Adrian College Goes Digital posted 2/26/09
College launches new videos, becomes member of social networking groups

ADRIAN, Mich. – Adrian College has become more Web friendly to attract potential students and keep in touch with current ones as well as alumni. The College has launched three new videos highlighting the campus as well as joining popular social networking groups.

Today’s college student is very tech savvy and Adrian College is getting on board. Facebook, MySpace and YouTube are a part of high school and college students’ everyday lives. Because students depend on technology, specifically social media these days, and are visually inspired, the College has launched three new videos which were developed and produced by alumnus Mark Magnuson ’75.

The videos serve as a new initiative to attract students to the campus and to show the alumni how the College has improved with its many upgrades. The first video is a look at all the possibilities the small liberal arts college has to offer; the second is a campus tour by President Jeffrey Docking and the third is a look at the Renaissance Campaigns, highlighting the finished and proposed projects.

Adrian College also knows the importance of keeping up with technology in sustaining and developing relationships with students, alumni and the community. If you type in the word Facebook into the Google search engine, more than 700 million results come up. Adrian College realizes how these social networks can benefit the institution as well as prospective, current students and alumni.

“It’s a way for us to keep our students engaged in campus activities,” says Janet Creque, Web content editor for the College who also manages the College’s social networking accounts. “I send out announcements as well as information regarding campus events to the students because we found it to be more effective than e-mail alone.”

College students are frequently looking at e-mail, with 72% checking e-mail at least once a day. Today’s college student is also more likely to check their Facebook account more times in a day than their e-mail. According to a study done by Pew Internet & American Life Project, one-fifth of today’s college students began using computers between the ages of five and eight. By the time they were 16 to 18 years old all of today’s current college students had begun using computers and the Internet was commonplace in the world in which they lived.

The social networks are also a great way for parents and alumni to stay connected to the College. They can become Adrian College’s “friend” on Facebook and receive the campus announcements as well as view recent photos of the College. This helps alumni and parents stay in tune to what the College is doing. It is also a way for alumni to get back in contact with old friends.

Adrian College can now be found on Facebook, MySpace and even has its own channel on YouTube, www.youtube.com/AdrianCollege1859. The three aforementioned videos can be viewed on the College’s Facebook or MySpace pages as well as the above YouTube channel. To learn more about the College’s Renaissance II Campaign, please visit http://www.adrian.edu/development/renaissanceII.php