Stefany Bales’ job is all about monitoring how the University of Idaho is seen by the outside world.
The Staff Council began its March 8 meeting with a presentation from Bales, the executive director of University Communications and Marketing (UCM). Her presentation was focused on how the university is perceived people across the state.
“Part of what University Communications and Marketing does is conduct surveys and collect data to help us understand how we’re perceived across the state — in other words, how people really view UI,” Bales said.
UCM last conducted a poll about public perception of UI in 2012. Bales said they felt the need to do it again in 2016 after the induction of the new administration and renewed focus on enrollment growth.
Bales said the poll was targeted toward Idaho adults instead of Idaho voters, as some other polls are set up. Bales said it was aimed at the general Idaho adult population to form an accurate sample across the state.
“The survey was made up of 500 phone call interviews — 500 is an accurate representative sample for Idaho, believe it or not,” Bales said. “Generally, what we were trying to do is measure the awareness, opinions and support of UI amongst the state.”
Bales said the bottom line of the poll was to figure out how the university is perceived.
“We wanted to see if we were in the ditch, or not,” Bales said. “The poll shows us that we don’t have a problem, but we do have an opportunity to improve.”
Bales said a prominent challenge revealed through the poll is to expand advertisement for UI across the state instead of just focusing on advertising in the northern sections of Idaho. Bales said the cities in closer proximity to Boise contain almost half of Idaho’s population. She said the university needs to expand its efforts in advertising and recruitment in southern Idaho.
“We have a strong presence in the Spokane, Coeur d’Alene and Lewiston media markets,” Bales said. “The challenge comes in trying to penetrate more into the southern Idaho media market. Southern Idaho contains 47 percent of the state population.”
Bales said the poll asked people how they felt about different competing institutions in and around Idaho.
“We compared UI against Boise State, Idaho State, WSU, BYU-Idaho and Utah State because they’re competitors, or because they’re drawing in more students from the Idaho market than they have before,” Bales said.
Greg Fizzell, Staff Council chair, asked Bales what the physical plan is to increase enrollment and the university’s public image in the southern half of the state.
Bales said her department has a three-part plan in order to improve the university’s image within the state.
“UCM has three strategic goals,” Bales said. “The first is to build advocacy and awareness. This means using brand marketing, such as billboards and commercial advertising. The second is enrollment growth, and that is an entirely different animal in itself. The third one is an internal communication goal. We’re trying to build morale so people feel more confident about the university.”
Bales said UI and Boise State University are the highest ranked institutions based on their academic programs. The poll shows BSU ahead in popular opinion, but an overwhelming percentage of people who chose BSU did so because of athletics or proximal convenience.
“When we analyze all the data among potential student households, we find that (UI) leads the other institutions in providing the best overall college experience,” Bales said.
Andrew Ward can be reached at [email protected]