Summary of Market Research, Spring 2006

Background

In November 2005, the Art & Science Group, LLC, the College’s market research consultants, presented the conclusions of the research they had carried out with the campus community over the last fifteen months. The research had been commissioned to identify a strong, true, and compelling distinction for the College as a single-sex institution that resonated with the College’s constituencies, would attract increased enrollment, and would provide for the College’ financial sustainability. Research was conducted with:

• 500 alumnae
• 300 current students
• A dozen or so withdrawn students
• 380 inquirers
• 125 admitted applicants

The report identified an Honors College emphasis as having the strongest market appeal for women, but also indicated that the single-sex status of the College had a dramatic, negative impact on the decisions of prospective female students. Even with the honors emphasis fully implemented and made known, projections of possible levels of enrollment fell far short of the levels identified by the College as needed to ensure financial sustainability in the long run. The data indicated, however, that admitting men would likely have a powerfully positive impact on the women in the College’s pool (Read the Results from the 2004-2005 Market Research).

Impelled by their fiduciary responsibility for the College’s future, the Board of Trustees commissioned further research to explore the feasibility of the College’s going coed with a distinctive identity that would appeal to females and males. If the College were to go coed, could females and males be expected to enroll in strong numbers? President of the Board of Trustees Jolley Bruce Christman ’69 explained the Board’s action in her letter mailed to all alumnae on November 10, 2005. At this time, the College also commissioned a qualitative study of major donors to assess their responses to the strategic options under consideration.

 

MARKET RESEARCH

Major Donor Study

During spring 2006, the College’s market research consultants completed a qualitative major donor study. They talked with 39 individuals with records of significant financial support for the College or the potential for major support. Conversations with each person lasted about an hour and were focused on finding out what interviewees valued about the College and how they viewed the strategic options facing it. Inverviewees were asked to read the President’s Report in advance.

Nearly all of the interviewees had fond memories of their time at R-MWC and praised the strong academics, the personal attention from faculty, the friendships they formed, and the confidence they gained from attending a single-sex college. Alumnae were largely aware of the strategic planning process, and many expressed confidence in the trustees’ ability to make good decisions. Most alumnae were aware of the challenges facing single-sex colleges and liberal arts colleges. Many mentioned daughters, nieces, or granddaughters who refused to consider a woman’s college.

Overall, interviewees’ attitudes were largely pragmatic about the idea of the College’s becoming coed and acknowledged that times had changed since they attended R-MWC. Nearly all of the 39 interviewees indicated that they would continue to support the College if it became coed, even though they would prefer that it remain single sex.

Overwhelmingly, interviewees felt strongly that maintaining the high academic standards and independent identity were the most important things for the College to preserve. Other core values mentioned included the Honor System; the warmth, affection, and civility of the campus community; and attention to and respect for the individual. When asked about the worst possible outcome for the College, nearly all mentioned lowering academic standards.

Interviewees expressed deep attachment to “life within the red brick wall” and saw becoming coed as far preferable to the loss of the College’s campus and identity. Overall, alumnae expressed great love for R-MWC. They were open-minded about the bold changes being considered for the College as long as high academic standards were preserved and the physical campus remained intact.

Prospective Student Study

As in the 2005 prospective student study, Art & Science Group used a survey developed in cooperation with the College’s client committee comprising faculty, staff, and trustees and incorporating distinctive platforms that emerged from faculty, staff and trustee conversations and proposals. During spring 2006, A&S conducted more than 1,000 blind telephone interviews with three sets of prospective students: qualified domestic students who had inquired to R-MWC for fall 2006, qualified female non-inquirers, and qualified male non-inquirers. (In this case, “qualified” means that the non-inquirers – all high school seniors – had to meet College-identified criteria for general admissibility to R-MWC in order to be allowed to complete an interview.)

A&S reported their research findings in June 2006 to the Client and Strategic Planning Steering Committees and to faculty, staff, and trustees. Among the findings were the following:

• Zero percent of female inquirers to R-MWC and 0% of female non-inquirers reported that they considered only women’s colleges.

• Only 9 percent of female inquirers to R-MWC and 1 percent of female non-inquirers said they preferred a women’s college.

• Ninety-six percent of men indicated they would at least consider a coeducational college that was recently a women’s college.

• The College is not at any more of a competitive disadvantage in converting men into applicants to a coed R-MWC than in converting non-inquiring women into applicants to a single-sex R-MWC.

• Across all of the populations studied, becoming coed improves the College’s standing across the board on social factors (on which the College lags dramatically behind its competition) without changing the College’s standing on academic or proximity factors.

With respect to distinctive identities, research findings showed that Honors and Global platforms received the highest ratings across female and male populations surveyed and demonstrated a significant, positive impact on application decisions. Additionally, the hands-on, experiential emphasis was very influential across all populations. With respect to the simulated impact on application rates, the College’s adopting of a hands-on global honors model and becoming coed would have significant positive impact on the decisions of female and male prospects whose qualifications and backgrounds make them attractive to the College.

• Both inquiring and non-inquiring women find a coed R-MWC with the Hands-On Global Honors Model much more appealing than a single-sex R-MWC with the same positioning.

• Men do find the idea of attending a coed R-MWC with the Hands-On Global Honors Model appealing, and would apply in sizeable numbers.

Strongest Possible Position for the College

The market research report concluded that, whether the College remained single-sex or became coed, it would need a distinctive market position. The research indicated that the best positioning option would be a Global Honors distinction with an experiential emphasis. Further, the report stated that it would be essential for the College to adopt the market position whole-heartedly and promote it aggressively.

To provide a sense of the scale required, the report suggested honors scholarships based on academic merit and on unique skills and accomplishments; diplomas that acknowledge the completion of an unusually rigorous course of study, including a senior capstone project and structured peer mentoring; a wide range of foreign language offerings, including Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese, with graduates demonstrating either language fluency or expertise in an area of the world; study abroad or an equivalent experience for all; enhanced resources and facilities (such as a 24-hour news center) directed toward global learning; and significant experiential experiences beginning in the first year and becoming progressively and intentionally more independently oriented over the course of four years.

The report also examined alternative scenarios that the College could choose to pursue in light of their findings:

1. Remaining Single Sex and Adopting Incremental Change in a variety of areas such as adding pre-professional majors, offering evening adult and graduate courses, providing more funding for social activities and residence hall alternatives, partnering with an urban campus, etc. Adopting incremental changes would not be enough to ensure the College’s financial sustainability, and at some point in the next 5-10 years, the College would likely have to consider again becoming coed or making other similarly bold changes, but with far fewer resources at its disposal.
   
2. Remaining Single Sex with Best Case Positioning. Adopting the Best Case Positioning and making dramatic investments in social life both on campus and in Lynchburg would increase the College’s appeal, but prospective students’ negative perceptions of single-sex colleges would counterbalance the College’s efforts. The College would continue to experience the structural deficit associated with being a single-sex institution and become progressively less strong over time.
   
3. Merger or Relocation. This extreme scenario would be undertaken to preserve a commitment to educating women in a single sex environment. Merger or relocation would require the ultimate sacrifice of the College’s identity without guaranteeing that the coed issue would not have to be addressed again in the mid-term.
   
4. Becoming Coed with Best-Case Positioning. Becoming coed and adopting the Best Case Positioning would greatly improve the appeal of the College to prospective students and their perceptions of social life at the College and in Lynchburg. Projected enrollments would be significantly greater than under any other scenario.

After analyzing the results of the prospective student and major giver research, the report concluded that the College’s best hope for remaining a strong institution and becoming an even stronger one in the future is to adopt a global honors orientation, emphasizing hands-on learning and educating women alongside men, as today’s college-bound women strongly prefer. The report concluded that becoming coed and adopting the Best-Case Positioning is the only viable and realistic option of those listed above.

In closing, the report also noted that the College has been wise to maintain its high academic standards and to nurture and expand its global orientation over the years, as these elements of R-MWC’s culture provide a strong basis for building a new position for the College, are appealing to prospective students, and are valued by current students and alumnae. The report closed with the consultants’ assertion that R-MWC has a powerful and exciting option before it, and that the College can build upon its strong academics, personal faculty attention, and global perspective and complement them with the addition of new opportunities for hands-on learning and service alongside both men and women.