In January 2021, HACC’s Admissions Department moved from the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management to a new home in the Office of College Advancement (OCA). This reorganization allowed the admissions team to work more closely than ever before with OCA colleagues involved in advertising, marketing, web development and strategic partnerships. 

To provide even better service to all future students, the admissions team implemented a number of enhancements, including:

• Improving communications designed to recruit future students

• Developing tools to ensure departmental policies and procedures are clearly in place

• Creating email templates and checklists 

• Eliminating the campus-based service approach and adopting the One-College service model 

We are excited to grow the Admissions Department and continue making enhancements that will better serve students and colleagues!  

Admissions team members worked with colleagues in OCA and other divisions to create 10 new videos for recruiting students. The videos cover important topics, including:

• Virtual tours of the Gettysburg, Harrisburg, Lancaster and Lebanon campuses

• Financial aid options

• College in the High School and dual enrollment 

• Student Access Services

• English as a Second Language (ESL)

The videos are an excellent way to recruit future students and inform students, parents, high school counselors and others about everything HACC has to offer. 

In December 2021, the Community Engagement Department encouraged strategic, mutually beneficial and virtual community connections. The compact online form easily connects community partners with colleagues across HACC’s five campuses. This resource improves the way we respond to partners within our 11-county service region. HACC yeah! 

In 2022, the fresh spring air brought fresh perspectives to the Community Engagement Department. 

The inaugural Community Impact Advisory Coalition, composed of community leaders from within the College’s 11-county service region, was created to connect community resources to students. In May 2022, the College welcomed 19 new community impact advisors who will:

• Bring regional perspectives to decision making

• Work with College leaders for a year to provide insights into the enhancement or creation of programming needed by private- and public-sector organizations in our service region. 

For more information about this initiative, please contact communityengagement@hacc.edu. 

The Financial and Support Services Department manages the HACC Foundation scholarship program and the emergency assistance funds program.

As a result of these programs, HACC students receive much-needed and much-deserved funding to assist with their tuition, books and fees, and crises that may adversely impact their academic progress at HACC.

For example from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, the HACC Foundation:

• Awarded $968,845.07 in scholarship funds to 716 students.

• Provided emergency assistance funding totaling $24,565.93 to 55 students.

Yet again, the Financial and Support Services Department and HACC Foundation “showed up and showed out” for our students. HACC yeah!

As outlined in the collegewide marketing plan for 2021-22, the College has had great success highlighting students who exemplify the characteristics of a high school student, nontraditional student and workforce student since the launch of the persona campaigns in 2019. OCA continued the persona campaigns in 2021-22.

The summer/fall registration  campaigns began on April 21 and concluded Aug. 29, 2021. If a future student clicked on an ad, they were directed to one of three specific webpages:

• Nontraditional Persona

• Traditional Persona

• Workforce Persona

So, how did it go?

• The Google Responsive Display - General ads received a 1.02% click-through rate (CTR), which is a .15% increase from the 2020-21 campaign. The education industry average for CTR is .53%.

• The Google Responsive Display - Remarketing ads received a 1.48% CTR, which is a .80% increase from 2020-21. The education industry average for CTR is .53%.

• The College introduced TikTok (example pictured above) to the advertising campaign in July 2021. In a short timeframe, the ads received a 1.07% CTR. While TikTok does not have an education industry average at this time, we are pleased with this result.

During the summer and fall 2021 registration cycle, the Office of Academic Affairs partnered with OCA to raise awareness of some of HACC’s phenomenal programs:

• Biology and Environmental Science

• Electrical Technology

• Human Services and Addiction and Recovery Services 

These programs were selected based on the following criteria, which were supported by data:

• High demand in the job market

• Low enrollment

• Readiness for marketing (IMC had not previously launched a campaign)

• Alignment with our future student personas (if possible)

All three campaigns concluded on Aug. 29, 2021. From February through August 2021, there were 78,178 unique pageviews to the biology, electrical technology and human services webpages. This represents an 887.47% increase in pageviews over the same time period in 2020. 

Shaded cells represent the months that this campaign ran (Aug. 13-Nov. 27, 2021). 

A coherent and streamlined admissions application is important for any higher education institution. With that in mind, the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) team worked with colleagues in the Office of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management to update the dual enrollment high school application and make it easier for students to complete. 

These enhancements included:

• Updated language throughout the application to ensure consistency across the College

• Clarified the process of submitting additional documents

High school students struggled with this step since the College adopted an electronic version of a required signature page in 2020. To make the process easier, we updated the directions on how to complete the additional documentation and moved that portion from the beginning of the application to the end.

• Removed external links from within the application

Previously, when a student clicked on an external link while completing the application, they were directed away from the application. This led to incorrect assumptions on the student’s part that their application had been submitted.

• Updated the name of the tab where the student submits their application 

• Added a note below the “Submit Application” button to explain that the application is not complete until that button is clicked

Last fiscal year (July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022), the HACC Foundation received $1,025,669 to help HACC students! These life-changing gifts were received from individuals, organizations and grant awards. 

Thank you to the donors who gave gifts of any size to help students complete their education and reach their goals. Please see the following words of thanks from students who were helped by the generosity of donors - like you!

"Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity.  In this situation, words alone are not sufficient.  My heart is full of love and appreciation for every person who gave generously to make my dream possible.  Moving forward, I promise to continue to do my best to work hard and succeed in my academic plan toward nursing." ~ Sarah, HACC student 

“I plan to utilize this degree to transition to a new career in Information Technology; a field I have greatly desired to join. Thanks to you, I am one step closer to that goal. Your generosity has inspired me to help others and give back to the community. I hope one day I will be able to help students achieve their goals just as you have helped me.” ~ Austin, HACC student 

For more information about the HACC Foundation, please visit hacc.edu/HACCfoundation. If you would like to give a gift to help a HACC student, please consider supporting one or more of these critical projects. Thank you! 

Several rounds of user testing on HACC’s website and internal portal began in fall 2021. User testing allows HACC to gather feedback on how different groups of people think and use our website. 

We asked users to conduct card sorts for the following areas:  

• The entire hacc.edu website 

• myHACC’s Financial Aid student tab

• hacc.edu’s academic programs and courses area

• hacc.edu’s financial aid web area

We also distributed online surveys to solicit feedback on hacc.edu and the academic programs and courses area. 

Finally, we conducted tree testing for the financial aid area of hacc.edu as well as our internal portal. 

From July 1, 2021-June 30, 2022, HACC’s photographer and videographer created more than 300 videos for integrated marketing communications campaigns. Video ads reached millions of people and helped increase awareness, share information and drive recruitment. We shared videos on the following platforms:

• Broadcast television

• Facebook

• Google

• Instagram

• Snapchat

• Spotify

• TikTok

• YouTube

When someone picks up the phone to speak with someone at HACC, we want them to find the right person in the shortest amount of time. That’s why a clearly organized phone tree menu is important! In coordination with the Office of Information Technology and Learning Experience, colleagues from the Website and Multimedia Resources Department updated the phone tree menu prompts to increase the sound quality and refine the language used to help direct callers.