UTPB: Truly Local Alumni

Situation

As part of a new effort to focus recruitment on the local regional area, we helped UTPB establish a stronger brand presence beyond just the high school in each of the 30+ individual towns of the Permian Basin. To illustrate the opportunity, we selected Stanton, Texas (population 2,654), about 45 miles east of the university, to illustrate marketing and recruitment opportunities that went beyond the traditional standard techniques.

Solution

Although UTPB students were coming from throughout the entire Permian Basin, the student body was largely local. We concluded that this meant that there would inevitably alumni from the university either back in the towns throughout the area or pursuing opportunities in those towns. We concluded that this would particularly be the case for education alumni who would be teaching in schools throughout the area. We put out a call in Stanton and invited UTPB alumni to be part of a project to promote a college-going culture and UTPB specifically. From those who raised their hands we selected two to profile in the first iteration of this campaign.

We asked these alumni to tell us about themselves and their relationship to both the university and to the town of Stanton. We asked them to talk about why they chose UTPB, what kind of work they’d done since graduating, and who was someone at the university who had had a big impact on them. We asked them how long they’d lived in Stanton, what their plans were in the future, and what advice they had for someone going to college. Then we captured this information and published it, on a rack card as a physical document that we could share, and as digital content that we could publish over social media and in digital campaigns.

Success

This effort took place shortly after the covid pandemic started while cities and towns like Stanton were trying to recover and re-engage with the community. We were able to use initiatives like this one to benefit both our own recruitment efforts and the renaissance of the city. It also served as a concrete and powerful example to the recruitment and admissions team of innovative ways to build a brand presence in the cities of the region, the most important populations the university serves.