La Voz

De Anza College should look into more visible and effective means of marketing.

While the school's marketing department is spending a comparable amount of money to what it did last year, its glory days are over. Its message fails to reach us.

We're concerned. Where have all the advertisements gone?

The marketing department advertises in theaters during the blockbuster season, De Anza Marketing Coordinator Lois Jenkins told La Voz. "We stick to big movies coming out to target the best audience."

But we, the editors of La Voz, haven't seen ads anywhere, though some of us came here because we once did.

"It's difficult to say exactly how effective our advertising is because there aren't very accurate ways to track how many people see our ads in print, at the movies, or hear them on the radio and then apply and register for classes," Jenkins wrote in a Feb. 1 e-mail to La Voz.

"However, it's essential to keep the college's name out there in the public eye if we want to compete for students with other colleges."

We agree. But we still haven't seen the ads, though we read newspapers regularly. And magazines. And watch movies. And listen to the radio. Most of our information sources are those likely to contain a "Come to De Anza College" message.

For someone who sees as many off-campus ads as we do, Measure E and last year's Board of Trustees candidates could easily be all they know of campus-related issues, along with last year's news blurbs about Colin Powell's visits to the campus. And not all prospective students vote or pay attention to news sources.

Of course, this curious invisibility might have something to do with the marketing department losing two-and-a-half positions to the latest budget cut.

Prospective students might not know that the planetarium has wacky night shows, or that De Anza provides free housing for its birds and squirrels. They might not know about De Anza's superior transfer rate, its impressive array of courses or acclaimed programs. The Nursing Department is among the best of its kind. Auto Tech's amazing, handson approach prepares students to enter the work force. They would not know the thoughtfulness and wisdom of our faculty and staff, so many of whom go out of their way to enlighten students.

We come because we're drawn by pictures of well-targeted ads featuring smiling students and a beautiful location, and by words from our teachers, parents, coworkers, employers and friends. We smell transfer possibilities and personal enrichment, Our internal Cardinal Directions point us to education. We stay so we can continue to stand on the shoulders of wiser people than ourselves.

Enrollment is 1.5 percent higher than last winter, according to the student contact hours released by Admissions and Records. What it doesn't say is how many students are involved in off-campus programs, or that on-campus enrollment is even lower than it was during last year's slump.

We'll be transferring soon, to schools and sectors of the work force, and making our mark on society. In a few years, we'll give way to a new crop of De Anza students.

They, like us, will take guidance from instructors and other faculty members and go on to lead rich, wholesome lives as they follow our example. If more come.



This article appears in the Feb. 6, 2006 print edition of La Voz.

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