Week 10: Email Newsletters

The overall goal in utilizing a newsletter would be two-fold and very different than a for-profit business. The first would be to better disseminate information in an effort to support student success. We have noticed that students are very often not well-informed on the services, resources, and tools offered by the college, and better marketing of these have proven to increase awareness. For this reason, a once-a-semester newsletter would not properly serve that purpose. I feel that 2-3 newsletters each semester would serve as excellent reminders, particularly around mid-terms, for the offerings to be used by our students. If possible, we would provide a "welcome back" email at the beginning of the semester, "keep your head up" email around mid-terms, and a "you're almost there" email right before finals. Each would contain tips and tools to utilize when students get stressed out.

The other goal would be to more effectively provide information as answers to questions, in an effort to decrease unneeded appointments. In an ideal world we would have plenty of counselors and available appointments to serve our entire student body in convenient and timely manner. Unfortunately, in peak periods we have been known to book up close to one month out, and oftentimes students have made appointments unnecessarily. Many of these students have questions that could have been answered in our catalog or website, but students don't find these two resources easily accessible. I would venture to say that a bimonthly publication schedule would best serve this purpose, with the bulk of the content coming at the beginning and end of the semester when we reach high peak periods.

Below I have listed some content that I feel would be useful in newsletters offered by the Counseling Department:

• Updates on student support resources such as the Math Learning Center, Writing Center, Tutoring Services, library databases, workshops and events for topics such as study habits, transferring, test anxiety, etc.
• Counselor/Staff/Faculty Spotlight where we will have a guest contributor discuss anything from their academic journey, personal and professional history, thoughts on MiraCosta, or tips for being a more productive student.
• Updated list of deadlines
• Timely tips for students with information on how to start the semester off right, getting over the mid semester slump, studying habits, de-stress techniques, etc.

I think that this content would be sufficient to start out. I'm sure that reader feedback and more experience writing would offer insight as to which content is most effective and where content should be added.