Responses

Michael discussion:

Hello everyone,

For our discussion this week, I developed a budget for a summer immersion program on campus.  This program would help to expose middle school students to a college campus and college academic program.  The hopes would be to create an admissions pipeline that would provide students to the campus and generate interest among their peers.  For the initial start of the program, I have set the attendance at 25 students.  This could be accommodated within one residence hall on campus and would limit the amount of faculty participation needed as well.  Once the program is developed and turning students away, we could look into expanding the number of students involved.  Initially, this program will be funded through a corporate sponsorship arrangement with IBM and Global Foundries, and will also be supplemented by available New York State STEM Immersion Grant Funds.  Participants, if financially able, would also pay a slight tuition/room/board cost to defray some of the expenses.

Costs of the program would include two faculty members, one of which would be full time for the summer (to create a lesson plan and develop the program) and another to help supplement the teaching and curriculum development.  One staff member would coordinate the program and serve as the marketing and admissions person year round.  Another staff member would support during the summer months.  One student assistant would be available for the summer to support the faculty and the staff.  The total cost for labor (with benefits) is calculated to be $171,068.

Non-personnel costs would include van rental (for a field trip to each of the corporate sponsors and local museum), a textbook, marketing supplies, and dining for the 2 week term.  T-shirts and any other giveaways would be provided with funds from corporate sponsors.  Housing costs would be handled by the institution with RAs (already on campus for other programs) providing supervision in the residence halls.  Residence hall programming would be paid for out of admissions funds.

The ROI for this program will be measured by how many students end up enrolling at the institution.  A careful measurement of who enrolled, who didn’t, and why would help to identify admissions needs, as well as providing valuable feedback to the secondary schools.  This could also lead to a valuable partnership between the campus and participating secondary schools.