Santa Clara University recruiting students with blogs

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Nov 17, 2005

SANTA CLARA, CALIF.

Santa Clara University has launched a student recruitment campaign using text and photo blogs written by five students who are posting weekly updates of their lives at the California university. The goal is to provide prospective students with authentic, firsthand accounts of student life.

"When prospective undergraduate students are interested in applying to SCU, they want to know about life at the university: academics, student life and social activities," says Susan Shea, the university's director of communications. "One element that has been missing from the search, however, is the authentic voice of a student who can describe the 'freshman experience' firsthand."

The student bloggers recruited for the assignment received training at the beginning of the fall semester. Each of the students received a digital camera as part of the year-long initiative in order to post pictures of events, student life and friends on their blogs. More than 50 applications were received for the five available positions.

"Students will keep the camera the university gives them--our way of saying thanks for regularly blogging on the university's behalf," Shea says. "The eventual step is to provide RSS feeds and podcasts that can be listened to via computer or MP3 players."

The blogSCU writers are SCU freshman students from Omaha, Neb.; Goshen, Ind.; San Diego, Orange County, and San Jose, Calif. The blogs are available at <www.scu.edu/blogscu>.