The real issue with enrollment

Santa Ana College is blowing $123,000 on a camera crew for an ad that doesn’t even target a local audience.

The College Tour is a show on Amazon Prime that showcases college campuses to students who aren’t sure where they want to go. The goal of bringing The College Tour team to our campus is to advertise our school and increase enrollment.

What we should actually be doing is directly targeting local potential students.

This budget comes from a COVID-19 relief bill that gave us money to bolster student retention rates and enrollment. The choice to spend this remaining money on a twenty minute ad shows just how disconnected the school is from its students.

Showcasing SAC on a national level is going to do next to nothing for our enrollment. As a former Middle College High School student, I was constantly discouraged from enrolling at SAC after graduation. Even when I was taking classes here as a high school student, I was told not to continue my education at this school. We should be sending people out to local high schools to show off just how good of a school we are.

While I’m sure the school is eager to show off the three new buildings we’ve built and hide the rest of the school, this College Tour episode misses the mark.