Program Coordinator

Memorandum

Date:  July 10, 2015

To:  Dr. Joseph Bartolotta

From:  Mateo L Sanchez

Re:  MGMT 712 Audience Analysis, Part One  

I am the Program Coordinator for the University of New Mexico Native American Studies (NAS) Program within the University College. As NAS advisor I report to the Native American Studies program director and work with the Director of University Advisement. The UAC Senior Academic Advisor reports to the Director of University Advisement and the Senior Program Manager for the University Advisement Center. 

Since the fall of 2005, the Native American Studies program has been responsible for the advisement, recruitment, retention, and graduation of students in the Native American Studies major and minor degree programs. Native American Studies developed the program requirements for both the major and minor as outlined in the UNM Catalog and in the LOBO Trax audit utilized by the NAS faculty advisor, the Director of University Advisement, the University College Senior Academic Advisor, and students.  

As NAS faculty advisor I am responsible for all in-person consultation and email correspondence with prospective and current NAS students and alumni.  I am also responsible for recruitment and outreach. Events I coordinate include, but are not limited to, the UNM Explore-A-Major Fair, UNM Student Transfer Resource Fair, UNM Office of Admissions Open House, AISS American Indian Junior Day, and presentations to various tribal higher education departments and tribal communities, and participation in new student orientation and transfer student orientation.

The majority of recruitment in previous years has been on-site, face-to-face.  Due to the many budget cuts within the university system, one of the first on the chopping block was transportation and recruitment. We needed to get the most bang for our buck and it was decided that we would develop our website as a tool to publicize our department as well as a tool for the general public, perspective students, and current students to use to navigate the intricacies of our department.  

I have found that a website has a far wider reach than other forms of advertising i.e. we are developing “traffic” to our website nationally, and even internationally, but more importantly, we are reaching students, schools, and general populations in rural areas in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah where large populations of Native communities/students reside.  I have found that our department’s campaign to reach out to these communities, via the web, costs our department next to nothing.  We are also utilizing social networking sites i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, to advertise our department and to also promote courses being offered, events taking place, etc.  We have found that the visibility of the NAS program has increased significantly which in return has increased the amount of people inquiring about our program.  I have found that prospective students are conducting research through our website prior to reaching out to us.  Our website is proving to be an invaluable asset that is available to our customers 24 hours a day, everyday of the year.