THE HAUENSTEIN CENTER

Attracting Students, Creating Relationships

Rachel Syrba, April 2017
Introduction.

This plan book was created to assist Grand Valley State Universitys Hauenstein Center

in creating a closer relationship with the student population and making more people aware of

what the center is initially about. Over the course of several weeks we have worked with and

studied different strategies and tactics that could work in helping the center with this issue, and

we have attempted in creating new ideas and events that could promote the center in a

student-oriented way.

Within the plan book there are student opinions of the center, a survey template that

served well when collecting information on the student body, the results from a very strong

focus group we conducted, the idea for a possible event that could be put on by the center,

along with a news release and invite for said event. The different mediums brought together in

this book are meant to help lead the center towards a more student filled future, where

GVSUs student body has an awareness and an appreciation for what the Hauenstein Center

brings to campus.

We are truly hoping that this asissts the center in making a stronger connection with

the student body, and helping the students even understand what they can learn even by simply

attending events or browsing the social media the center has. The purpose here is expand the

audience the Hauenstein Center already has, as well as making it more accessible to students

and making it so students feel as though its another place they can go to for any of their

political and academic needs.

Table of Contents.

RESEARCH

Secondary Research

References

Focus Group Report

Moderators Guide

Survey Report

Blank Survey

ACTION PLAN

Situation Analysis

Goal Statement

Objectives

Strategies

Tactics

Gantt Chart Calendar

Budget Table

Evaluation

COMMUNICATION

News Release

Event Invitation

Email Draft for Event

EVALUATION
RESEARCH
Secondary Research.

For my initial research I browsed the Hauenstein Centers main website

and tried to navigate around the different links that they offered. The main

links being for their Common Ground Initiative, their Wheelhouse Talks, and

the Cook Leadership academy. All of these pages had very sturdy information

and answered many questions right off the bat, however, it felt very jumbled

while perusing. I found it to be difficult to sift through the mounds of

information presented, even though it was very good information to have

available.

The second location I started to look for information was on their

social media links and how they interacted with their followers. I felt that

their presence on social media was spread out over many popular mediums,

but I also felt as though they had a very rigid tone wheneve r they posted

about an event or an idea. They have little to almost no interaction with

their followers on their social media platforms either, which is something that

is extremely important with building relationships for future events and plans.

The listens and views regarding their podcasts were also very

inconsistent; some would have a great audience and discussion, while others

were lacking in any sort of viewership at all. This inconsistency is also

something that will hinder the growth of the cent er, people tend to flock

towards internet content that has more attention and can be applied to their

lives more than not. With that in mind, though, the way the Hauenstein

Center has organized their podcasts seems to have worked overall with how

everything else of theirs is laid out and presented, which keeps that form of

unity other centers try to achieve.

 References.

Common Ground Initiative - Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved April
19, 2017, from http://hauensteincenter.org/common-ground-initiative/

Wheelhouse Talks - Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19,
2017, from http://hauensteincenter.org/wheelhouse/

Cook Leadership Academy - Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved April
19, 2017, from http://hauensteincenter.org/cook-leadership-academy/

Hauenstein Center. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2017, from http://hauensteincenter.org/

Hauenstein Center at GVSU. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2017, from

https://www.facebook.com/hauensteingvsu

Center, H. (2017, March 30). Hauenstein Center (@HauensteinGVSU). Retrieved April 19,
2017, from https://twitter.com/HauensteinGVSU

H. (n.d.). Hauenstein Center. Retrieved April 19, 2017, from

https://www.youtube.com/user/HauensteinCenter/featured
Focus Group Report.

Our focus group took place on Sunday, March 19th at 12:00 pm in the Mary Idema Pew

library, and lasted for approximately a half hour. We successfully had seven participants join us

and answer some questions we had prepared for them in advance, as well as give their opinions

on certain topics that we brought up. When we asked them if they had ever heard of or seen

things on campus related to the Hauenstein center; only two of the participants said that they

had and it was mainly because one was in fact a part of the fellowship program and very

involved with center already, and the other has a friend involved in the fellowship program and

discusses it frequently.

To kick off the questions we had prepared, we started by asking about their previous

knowledge of U.S. presidents and politics in general in the States. All of them agreed that

having intensive knowledge of past presidents accomplishments and policies is not necessary in

forming your own political opinion, but it is still an important aspect of U.S. history. When

answering the question about who they thought cared the most about modern politics the

majority decided that Political Science majors cared the most, even though people who are not

a part of that major are still exposed to politics every day on social media and in the news.

We then decided to ask our participants about leadership positions, what they think

makes a good leader, and if they themselves hold any sort of leadership type positions for any

organizations. One participant said they were running to become the station manager for

GVTV on campus, another said that they are going to run for the role of president for their

improv team, and another said that they hold a leadership position for some conferences that

their organization puts on sometimes. All agreed that learning skills to become a better leader

would benefit them in the long run and give them more confidence to do what they needed to
get done in their campaigns. When asked why they stayed with their student organizations for

the past couple years, all of the participants who are involved with something on campus said

that they initially joined a club for the purpose of being interested in it but stayed for the people

they met and enjoyed spending time with.

We then moved the discussion towards the area of going to speaker events and what

would make them interested to go, whether it be a cool looking flier posted on campus or by

word of mouth from someone they knew. Majority agreed that having an interesting flier helps

with getting people to go to an event; an example would be that one of the participants said

they saw a flier for a Christian retreat camp and their flier was styled like a vintage horror

movie, the participant said that they were not religious of any sort but if they were they would

have gone to that camp. Another participant mentioned that fliers dont exactly do the trick

for them because there are so many posted around campus. However, if someone they know

told them that the event would be beneficial they would consider going a little more than they

had before. The bigger motivator to get people to go to events is to tell them that they would

get something out of it; resume building experience, free food, etc.

To close our discussion on a balanced note we decided to ask about the Common

Ground Initiative, and if they enjoyed political discussion among their friend groups. Three of

the participants said yes while the remaining participants said they try to avoid political

discussion at all costs. The three who said they enjoy political discussion among friends

followed up by saying they all have different viewpoints from their friends but are still able to

have calm conversations, which is what makes it so appealing to them. Once it starts getting

into a political argument they begin to lose interest and find it to be too aggressive. The

remaining people who said they dislike any political discussion at all followed up by saying that
too many issues and too complicated, and that it is easier to find out new information by

themselves online. However, all participants found the basis of the Common Ground Initiative

to be appealing to them. Having a source where certain issues can be spoken about in a calm

setting is something many students are interested in on campus.

I found that our focus group had a lot of diversity spread among it: people who were a

part of fraternities/sororities, people who were more driven by art or driven by science, people

who enjoyed politics and those who did not, as well as other varying factors. The participants

gave very clear answers as to what they would like to see on campus more and I feel as though

that was extremely beneficial to figure out how to cater to the mindset of GVSUs

campus. The center could one hundred percent benefit from having such a diverse and young

audience, the trick is being able to appeal to that sort of range of students. By creating events

that benefit students and give them a takeaway, as well as making interesting and aesthetically

pleasing fliers, I believe the Hauenstein Center would have a much bigger audience for the

events that they have on campus.

The general disposition of political discussion in our participants was that they need to

be with the correct people and truly be at the civil discourse level of discussion. If the

Hauenstein Center capitalized more on telling students that they events they put on are more

of a discussion between two parties instead of a standard argument I feel as though that would

catch more peoples attentions, as well as even get more students involved with what the

center does. Students at GVSU do have an interest in politics and leadership roles in the

community, but they need someone to show them on a base level how they can get involved

and how it can be applied to their majors and/or life. I feel as though if the Hauenstein Center
can present itself in a way that is desirable to students it wont have any trouble getting to

recognition it deserves.

Our focus group elicited some more in depth questions for our survey that we created,

such as asking about interest in politics or the knowledge students have about current issues

happening in our world today. For the most part, however, our survey stays within similar

guidelines to how our moderator's guide was set up for our focus group because of how

successful our questions were for that specific task. We feel as though some people may also

be more comfortable answering these types of questions from behind a screen, rather than

talking directly to us face-to-face. Were hoping that at least half of the students we send our

survey out to will respond to us with useful information and well put together answers.

All in all, I feel as though my group did a good job of articulating the important parts

about the Hauenstein Center, briefly educating our participants on what the center is, making

them comfortable enough to answer honestly and give more in depth answers, and being open

to the idea of attending some of the events the center puts on. That within itself was a big part

of our focus group and continued to be a main theme throughout it and also throughout our

survey we created. I will stand by my conclusion that if the center promotes Common

Ground, leadership skills as something to take away from an event, and modernizing their ways

to reach out to students; they should be able to successfully create a younger audience

awareness and hopefully someday turn those audience members into donors.
 MODERATOR'S GUIDE

Hello everyone, my name is _____ and I will be the moderator for this focus group. We are

here today to talk about your awareness of The Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at

GVSU. This is a GVSU center that hosts several workshops with outside speakers, has a

leadership academy for student leaders, and works towards creating a common ground political

initiative. We are conducting this research for the fundamentals of Public Relations course at

Grand Valley, and hope to use the findings in order to develop a plan book with ideas of how

best the center can increase awareness for the center. I am not here to share information, or

to give you opinions as each of your experiences and opinions are what we hope to gather a

better understanding of. There are no right or wrong, desirable or undesirable answers. You

can disagree with one another, and you can change your mind. Please feel comfortable sharing

what you really think, how you really feel, and your personal interpretations or understanding.

Stephanie will be taking notes and tape recording the discussion so that we do not miss

anything you have to say. Everything is confidential. No one will know who said what. And this

is intended to be a group discussion, so feel free to respond to me and to other members in

the group without waiting to be called on but be respectful throughout the process. The

discussion will last approximately a half hour.

Does anyone have any questions before we begin?

Let's start by having everyone share their name, their major, class standing, and if or when they

had first heard of The Hauenstein Center and if you have heard of it before what do you know

about it?
Presidential Knowledge

1. How much previous knowledge do you have about the men that have currently served

as Presidents of the US?

2. Do you think knowing about past presidents accomplishments and policies is necessary

in order to have successful political agendas in the future?

3. What type of people do you believe are typically concerned with the history behind

politics and politicians?

4. Does anyone know what the Cook Leadership Academy is or have they heard of it

before? Did you know it was a facet of the Hauenstein Center?

2. Has anyone or does anyone currently hold any leadership positions within an

organization? Would leadership workshops/ a leadership academy valuable to you?

3. What do you believe are skills needed to be successful leaders?

What encourages you to take part in an organization, event, or extracurricular? Have

you ever thought of mentorship?

Common Ground

1. Have you ever gone to any speaker event on campus/outside campus? Please describe

your experience. Whats good/bad? Things the host could do better.

2. What kind of element would make you interested to go to a speaker event?

3. What do you think is the most important political issue at the moment?

4. Do you enjoy debating politics with your friends? Do they have similar views to yours?

Do you think peoples political views change over their lifetime?

5. How often to you expose yourself to news sources or outlets? Which do you prefer

and why?
7. What you drive you to learn more about political viewpoints that differ from your own?

Though there were many different responses concerning _______, it appears that _______.

Does anyone see it differently? It seems most of you agree that ______, but some think that

_____. Does anyone want to add or clarify an opinion on this?

Is there any other information regarding your experiences with or following this experience

that you think would be useful for us to know?

Thank you very much for spending your time with us today- it is very much appreciated and

your input has been very helpful.

Survey Results.

Our survey results went very much hand in hand with our focus group results: not many

people knew about the Hauenstein Center, people had joined only a couple clubs/organizations

their freshman year and decided to stick with it, people did not attend events all the time at

GVSU, etc. In my opinion, having both sets of results so closely related is a good thing because

it definitely makes creating our action plans pretty simple. We each get to focus on our original

ideas and plans for the Center without having to change much because of the pretty large

overlap of responses. By having this overlap we can also see that many students feel the same

way about this topic, which also makes it simple to infer that the majority of the student body

will also feel the same.

I believe that because 58% of our respondents told us that they attend GVSU events less

than five times a semester we should focus a substantial portion of the action plan to convincing

and getting people interested in events on campus (mainly focusing on the Hauenstein Center

and how their lectures are extremely beneficial to students). Since our results for how many

years our respondents have attended GVSU, one to two years versus three to four years, we

can spend less time trying to figure out how to cater to each age group and have a more broad

spectrum of ideas. We can start the action plan by coming up with ways to appeal to the

general student and figuring out how to convince him or her why Hauenstein lectures would

affect them in the long run and why they should attend in the first place.

Students told us that they mainly attend GVSU events if they either fulfill a requirement

for a class or if a friend is attending as well and convinces them to go. This sort of situation is

not entirely ideal for the center because some, if not most, of the lectures do not count

towards any classes here on campus. This does not completely wipe out the idea of getting
students to attend more events, however, we do need to stress more heavily on what students

will get out of the Hauenstein Center's lectures. If students feel as if they are benefitting from a

speaker or discussion they are more likely to attend, and many of these lectures the center

organizes would largely benefit students if more of them were aware of the center in the first

place.

Pretty much all of the students who took our survey held some sort of leadership

position in the organization/club they were involved with on campus. This creates a perfect

opportunity to capitalize on telling students how attending Hauenstein lectures will improve

their leadership skills for the clubs they are a part of and in the future as well, this can also lead

to further involvement with the center on the students part if they do indeed find these

lectures to be valuable to their skill sets. From the sorts of students I know in real life, this will

be no trouble at all because almost all of them try to find new ways to become better leaders

for the people in their organizations. In our survey it looked as if many students held higher up

positions in clubs which works in our favor, because I know many students in those sorts of

positions want to do their best and improve any skills they have as a leader in order to make a

good impression on new members they pick up from Campus Life Night or elsewhere.

When we asked people how they felt about discussing/hearing about politics our

answers varied very greatly; 47% of people said sometimes and only 16% said yes. I believe

that if we show how the Hauenstein Center has established their Common Ground Initiative

more students will see that as an opportunity to hear a civil discourse about various political

issues, which is very interesting to a lot of people. Personally, I also find it difficult to talk about

politics sometimes so the Common Ground Initiative that the center has established is very

interesting to me, and I have no doubt it will sound interesting to other students around
campus and possibly in the downtown area as well. By having more students aware of this

initiative it will increase positive awareness for the center and bring more interested students

into their lectures and discussions, and hopefully at some point their donor program as well.

I believe that by focusing on getting students more interested in on campus events and speakers

that it will improve the audience demographic for the Hauenstein Center in the long run. Re-

vamping announcement fliers may help catch the attention of some students, but I also feel that

the center should try and connect with students on a personal level. How will this benefit

them, personally? What will they get out of it that will help them in their own lives? Even by

simply targeting the E-boards of certain clubs could be enough to motivate those students to

attend a lecture done by the center. Stemming from our results we can guess that a lot of

students from all sorts of majors and programs would be interested in these sorts of lectures

and discussions, the center needs to know its demographic a little bit better in order to appeal

to all of these different young adults.

All in all, I believe that our survey results stayed true to our focus group and to the

information we were trying to convey in the first place. We had one hundred respondents and

came up with varied answers, diverse people with varying opinions, and enough information to

give us a basis on what we should do to help the Hauenstein Center reach the student

population, With the results we gathered our action plans will reflect how we decided to use

our information, and I believe the best way is to focus on personally connecting with the

students so they can build a bond with the center while at GVSU.
DRAFT SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

1 Thank you for agreeing to take part in this survey that measures student awareness about the GVSU

Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies! A group of students in CAP 220 (Fundamentals of Public

Relations) course will be gathering your responses in order to develop a plan to increase student

awareness of the center in the future. This survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete!

3 How many years have you attended GVSU?

This is my first year (1)

This is my second year (2)

This is my third year (3)

This is my fourth year (4)

I have attended GVSU for more than four years (5)

I do not attend GVSU (6)

Condition: I do not attend GVSU Is Selected. Skip To: Thank you so much for contributing yo....

4 What are your major(s)/minor(s)

6 How many clubs/organizations are you a part of at GVSU?

None (1)

One (2)

Two (3)

Three (4)

Four+ (5)

Condition: None Is Selected. Skip To: Have you heard of the Cook Leadership....

7 What organizations are you a part of and what year did you join them?

8 Have you in the past, or do you currently hold any leadership roles?

No (1)

Yes (please specify) (2) ____________________

9 Have you heard of the Cook Leadership Academy before?

Yes (1)

No (2)

10 How often do you attend GVSU events? i.e. lectures, meetings, seminars, etc.

Never (1)

Less than 5x/semester (2)

Once or twice/month (3)

Once or twice/week (4)

More than 3x/week (5)

11 How do you typically hear about events that you have attended on campus or off? (1- Most Often; 7-

Least Often)

______ Through student organizations (1)

______ E-Mail (2)

______ Mail (3)

______ Posters on campus (4)

______ Word of mouth (5)

______ In class (6)

______ People tabling on campus (7)

12 What influences you to attend an event? (1- Large Influence; 7- Small Influence)

______ A friend is attending. (1)

______ The event is within your field of study. (2)

______ The event fulfills a class requirement. (3)

______ The event has been promoted by an organization you are a part of. (4)

______ You are interested in the topic/speaker. (5)

______ Free food is being offered. (6)

______ Location- the event is on campus as opposed to off campus. (7)

13 Do you enjoy hearing or talking about politics?

Yes (1)

Sometimes (2)

No (3)

14 Have you heard of the Hauenstein Center before?

Yes (1)

No (2)

Condition: No Is Selected. Skip To: Thank you so much for contributing yo....

15 How did you hear about the Hauenstein Center?

E-Mail (1)

Mail (2)

Word of mouth (3)

In class (4)

I do not remember (5)

Other (please specify) (6) ____________________

16 Thank you so much for contributing your time and energy into taking this survey! We know your

time is valuable so we greatly appreciate it!

ACTION PLAN
Situation Analysis.

There is a need for more student awareness, interaction, and interest in what the

Hauenstein Center does at the university. Many students are unaware that there is such an

incredible resource for them on campus, and are failing to utilize the many facets it brings to

Grand Valley. The Hauenstein Center is in need of a reboot in how they attempt to get their

information across to the student body and truly get the attention of students who could

possibly get involved with the center itself.

The center itself has been working towards achieving more student awareness, but

falling short in some areas for reasons unknown. This has proved frustrating for some, because

of the intellectual benefits in offers to GVSUs campus. So many students are unaware of what

they could be using as a valuable source of information to them.

Goal Statement.

We want to make students aware of what the center does for the school and what they

offer to the student body by providing ways for them to interact with the staff and feel as

though they can ask any sort of questions they have about what the Hauenstein Center truly is

about.
Objectives.

Getting more of the student body aware of the center by the end of 2017.

Trying to get 25% more students involved with the events the center puts on.

Strategies.

Appealing to current student aesthetics and mindsets.

o Creating visuals that attract students is important in having them feel as though

the center understands what theyre going through and how they talk to one

another.

Getting students to open mass emails out of interest.

o Getting students to open these types of emails is tricky because of the sheer

amount of emails they receive already, however, making it about an event where

their voice can be heard has a good chance of catching their interest.

Getting featured in student news organizations.

o Having an event such as Coffee With Gleaves can get the center published in

the Lanthorn, featured on GVTV, and/or announced on Whale Radio.

Tactics.

Plan a casual event for students to get to know the center on a non-committal basis.

o Coffee With Gleaves is meant to be an event that has the student bodys

interests and concerns in mind: coffee and being able to freely express questions

towards an authoritative figure.

Re writing/designing a student email layout for event invites.

 o By redesigning the email layout to tailor to student interests, more people will

be inclined to actually read what the email has to say in the first place.

News release describing what the event will bring to GVSU.

o A news release is a classic way in getting information out to the public as soon as

possible, especially if given to the correct news outlets.

Gantt Calendar:

Budget Table:

Event Invites Canva: Free to use

News Release In GR: $105
Email Notification Mailchimp: Free to use
Total: $105 for tactics
Evaluation.

Overall, the action plan stated above is one of small scale research; however, it can be

applied to a larger scale and influence many other types of people. The different aspects of the

action plan are to assist in planning various events, dates, workshops, etc. Tactics and

strategies are bullet points any person can lengthen or sway in any type of direction, the

Hauenstein Center may use these ideas as they see fit.

The objectives stated in the action plan are listed to guide the center in a certain

direction, they play a key role in progressing the success and overall awareness of center. Each

objective is unique in its own way and should be evaluated as such. In order to properly

identity the methods to evaluate each objective, strategy, and tactic people will have to create a

layout in order to keep different notes and comments separate.

Strategies and tactics should be looked over to see if they have been met completely, or

even just a small percentage. These two ways of fulfilling the objectives are what serve the true

purpose of putting together this plan book, and using them to cater to the student body. The

details of this entire section are few and far between since the theme of this book is very

similar and consistent throughout, the center truly needs to take action on the issues they face.

In the next segment of this plan book, we will find our tactics planned out in their

physical forms and how these could affect student perceptions of the center. We are hoping

that these ideas can help redesign the student appeal of the Hauenstein Center and that more

people will feel inclined to go to its events.

COMMUNICATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Hauenstein Center

401 Fulton St. West Grand Rapids, MI 49504

(616) 331-2770

hc@gvsu.edu

Common Ground Coffee Time with Gleaves at GVSU

Allendale, MI: September 21, 2017

Gleaves Whitney will be hosting a coffee social in order to connect with students and

answer any questions they have regarding the Hauenstein Center. This event will be a major

play off of the Ask Gleaves seminars the center holds every month. The event will take place

on September 30th, 2017 in the Grand River Room of Kirkhoff Center at 10 a.m. and will go

until 1 p.m.

This causal spin on their otherwise serious seminars will be a chance for students to find

out details about the center and even ask questions about politics. Coffee and snacks will be

provided by the Grand Rapids coffee house, Common Ground. Students will be encouraged to

Tweet, Snapchat, and Instagram the event with the hashtag: #CoffeeWithGleaves.

The Hauenstein Center is a Grand Valley organization that focuses on political matters

and presidential studies; their center is divided into the Common Ground Initiative, the Cook

Leadership Academy, and the Wheelhouse Lectures. Their most present goal is to raise

effective leaders with political and ethical understanding of the world around them.

This news release is meant to be a simple and informative way to get the idea of the event out into the
student body, and explain how it could potentially benefit students to attend.
The event invite is a lighthearted and casual way to catch the students attention
and make them feel a sense of community and drive to attend; its goal purpose is
to act as a creative outlet for the center.
This email template for the event is a warm way to invite students to
attend and to come with any sorts of questions theyve had related to the
center and/or politics themselves. It lets students know about what is to
be expected as well as what is to be provided.
Evaluation.

If the tools provided are in fact used by the center, measuring the effects and success of

the campaign are necessary in discovering if these tactics did serve as useful. By asking the

questions: did we increase student awareness? Are more students involved with what we do?

Have we made more students interested in the events that we put on as a center? By

measuring those sorts of statistics, we can truly delve into the answers of whether or not we

were successful.

Our first objective is to get more students aware and involved with the center by the

end of 2017. In order to calculate if we succeeded in this area, we need to look at how many

students are interested in the different services provided. How many have emailed/called/met

with someone about the Cook Leadership Academy? Have views risen in the podcasts

provided? Is there a boost in active social media followers?

The second objective is to boost the amount of students that attend events the center

puts on by 25%. This is the easiest objective to measure because all we need to look for is that

rise in student numbers during a lecture/debate/etc. In order to truly measure whether or not

there was an increase, considering a sign in chart for certain events where people need to state

what year they are or already graduated would benefit the center in identifying their main

crowd.

If the objectives are not met and there is not a significant rise in student awareness or

activity with the center, different approaches should be taken in editing these tactics/strategies.

We need to create new and improved event ideas for students to be interested in, offer a more

beneficial takeaway for students, and really target that sense of community the center is striving

for with GVSU students.