College and when I first met them, I was really blown away with how innovative they are. I mean, one of only a handful of Adobe Creative Suite campuses in the country, they do some really interesting things with the students that they have, their residential programs and their arts and their sports, really impressed with them and so we thought we'd have them come on to just talk about kind of their spirit of innovation and how they do that.

SPEAKER_01
Let's check out our conversation with Butler Community College. Dr. Kroll, we from the very beginning love teaching our listeners something and would love for you to share with us if there's something that you've learned recently that you would put in the fun or interesting category.

SPEAKER_04
Well, this is sort of a fun fact and I just kind of came across it as I was thinking about, you know, what I would tell you. I have a couple of people on my executive team that, you know, my candy dish in my office is usually full of chocolate and one of the requirements is that you have KitKats in that bowl and I don't know how I came across this but I just discovered recently that the interior of KitKats is KitKats that didn't make it through the production line. They got crushed or they got, you know, chopped up somehow or something.

They weren't perfect KitKats and so they recycle that material and that's what we're eating when we have a KitKat and so I'm excited now to be able to tell my associate VPs that are adamant that we have KitKats that they are eating recycled candy bars. So I thought that was kind of fun. That's very fun.

SPEAKER_01
KitKats are my favorite candy bar and until you gave the IE punchline I was going to say when I come to campus I'm coming to the candy dish. I'm refaking all of this right now. Everyone, we're talking to Butler Community College, Dr.

Kim Kroll who is the president and Kelly Sneddon, director of college relations and marketing. If you would Dr. Kroll tell us a little bit about Butler Community College and your role there.

That's not obvious and then after you Kelly if you can give us a

SPEAKER_04
little bit about your role. Butler is an amazing institution. It's been established since 1927.

First class we're right kind of in the middle of Kansas just about 20 miles, 20 minutes from Wichita which is the largest urban center in Kansas and so we're really uniquely located. It's an old campus and I think the first class was 115 students that walked through the door but we are now at you know 9,000 students, give or take, second largest community college in Kansas, sixth largest I think as of last fall in the in the state including even some of the universities and so we're a multi-faceted campus. Ages of our students range anywhere from high school to seniors, commuter campus, our El Dorado campus is really kind of a traditional campus with on-campus housing and fine arts and athletics and so we have the whole scope of that community college experience when folks are coming for certificates, short-term certificates all the way to associate degrees that'll head them into the workforce or you know head them to a university to transfer on and finish a bachelor's degree so it's really a vibrant campus and really really a beautiful institution.

Thank you Kelly. Yes Kelly Sneddon and I'm director of

SPEAKER_03
college relations and marketing for Butler and as I tell people the easiest way to describe that is we're the in-house marketing agency so we're you know we're taking care of all of those things, the visual messaging, the writing, the press releases, publications, web, digital ads and on occasion public relations, community relations that's that's actually a lot of it too. Thank you Kelly and

SPEAKER_01
as we go into our conversation Bart and I were surprised and it was an aha moment where we wanted to kind of highlight Butler as a commuter school that is different than most community colleges because here in the Midwest, our part of the Midwest Ohio, usually community colleges are only commuter schools but Dr. Kroll you let us know that in Kansas that it can be the norm that there are a lot of community colleges that are residential and if you could kind of introduce us to that and unpack that for us a little bit as we make distinctions on the differences between the types of two-year community colleges around the U.S. A lot of the community colleges in Kansas

SPEAKER_04
are old and have been established for a long time on their you know on their home campuses but all of the community colleges there's 19 of them in Kansas all of them are residential campuses they may have second locations or locations in other communities that may be commuter but all of the 19 community colleges have some portion of their campus that's a residential campus and Butler's the same way the original campus here in El Dorado is the residential campus and so we have you know our athletics come out of here and our fine arts and you know many of our long established degree programs but then our campus in Andover which is just 20 miles down the road and and butts right up against Wichita and some people call it a suburb of Wichita is our commuter campus and so we have really vibrant educational programs there as well but we don't have student residence halls we have student organizations there like we have on our El Dorado campus but the fine arts and the athletics and the residence halls don't exist in Andover and that's the way a lot of the other community colleges in Kansas are as well they you know they have that home campus is that established residential campus but then their commuter campuses serve you know maybe a population that's coming and going from work or that you know comes in and out for classes and and lives someplace else so that's kind of the common that's kind of the norm in

SPEAKER_00
Kansas really compared to other areas yeah it seems to me like that that varies across the country in different places you know some are a lot more residential some are a lot more commuter and I think it's it's unique to me because I think that especially those that are residential you might not realize it as much but you know in places like the Midwest or we are Indiana Ohio and other places where we don't have that that seems very appealing that a that a that a young college student you know someone coming right out of high school especially who might not be ready for a traditional bachelor's degree or might not be ready or or choose to you know hey I want to I want to get an associates before I finish a bachelor's that they could have the same experience that that that traditional college experience that is valuable for a lot of students and there's a lot of you know as part of the conversation around the value of education is is that area that time of growing as a person in those areas and so I love the fact that you know schools like Butler Community College that are around the country that do have those residential actual opportunities that's a unique marketing perspective at least for me not being used to that that I would love to you know understand more about and and and I'm sure because all the 19 other ones that might not be something that you're necessarily marketing as much but it sure seems like something that going outside of your immediate area could be appealing to a lot of a lot of people and and Kelly I guess I would ask you is that something that you all have kind of considered because I know most schools we know the data most most students regardless of the type of school are going to be within about a two hour radius that's data shows us that that's usually where people end up going but how do you kind of look at that for for out of

SPEAKER_03
state students and things like that well being a lifetime kansen and being familiar with the community college is my entire higher ed career I I really appreciated that perspective from you all that these residence halls are not necessarily you know so you're kind of making me pause thinking you know where we're taking them for granted for those students who do live further away and the other thing that resonated with me as you and dr curl visiting about that is how how much we see those students change because butler is very caring and and we really do kind of wrap our arms around our students and as in our department we have several student workers that'll come in and work with us and how many times in my career have I seen these freshmen come in and they're very nervous and they don't even know where the student union is necessarily and they're looking across campus but to put them in that into that responsibility of having their dorm room and living on campus in a much smaller environment where they can begin to navigate and and within two years they're telling us hey I'm taking off Friday we're headed to big four year university and those jitters are gone and that's that's the life-changing part about it so um that I think is is um so cool and and so you're yeah you're making me you're making me think that I've been taking those rose halls a little a little too much for granted dr curl you're gonna add something to that I believe the fact

SPEAKER_04
that they get to live on campus that you know students live on campus and we have um what Kelly about 300 spaces I think on campus 300 beds on campus so you know it doesn't encompass a huge percentage of our population but the students that live in the residence halls typically are the younger students you know the more traditional aged um you know students that are coming right out of high school or maybe a year or two out of high school so Kelly's exactly right it's that population of students that are really kind of trying to spread their wings a little bit and figure out what they want to do and maybe they don't know for sure what their career path is we really get to watch them grow and change and it engages them and connects them to campus in ways that you know are really unique and and life changing for them yeah I think that's just such a fascinating thing

SPEAKER_03
Kelly you were gonna say something yeah I was well we do say real college and that is a phrase we use a lot that is one way we do leverage it is you've got res halls you've got nationally known sports nationally known programs on a much smaller scale so you just get to know a lot more people and you feel um you know you get connected I think faster yeah that's great and and not only that I

SPEAKER_00
think the price point is is something that's incredible when I first started working with you is the price point of a community college but the experience of a traditional that's what really kind of blew me away because I mean you know I've got two two in college right now and two more coming down the pike and so I I think about those types of things so that's that's pretty good

SPEAKER_01
well thank you for helping us make that distinction again that was something that came up in our initial conversation that both took Bart and I by surprise but the reason that we wanted to highlight Butler is Bart's familiarity with your innovation and like most organizations we had to be very uh innovative during the pandemic but then your innovation has continued and that's something that you lean into so if you would doctor if you can kind of explain some of the ways that Butler is being very innovative compared to other community colleges you know we learned as I think

SPEAKER_04
a lot of people did we learned a lot from the pandemic and we made a commitment you know in those conversations when we were in the middle of it and you know thinking we were coming out you know what did we learn from this that we need to continue I mean we all learn great lessons and so let's not just say okay we'll go back to status quo let's let's drive forward and do some really unique things and so I that spring of uh 21 had student forums and I do just about every month with our students on both of our campuses and I said to the students I said so tell us what worked well in the middle of all of this and what oh my gosh should we never ever think about doing again that was just disastrous and uh they were honest and they said the the thing that you know shown through in all those conversations is keep the technology we want the flexibility of classroom technology we need the flexibility in our scheduling uh because they're working multiple jobs they were and still are struggling with childcare they're driving back and forth they're juggling finances all those kinds of things and so we really have worked hard to embed some unique technology kinds of things as we've moved forward fall of 21 we were named the 50th adobe creative campus in the nation that gives our students and our faculty and staff access free of charge college is paying for it so it's not I guess necessarily free to us but certainly free to our students access to all of the adobe creative suite platforms so they're using it in their classrooms they can access it off campus if they're working from home but you know embedding that technology to really grow and support digital literacy and fluency for them as they move on in transfer or they go to work because you know technology is just part of our lives all the time so that's one example of some of the technology that that we've really you know embedded on

SPEAKER_00
campus for our students and staff the adobe creative campus is a really big deal I mean I think everybody who's listening to this if you're a higher ed marketer you're probably in the adobe suite every day I mean that regardless of the of exactly what you're doing and I think that that is a you know as you said digital literacy I think that's a big part of digital literacy it's almost to the point now where you know you look at the microsoft where 15 years ago knowing how to use word or powerpoint or excel was a requirement in in any kind of field I think that as our culture and everything else is kind of moving into a little bit more of of being able to communicate through multiple ways of of content not just you know not just a document or a spreadsheet but now we have to start you know just like we are today utilizing a video platform we're utilizing you know different types of things I think that understanding more of that digital literacy through the adobe platform is is a brilliant move and and the fact that Butler Community College is one of the top 50 schools in the country that adobe has selected to partner with I think says a lot about your innovation and that's pretty exciting and and it seems like that's that was kind of came out of some things that you did as far part of a a forum can you tell us a little bit about that

SPEAKER_04
you know again the students wanted access to increased technology and flexibility one of the other things that that we had utilized obviously during the pandemic was zoom and trying to help students connect and faculty connect remotely because you never knew whether you know you were going to have family members at home that were sick or work was going to be a complication or whatever and so we've continued to build out some classrooms on campus that we call high flex classrooms we use some of our federal stimulus dollars again to try and leverage those dollars for student learning and student instruction student success and so we've built out some classrooms that we call high flex that have zoom capabilities so again you know the the biggest percent of our students probably 60 percent of our students are part-time students so they're juggling jobs lots of times multiple jobs and children and childcare and finances and those high flex classrooms allow them an opportunity if they maybe only have you know 40 minutes in between work schedules they can connect with a class if they have to connect remotely and they can stay and they can progress through their you know through their degree program and they're not limited then because they can't come to campus or they can't be in class or maybe they have a child that's sick that day and they need to stay home with them they can still connect with class and so you know we've we're border to border wireless uh wi-fi and so it doesn't matter where they are on campus if they're sitting in their car if they're walking across campus if they're one of our classrooms they're connected uh those are all the things that are expectations and we really know through that pandemic that that was one of the other things that we learned is that we had a lot of students that didn't have access to wi-fi and didn't have access to computers except coming to campus to be in our labs or our libraries or our classrooms so we also started with federal stimulus dollars we started a my laptop initiative so our students can use their federal financial aid if they're enrolled in a program and they're with us for two years they can they can get a laptop for 150 dollars and if they're with us for most of the programs are two years if they stay that entire time and they're enrolled in um i think it's nine credit hours they had this laptop for 150 dollars and they can use their federal financial aid to help them with that but they can take it with them then when they're done and so you know we've tried to really create access for our students through some of those things we learned in the middle of the pandemic you've also deaned this

SPEAKER_01
year to be the year of the podcast then i understand have a wonderful podcast studio can you explain to

SPEAKER_04
us a little bit about it my vice president academics is always thinking about things like that dr tom neville and you know this was really his idea as part of the development of his academic strategic plan they're calling it uh ap 27 academic plan 20 27 and so it was a conversation that you know that he had had with the deans and the academic uh the academic deans council again about creating opportunities for students to learn and practice and use their creativity and their you know innovative ideas on campus and so we have built out a space in our library on the alderado campus with podcasting equipment and then a space in the end over campus with podcasting equipment um so that they have that opportunity to practice those skills you know in a really fun and close environment and you know either develop their own podcasts or use them for class they're using them for classroom assignments and things like that so helps them again with the whole digital literacy and fluency and and building out portfolios and um work and career skills that they can take with them no matter where they're where they're going and what they're doing i love the fact that the innovation

SPEAKER_00
coming out of butler community college i mean we're capturing so much of that right now i mean obviously the pandemic accelerated some of those innovative thinking and those ideas but i think that i want to just kind of pause for a second to to address the listener there's a lot of things that i think butler is doing really well that your school you could take back to your school today to just kind of encourage them about this digital literacy i think that education is evolving and it's changing and i'm gonna ask you a little bit more here in a moment dr. curl about you know even just kind of the the shifts in the workplace and helping with workplace development with with some of the credentialing and things but as our world evolves education has evolved as well and i think that too many times we we you know i know it's often seen as that the ivory tower that you know well we know what's best for everybody well we've got to be willing to pivot because what's best for everybody sometimes isn't what we fully understand yet because it goes so quickly and so i love the fact that butler has gonna have done this president's forum they've listened to the students they've listened to the workforce they've listened you know listening i think it's such a big deal but then really implemented quickly so the adobe creative suite the podcast studios the high flex zoom classrooms the wi-fi the laptops being able to address those things quickly enough to be able to be ready for those needs and i think another thing that a lot of people are talking about that i know you're already starting to look at is this idea of the the workforce development you know the credentialing the micro credentialing helping students get what they need to take the next step in their career so maybe you can unpack that a little bit our

SPEAKER_04
situation in kansas and in central kansas is is not unique at all when it comes to workforce needs everybody i think across the nation is struggling to you know hire and fill those workforce pipelines it's uh you know you talk about higher ed and such a traditional you know focus and standard in higher ed and this is really a shift for you know all of us to go from sort of that mindset of you know monday wednesday friday classes tuesday thursday classes and you know transferring on and all that sort of stuff to being very very focused not that those liberal arts are not important because they certainly are but industry continues to tell us we need workforce and we need them quickly we have to build out our curriculum and continue to look at ways that we can get people in and out for short-term credentials and get them earning industry recognized credentials that can be stacked and stacked towards degrees so as they you know as they're coming to us and they're working their earning credentials along the way that their workplaces recognize or their national associations recognize and they can earn those and stack those along the way and eventually earn you know an associates degree if they want to but that keeps them working keeps them moving forward in their organizations and keeps them contributing to the to the workforce we have some great unique apprenticeship platforms where for instance with the plumbers and pipe bidders as those folks are working on their journeyman's licensing or their journeyman's card over a you know four or five year time frame and working through that national curriculum that they have once they earn that journeyman's recognition they can they can take some gen ed courses from butler if they want to and finish out an associates degree and so we're we're always looking for ways that we can support the workforce and they're telling us what they you know what they need they're involved in helping us develop that curriculum along the way and I would add just

SPEAKER_03
recently butler was named an apprenticeship intermediary for the state of Kansas and that allows our team to go in and custom build apprenticeship programs for all practically any industry so from you know we always think apprenticeships pipe fitters and maybe you know steel workers or you know things like that but accounting business type apprenticeships now are also part of that so it just has opened up so much more opportunity for our region's industry and business to collaborate with butler to help them get the people and then we you know we're helping those students get immediate work and then that training is paid for by the business

SPEAKER_00
that's great that's great I love that innovation

SPEAKER_01
well Kelly since you chimed in there you know your leadership has done an excellent job of putting butler as a solution for a lot of people and a lot of communities around you but you have the responsibility of marketing it and I'm sure it's not an easy lift so I would like to know if you could share with us how you are marketing to all these different constituencies and bringing the community in to let them know that these solutions are available in your community

SPEAKER_03
well there are several days I refer to I'm the queen of marketing chaos because it just you know it changes rapidly so we've got it we've got a good team I we were just conducting some interviews the other day for some vacancies and one of the first things I explain to these people are if you come into work thinking this is what you're going to do by eight and this is where you're going to be on by 9 15 and by 11 15 then you're not the personality for this type of work because we literally have to pivot and change all the time it's just it's just a constant so we've got our big major overarching messages and campaigns of course that we've run and you know I've been in higher ed a long time so I remember the back of the day when we would just flight campaigns at those key points of the year and you would talk fall and then you would talk spring and maybe you would talk summer and maybe you would talk winter intercession and now it's fall it's short-term fall it's spring it's short-term spring and it's summer and a lot still the winter intercession so those are like the big overarching things but you've also you know the the magic happens when you're working with the faculty and working on their programs and we cannot market we haven't been able to figure that out 120 different programs at any one time so we really have to pivot and shift there as well so we watch the numbers we're trying to make sure that funnel is fat where it needs to be and we do a lot behind the scenes that people don't ask for they don't even know to ask but if we see a data point we'll pivot and we'll create a little short digital campaign on a program that nobody may even know ever ran but then we watch those numbers and then it's like okay that's up where we want it so we'll pivot over here and you know let's get theater some love let's that's what we call it's give them some marketing love and just because we know they need I mean we know they need it and we know we can do it it's just a

SPEAKER_00
constant pivot I'm reminded of conversation we had recently on the podcast with Luke Phillips from Pepperdine and one of the things he said is as a marketer you either need to be best friends with the director of admissions or you need to figure out a way to be best friends with them because and I love what you just said the idea of you you're watching the funnel and and I don't think that every marketer out there that's listening today one understands completely what the funnel is nor are they paying attention to it and I think that's a huge opportunity for higher ed marketers to really make an impact at your institution is being able to understand and talk the language of the funnel and be able to say hey where's that data point I see that we need to pivot and do that so kudos to you and your team Kelly I think that's a that's a key element that especially as we start talking about the enrollment cliff and a lot of the challenges that are coming in in higher education the marketers are going to have to lead a lot of that and and I think right now there's an opportunity for for us to be more engaged in that and so you talk about that so naturally so help me understand how that set up there at Butler and maybe the the audience would be curious too because you know sometimes at different schools marketing sits under different C suites and and so it's it's helpful to understand how is it at Butler and and maybe explain how you maybe even do some

SPEAKER_03
intentionality beyond the structure I've actually had two different stints at Butler so I was at Butler for 14 years but then I had the opportunity to also go work in a private university setting for about nine years and and you know as well as anyone how different those two institutions operate right completely completely different and so coming back to Butler it was at a time in Butler's history where they needed that marketing team rebuilt and so I stepped back in to rebuild that so myself and one other individual and joined up and we didn't even have I mean the processes had kind of melted away we didn't have a press release template for we didn't even have a press release so but we rebuilt that but I was able I was really able to learn so much from that private university and that enrollment management partner that I had over there and bring that back into Butler so my mind was just kind of wired differently at that point in my career watching those funnels and learning those CRMs and those constant messaging and you know I talked about I talked earlier about the big overarching campaigns we do but oh my gosh it's it's constant now in all these different levels so you're talking about email marketing so right at COVID we went remote March 20 of you know for COVID and then by April we were all online as a team learning a marketing automation system that we were implementing and we implemented that more June I think of 20 so at the time I think we were one of the first we were the one of the first community colleges in Kansas to even implement a marketing automation system and so that's something that's another beast right once you once you have that you have to feed it and the emails right in the amount of writing and the changing and the tweaking of messages for that student at the right time it's so individualized you know the the students today everything's been personalized to them I mean and they've been on their mom's phone since they were three and you know when it's it's so it's it's been really a challenge but like I said it's never the same day twice and if you're caught up you screwed up and that's been a mantra that my mentor in the way back that was one of the things she told me then she's like well if you're caught up you screwed up and boy I have I have carried that mantra on for years because it's so true yeah thank you Kelly that was a

SPEAKER_01
wonderful look into your organization I'm not sure which one of you to pose this next question to but I'm eager for someone to share what first year first means what that campaign represents

SPEAKER_03
it's Butler first because our students come to us and of course they go on right they're going on either into the workforce and doing amazing things they're going on to their four-year university and doing amazing things but it's Butler first so we have tried to highlight those students with the hashtag Butler first because you started here and were able to achieve whatever that that goal or that dream was and I'll share an example so another innovation Butler did while I was out studying the private world they were innovating on an early college academy and when that was one of the first things that I just was like wow when I got back to campus so high school juniors and seniors come into Butler they do a half day high school half day Butler in a particular career path the first one was health sciences and they're graduating from Butler with their two-year degree the week before they graduate from high school and I just thought that was phenomenal well then years later you hear about an area university touting their youngest nursing graduate and it's like yeah well Butler first right we got her in there when she was 17 years old 16 17 and so that's why the university later down the road could tout they had one of the youngest nursing graduates in their history um so yeah it's it's Butler Butler first and that is a shout out to the community colleges across the country we're such an honor amp we are accessible we are affordable and it is not lesser than in any capacity and I say that with a bachelor's degree and a graduate degree in marketing and communications community colleges are not lesser than they're they're a different institution serving so many with with the needs that they have so I think to tag on to what Kelly said you know

SPEAKER_04
that the fact that they come to us first we take that responsibility really seriously and you know talk about how how we're in a unique position to change our students lives whatever whatever their career goals are and and we need to take that seriously and so you know the folks around here at Butler will hear me often say and multiple times in my career here every single person on this campus touches our students lives whether you're actually in the classroom with them whether you're you know one of our great grounds people whether you're you know the residence hall director you know whatever in admissions or advising every single person touches these students lives every day somehow and so we have a huge obligation to make sure that their experience at Butler is good that we provide quality education but that we wrap them in support services that will help them be

SPEAKER_00
successful and I love the fact and we talked a lot about community college and and you know we're this is running in the month of April and I know a lot of people know that April is National Community College Month and I think that one of the things that you've talked about and I think is unique about community colleges that I have a great deal of respect for is that you are able to quickly shift to the changing needs of the community and the marketplace much quicker than a lot of other schools might be able to because of as you said earlier Dr. Culver the academic tradition and the ways that you know that that things are seen I think community colleges that often are able to shift and pivot quicker to tell you use that word earlier just in the in the way that you described some of the marketing and I think that's not only in the marketing department there at Butler but probably everywhere on campus is that ability to pivot and shift and so we talked a little bit earlier about the you know the the enrollment cliff and just the changes in demographic whether you want to talk about ethnicity changes or or even male-female changes we're going to be working with less students in the next few years and so I know that you all are kind of thinking about that a little bit so tell me a little bit about how you're kind of working through that demographic shift and and how you are looking at especially I know a lot of people have been talking on the podcast about the challenge of you know where have all the men gone in traditional

SPEAKER_04
numbers we've seen that same shift in our demographics when I got to Butler about 10 years ago the split between our men and women was really really almost equal 49 50 51 you know right in there but we now over time have shifted to the point where we're just under 40 percent men and over 60 percent you know women so we've lived through that shift and and I think it goes along with there's multiple pieces that go along with that you know there's great paying jobs available men can go to work they can earn a great living you know in especially in the trades areas in n it and places like that and and they don't have to have that idea that you have to have a college degree in order to be successful doesn't exist any longer I think that there's also a huge national conversation especially around what's the value of higher education anymore and maybe and again it kind of relates to I don't have to have college degree to get a great paying job and to be able to take care of my family or you know have a have a living wage and and so how do we uh it actually we're just talking about it this past week in some meetings uh at the state level how do we help with the cost of education climbing continuing to climb how do we find that balance so that that value is still there well again community colleges step in and our costs are low our doors are open we create accessibility for our students we you know offer micro credentials and industry recognized credentials all of those kinds of things that hopefully create still opportunities for both men and women but again that declining population of men that we help them understand there is value in education and long term even just earning credentials will help you accelerate through your work environment and through your company possibly so the community colleges again are really uniquely positioned to make those decisions make them quickly create new curriculum or changes to curriculum that will support getting those folks into college creating flexible schedules maybe you know a blocked saturday class is what they need or maybe it's a you know second saturday each month over a period of time is what works into their schedules that's a whole lot easier i think for us sometimes to do because we had that flexibility and the ability to pivot sometimes

SPEAKER_01
better than larger institutions do would like to ask both of you one last question and that would be what would be something that you could offer as a tip or piece of advice that could quickly be implemented once a listener heard it and dr. crawl i'll start with you i thought about you know as

SPEAKER_04
we talked about this i thought about this um you know again some of the things that we learned through the pandemic um and beyond the pandemic we we have um the students that come to us have significant financial need um and it's not just dollars and cents but they have food insecurity they have housing insecurity you know things like that um it is actually very easy i think for organizations for other institutions if they don't have food pantries on campus to implement a food pantry uh you know on their campus that students have access to um and even staff have access to that's one of the things that we discovered is that um they're juggling finances and they're juggling money and so we we've really worked hard to create opportunities for students to just walk in they don't have to identify themselves but if they need something to take home to eat they have access to that personal hygiene products all of those kinds of things and so there are things like that that you can that sometimes you don't think about that students may need support in those areas um and that's one of the things that we've done really quickly and really easily to try and create again another piece of wraparound services for our students no matter what age they are to try and help fill a gap that they possibly have that can help keep them in school and can help balance out their finances for them so that they can they can stay in school um so we're constantly trying to think about ways that support our students um and and their lives in in um unique ways

SPEAKER_03
outside of classroom learning thank you Kelly yes I guess I would say and just the basics of just keep your students center and listen just listen to them you know the president's forums uh your focus groups they're going to tell you where their needs are you're going to be able to assess the different populations that you're talking to and just listen to them and then figure out how to how to you know how to match that need fix that need and remove the barrier that would be

SPEAKER_04
they'll tell you anything and everything the chicken in the cafeteria is too dry uh to I mean too we need technology in the classrooms that and so I love and I love those student forums that I have each month with with the students sometimes I have a group of three sometimes I have you know 23 or 30 but it's a great way to engage right away and I think have them feel like they have a connection on campus to somebody that maybe can help solve

SPEAKER_03
some problems for them if they if they have some and another tip that just ran through my head is um I've had I've had some tell me this because marketing technology you know the martech it changes all the time and automation and artificial intelligence is going to take it by storm and and we've only barely dipped our toe and there are times where I just you want to go into a brain meltdown and I've had a couple different people say just get started you don't have to solve it all just take a first step and just get started and just keep looking at so so that is a little voice I keep at the back of my head when when I feel like I need a paper sack the paper bag you know just like just take one step in the right direction and just keep building on that

SPEAKER_01
thank you both thank you for creating a wonderful conversation about the impact that community colleges can have but this is a conversation I think all higher ed marketing leaders can benefit from Dr. Crowell if someone would like to connect with you what would be the best way for them to do so and then Kelly if you can follow her my office number is um

SPEAKER_04
316-322-3100 my email is on our college website but it's kkrull at butlercc.edu and I would say thank you to both you Troy and Bart for a great experience and a great opportunity to not only talk about Butler specifically but really to continue to shine the light on community colleges because we're you know we're the workhorses and we're the ones that produce those students really that are ready to to get out there in the world and make a difference and we're proud of that

SPEAKER_03
I'd love for anybody to reach out and my phone number is 316-323-6085 and my email is ksnedin so it's ksnedin at butlercc.edu and again passionate about higher ed passionate about

SPEAKER_01
community colleges that was very evident from the both of you so again thank you for your time and the wisdom that you conveyed Bart what are your final thoughts just a really a lot of really

SPEAKER_00
great conversations here today and a lot of really good practical advice which is always our goal is I want people to walk away with some action items that they can go and implement at their own school and love the fact that Dr. Krull does this monthly president's forum just to really kind of listen and hear and I think that's been kind of a thing that I've heard throughout kind of the theme of this conversation is is being able to understand and and see where those needs are see where the the challenges are and react so we've talked a lot about pivoting and and seeing a need and pivoting and understanding what's going on and pivoting and and I think that's what grows innovation and I think that's what has been a hallmark of the innovative success at Butler Community College and and I just think that even in Dr. Krull's last tip there is really looking at the needs and then being able to react and I think that's something that I want everybody to take away from from this conversation is you have needs at your institution all you need to do is be intentional about reacting you don't have to have the solution right now but you have to at least have the intentionality to say I'm gonna listen I'm gonna find the needs and then I'm gonna figure out a way to get it done and some of that might be scary just like Kelly had vulnerably said you know this this idea of you know artificial intelligence chat GPT everybody talking about that you know you might need a brown bag to breathe into you might need one to throw up into but I mean it's one of those things that we have to just get started and so I really appreciate all the wisdom that was shared today and thank you so much for the the conversation I am grateful for all of

SPEAKER_01
you so thank you I also want to express my gratitude to Kailer Solutions and Education Marketing and Branding Agency and Ring Digital accurately serving ads directly into the devices of prospective students and their parents of your most valued mailing list consider it direct mail for digital we also want to thank Rob Conlon of Westport Studios our producer on behalf of Bart and myself thanks for listening

SPEAKER_02
you've been listening to the higher ed marketer to ensure that you never miss an episode subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player the higher ed marketer is a production of Kailer Solutions and Ring Digital in partnership with Westport Studios views and opinions expressed by guests on the higher ed marketer are their own and may not reflect the views and opinions of their organization know someone who's a mover and a shaker in higher ed marketing visit www.higheredmarketerpodcast.com and click on our contact us page we'd love to have you tell us about them until next time