Results from 2004-2005 Market Research

Introduction

In summer 2004 the Board of Trustees engaged Art & Science Group LLC of Baltimore, MD to research the College’s position in the marketplace and to help it identify a strong, true, and compelling identity that would distinguish it from its competitors while remaining a single-sex college. Throughout its 15-month project, A&S worked with a client committee comprising faculty, senior administrators, alumnae, and trustees. A&S undertook the project in steps, first visiting the College to understand its mission and current strengths and then gathering data from alumnae, current and withdrawn students, prospective students, and admitted applicants.

At each step, the A&S team discussed its findings with the client committee, the strategic planning steering committee and frequently with faculty, staff, and trustee audiences. A&S presented its final report to the client and strategic planning steering committees, trustees, faculty, and staff in November 2005.

Strategic Analysis, Fall 2004

The A&S team’s first initiative was a 2-day intensive visit to campus. Meeting with faculty, staff, students, alumnae, and trustees, the A&S team developed a strategic analysis report, mirroring what they had learned.

The client committee worked with A&S to craft four positioning platforms to test for effectiveness in giving the College a viable, differentiated market position as a single-sex college The committee distilled the four platforms from numerous recommendations, benchmarking them against requirements that they be bold, native, true to the College’s values, and achievable. The platforms tested the College’s ability to claim a distinctive position as

1. the Global College , an immersion in foreign language, international travel, and global information
2. the Exploration College , based on course clusters across disciplines related by a common theme
3. the Honors College, emphasizing achievement, student-faculty collaboration, individualized goal planning, and high placement in graduate and professional schools
4. the Leadership College , preparing students to become leaders through a four-year program designed to build the skills, knowledge, and intellectual capacity for bringing about change.

A&S also tested responses to initiatives such as enrolling more international students, offering extensive pre-professional programs, emphasizing the fine arts for all students, enrolling a more racially and ethnically diverse student body, enrolling graduate students, making environmental issues a central part of the curriculum and campus life, becoming a coed institution, and providing extensive opportunities for hands-on learning through travel, internships, and community service.

 

Alumnae Research, November - December 2004

A&S conducted blind (*) telephone surveys of R-MWC alumnae using a survey crafted jointly by A&S and the client committee. A&S presented the findings in March 2005.

* = A blind survey is one in which the client is not identified.

• Alumnae view R-MWC both now and when they were students extremely positively. A&S had never seen higher ratings. However, given their high overall ratings of the College, fewer alumnae than expected reported a feeling of belonging to an extended R-MWC community.
• Alumnae responded in generally positive terms to all of the proposed models and initiatives, except for the prospect of becoming a coed institution.
• Alumnae perceive the College’s financial situation to be at least as stable as when they left.
• Substantial numbers of alumnae feel concern for the College’s future that appears to be a fear for the future of women’s colleges in general rather than a specific awareness of R-MWC’s challenges.

 

Current and Withdrawn Students, December 2004 - February 2005

A&S completed telephone interviews with current students and also with students who had withdrawn over the previous two years. To the platforms and initiatives identified above, they added allowing upper class students to live off-campus and offering different on-campus housing options such as apartment style dormitories or suites. They presented their findings in April 2005.

• Current students give highest satisfaction ratings to academic factors. They rate the College’s faculty highly and value their personal attention. Academic rigor, either too much or too little, does not appear to be a major concern.
• The Honors College and the Global College identities were the most appealing to current students.
• Social life is a disappointment to many current students and a major factor in the withdrawal of others. The Lynchburg location and the intense campus culture are as much of an issue as lack of men.
• Among all of the initiatives tested, a greater variety of housing options – both on and off-campus – was rated as most appealing to both current and withdrawn students.

Inquirers, February - March, 2005

A&S conducted a blind telephone survey of high school seniors who had inquired into R-MWC and presented their findings in June 2005.

• Only six percent of inquirers indicated that they preferred a woman’s college; an additional 19 percent indicated no preference between women’s colleges and coed institutions.
• Inquirers who visited R-MWC were generally more interested as a result, but a large percentage of inquirers do not visit the campus.
• Coeducation was a factor three times greater than any others in determining respondents’ preferred schools.
• Of the positioning identities tested, the Honors College had the strongest appeal with inquirers. However, becoming a coed institution had a much stronger effect than the Honors College .

 

Admitted Applicants, May - June 2005

The A&S team conducted a blind telephone survey of admitted applicants, and reported their findings in September 2005.

• 26 percent of admitted applicants indicated that they preferred a women’s college; 42 percent indicated that they had no preference between a women’s college and a coed institution.
• Although it appears that becoming a coed college would have a sizeable positive impact on the conversion of inquirers into applicants, it seems to have very little impact on the yield of admitted applicants into matriculants.
• The initiatives with the greatest impact on yield rates for admitted applicants are the environmental and arts emphases. None of the positioning models tested appeared to have a positive impact on yield rates.

 

Overall Implications

Both current students and alumnae have deep emotional attachments to the College and feel strongly that they have benefited from having a single-sex education. The problem is that the market for women’s colleges – particularly for one that is small, liberal arts, and not in an urban area – has shrunk to an alarmingly small size. The platforms and initiatives that A&S tested in its first study are either not appealing enough to counter prospects’ resistance to single-sex education or are features which prospects already believe the College possesses.

Scenarios to Enhance Market Position

A&S distilled its year’s research into scenarios of change for the College, estimating the impact of each on the College’s future strength.

Single Gender, Incremental Change Scenario -- Not recommended

In this scenario, the College makes only incremental changes such as adding new majors, offering flexible evening adult and graduate courses, funding more social events, partnering with an urban campus, and increasing fund raising with alumnae through educating them about the challenges for a single-gender institution. While adopting these measures would provide some benefits, they would not likely increase enrollment enough to address the anticipated operating deficit. Without generating an enormous amount of revenue in short order, R-MWC would be in a much weaker position to make bold changes in the future:

• The College’s spendable endowment will have shrunk and the deficit grown.
• Demand for women’s colleges will likely have diminished even further.

Single Gender, Radical Change Scenario -- Does not appear feasible

The College undertakes three critical initiatives simultaneously and immediately: 

• Development: Raise very large amounts of new, unrestricted endowment funds within five years. 

• Social Life: Transform Lynchburg into a social center rivaling Charlottesville , and make dramatic improvements to campus residential and social life.
• Honors College : Adopt the Honors College model at a deep, integral level, as well as an increased emphasis on the arts for all students.

A&S modeling indicates that matriculants at the College would increase by a significant amount under this scenario. The report notes, however, that prospective students in the College’s own pool view the single-sex nature of R-MWC as an overwhelming negative and show a strong preference for coeducation. Their research does not reveal any initiative that the College could undertake that would alone counterbalance prospects’ strong preference for coeducation.

Given the size of the challenge and the fact that two of the three measures required for success in this scenario are controlled largely by forces outside of the College (the endowment campaign and the downtown Lynchburg partnership), A&S doubts that this is a viable option for the College.

Coed Plus a Distinctive Appeal Scenario -- Recommend further research to determine if feasible

The A&S study was not intended to examine the appeal of a coed R-MWC to prospects who do not currently inquire or apply to the College, but its research indicates that becoming coed would have an enormously positive impact on the women currently in the College’s pool.

A&S research estimates an upside potential of becoming coed would be twice that of the Honors   College scenario.

The A&S report acknowledges also the substantial risks of going coed, especially the possibility of alumnae and current student disengagement. Further, the College would still need both a distinctive appeal and expanded social opportunities to attract and retain students.

A&S was initially commissioned to study the viability of R-MWC as a single-sex institution rather than the possibility of its becoming coed, and its research was not focused on the viability of the coed option. Its final report recommended additional external and internal study to identify whether it is possible for R-MWC to attract male as well as female students, what additional appeals would be necessary, and how the community would undertake such a change.

 

Ongoing Research

In response to the A&S report and the recommendation of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, the Board of Trustees has approved additional study over the next six months. A&S’s external study will address prospects’ reactions to a coed R-MWC in conjunction with various positioning models and initiatives and also test selected models that were not a part of the initial study to see if they have resonance in conjunction with a single-sex R-MWC. A&S is expected to report its findings in May-June 2006.

Concurrent with the external study, the College continues to gather input from students and alumnae. At the same time, an internal group of administrators, faculty, and trustees will study a number of issues:

• What aspects other than single-sex constitute R-MWC’s identity?
• What key aspects of the R-MWC experience would the community want to retain if it were coed?
• How could a coed R-MWC pay tribute to its history as a woman’s college and its tradition of educating women? 
• How could the College continue to serve women well while also serving men?
• What might the College gain from having male students, beyond additional headcount? 

The College will also engage in studying the experiences of colleges that have stayed single sex successfully and those that have transitioned successfully to coed.

The College’s Strategic Direction

After information from both internal and external research on the College’s strategic direction has been studied, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee will make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees on future direction and positioning of the College. The Steering Committee’s recommendation and the Board’s action are anticipated during the summer of 2006.