UNDERGRADUATE RECRUITMENT STRATAGIES: RESULTS OF A NATIONAL SURVEY OF GEOSCIENCE DEPARTMENTS

We distributed a survey to nearly 900 Geoscience departments in the US and Canada in Fall 2005 to seek information helpful to the future health and success of Geoscience departments. The survey addressed departmental demographics of a large range of departments and institutions, including two year, primarily undergraduate, and graduate degree-granting departments/institutions. The survey addressed perceived threats and opportunities, and included aspects and characteristics of strong departments, but also emphasized student recruitment and retention. 366 departments (over 40%) responded to the survey. 86% of the respondents from all institutions, over all institution types, indicated that undergraduate recruitment was an important issue for their department. Over three quarters of all respondents provided specific comments about activities they used to recruit undergraduates.

The activities used by departments to recruit undergraduates covered a very large range, from brochures to visits to K12 schools to talks in other classes, especially general education, to active geology clubs to free food to staff hired specifically to recruit to career days to working closely with other colleges on campus to recruitment fairs and telephone outreach. We will present an analysis of the most commonly cited and effective activities, by institution type, in an effort to share best practices with the geoscience community as broadly as possible.