In spring 2007, the Admission Office made a bold decision. The College would abandon the traditional viewbook, a glossy 25-page publication giving all of the details of the College that was traditionally sent to all high school juniors interested in Albright. It would be replaced with a new approach to recruiting, one that would be sent out to high school sophomores as well as juniors.

Faces, a full-color magazine focusing on the interesting students of the College, made its debut last fall. Inside, a dozen Albrightians tell their stories—but it doesn’t end with just the printed piece. Students continue their stories by writing online blogs that potential applicants can then read.

There’s more. The College now has its own social media web site, on the NING network, where high school students can interact with the Albright students featured in Faces, asking questions about what it’s really like to attend the College. High school students can gather first-hand information on Albright for months, learn details of our students’ lives, and never once speak face to face with anyone on the Albright campus.

When high school students finally do come to campus, their tours are led by the same students that appear in Faces. This is the first time the high school students will meet the college students whose lives they have been following for several months. The results have been record-breaking. “We are very excited that the campus will be joined by approximately 600 new students (freshmen, transfers and ESL students) this August,” says Greg Eichhorn, vice president of enrollment management. “This will be a record number of new students and the second largest freshman class in the College’s history.”

Why does this new method of communicating with prospective students work so well? Recruitment, technology and a new culture of communication have all converged.

Advancements in technology in the last decade have changed our lives, and nowhere is this more evident than in the ways students communicate. E-mail, cell phones, text messaging and social media web sites such as MySpace and Facebook have revolutionized how students interact with others.

In part one of this story (Spring 2008), we reported that some Albright College students receive more than 500 text messages each day. “Texting,” the sending of short messages 160 characters or less via cell phone, is a relatively new form of communication, but it has taken college campuses by storm.

In fact, most web sites and e-mail providers notify members of a new message or e-mail by sending a text message to a cell phone. And it is not limited to students; even some faculty and administrators use texting as a form of instant communication with students and each other. Albright’s Office of Public Safety, like similar offices at many schools across the country, also instituted a text-messaging system that broadcasts a text message to all registered users in the event of an emergency.

As the price of a gallon of gasoline recently topped the fourdollar mark, the Associated Press reported that the business community is also turning to e-meetings and teleconferencing. Rather than pay the high price of bringing everyone together, businesses use webcams and Internet conferencing to put everyone at the same table without ever leaving their homes.

Facebook has more than 69 million users and receives 65 billion page views a month. In the dating world, no longer is the “bar scene” a place to meet new people. Dating web sites such as match.com and eharmony.com allow users to pick from a catalog of members and select those that they would like to contact. These are all steps in a society where face to face contact is becoming less and less important.

But are these things helping or hindering our students’ futures? Dr. Sally Farley, assistant professor of psychology, says the jury is still out on this one. “I don’t think researchers know the relationship between computer-mediated communication (CMC) and later success with face-to-face contact,” says Farley.“Many of the articles on CMC discuss that this type of communication can help increase the intimacy of social bonds. The most frequent users of text messaging and the Internet are young people, and they are typically communicating with their friends and romantic partners, people with whom they also have a great deal of face-to-face contact.”

Research suggests that people are considering this type of communication as a supplement, not replacing face-to-face contact but rather augmenting it by creating constant accessibility. Farley agrees. “People don’t tend to branch out this way. They are using CMC as a method of maintaining the relationships they already have.”

Regardless of whether they themselves have embraced the changes in the way students communicate, there is agreement among faculty and staff on campus about one thing: A student with something negative to tell someone almost always will do it electronically. It’s hard to“shoot the messenger” when they are hiding across campus. “I think that people are substantially more bold in their electronic communications than they would be face to face,” says Farley. “For example, most of my grade challenges have been communicated via e-mail.”

Will today’s students be able to communicate in the business world once they graduate and leave campus? Research suggests that staying on top of cutting-edge technology will only help, as the business world favors a more cost effective electronic communication system. The joke used to be that no one could set the clock on their VCR. The incoming class of 2012 won’t get that joke. They’ve only read about VCRs, and probably on their cell phones. One thing is certain: there are new technologies ahead. So it’s not only students who must stay on top of the newest communication tools: Albright must do the same if it is to continue the positive trends in recruitment.