[civsa] Saturday Tours

Greiner, Ania agreiner at colum.edu
Mon Oct 19 14:57:52 CDT 2015 

We’ve been discussing our Saturday Tour process as well. We’ve always offered a Saturday tour during the academic year, and none during the summer. About a year ago we started offering 2 tours on Saturdays and they are usually both at capacity (about 50-60 guests each).

Saturday tours are a bit of a problem for us though because we’ve had to hire a security officer to accompany the tour group and open doors for them (there are not many classes happening on Saturdays, and many of our labs and student spaces are closed). Our staff also sometimes resent having to work Saturdays, even though they get a comp day during the week for it. They just don’t want to work during the weekend. However, Saturdays are really when our guests want to come, so we feel it’s an essential recruitment event worth the extra cost and staff time. Our guests seem to love our Saturday tours.

We don’t have the issue with games, but we do let our guests know that driving to downtown Chicago on a Saturday can be tricky (also a problem that we don’t have a parking lot). We’re a private arts college, about 9,000 students.

Good luck to you!

--
Ania Greiner
Director of Admissions Events & Services
Columbia College Chicago
600 S. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605
312-369-7034
pronouns: she/her/hers



From: <Vawter>, Blake <blake.vawter at oregonstate.edu<mailto:blake.vawter at oregonstate.edu>>
Reply-To: "listserv at civsa.org<mailto:listserv at civsa.org>" <listserv at civsa.org<mailto:listserv at civsa.org>>
Date: Monday, October 19, 2015 at 1:25 PM
To: "'listserv at civsa.org<mailto:'listserv at civsa.org>'" <listserv at civsa.org<mailto:listserv at civsa.org>>
Subject: Re: [civsa] Saturday Tours

Greetings from ‘sunny’ Corvallis,

We have attempted the Saturday visit thing in the past.  While we also are on the receiving end of people being disappointed in not being able to visit on a Saturday, we don’t offer them at all (aside from a scheduled Open House program).    Our response is:  Saturdays are not great times to visit due to the lack of academic appointments, and on game days, parking/tailgating/traffic is less than optimal.  We have done our best to insulate visitors from the game day experiences on those Pac 12 Thursday or Friday night games (unless they are into that) by communicating the situations well in advance and being borderline militant on protecting the prospective visitor parking spaces we have nearby.

But back to the Saturday point:  our experience in providing Saturday visits in the past wasn’t good for anyone because visitors tended to be disappointed because all they could participate in was a tour and an admission presentation.  No Honors College, no viewing classes, no academic appointments.  If we have folks on campus, we want to provide the best experience and service possible.  If they truly want to visit, they’ll make arrangements to do so during the week or at a program.  If they can’t/won’t make other arrangements, we happily provide a self-guided tour booklet to them.

Nail-biter on Saturday….good luck the rest of the way (except for Oct 31.)!

Blake Vawter
Associate Director of Admissions
Marketing and Programs
Oregon State University
541.737.3597
http://oregonstate.edu/visitosu

[beavernation]
GO BEAVS!



From: listserv [mailto:listserv-bounces at civsa.org] On Behalf Of Scott Kirkessner
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2015 11:12 AM
To: 'listserv at civsa.org<mailto:'listserv at civsa.org>'
Subject: [civsa] Saturday Tours

Hello Friends!

Here in Utah, time with family is seen as very important, and the majority of institutions (the U included) only host Saturday tours approximately once a month.  I personally have not received much pushback from visitors, just an occasional disappointment here or there usually always from out of staters, but despite being a large PAC12 school, most people accept that we don’t have regular Saturday tours.

I am calling out today to find your experience and have a few questions

1)      How often do you offer Saturday tours?

2)      If you don’t offer Saturday tours every Saturday…

a.       What has guest reaction been?

b.      What has university reaction been?

c.       What’s your average size?

3)      If you DO offer Saturday tours every Saturday

a.       Have you always done it that way or did you have to increase?

                                                               i.      What prompted moving to more Saturdays

b.      How do you schedule your Ambassadors and Office Staff?

c.       Are the Saturday tours always packed?

Thanks everyone!

Don’t forget!  Registration for both the Student Development Institute and the Annual Conference are open!  Consider submitting a session proposal and register today!

Sincerely,

Scott Kirkessner, M.Ed.
Region One Director
Collegiate Information and Visitor Services Association
Office: 801-585-1995
Scott.Kirkessner at utah.edu<mailto:Scott.Kirkessner at utah.edu>
http://facebook.com/officialcivsa
[UlogoHv2]



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