Issue/Problem
All my work in community service has shown me more problems yet to be solved. Particularly, transfer students at University of South Carolina have a hard time getting involved in campus life because the communications strategies to reach them are not intentional and not effective. To better reach transfer students, the university and on campus organizations should improve their communication strategies to be where most transfer students live and create relationships between transfer students and other members of the student body.
In my own personal experience as a Resident Mentor and community server, I have seen the need for better processes and communication strategies to increase transfer student involvement on campus and around Columbia. I making this recommendation based on the lack of knowledge transfer students have about the resources available to them.
In other words, nobody knows about the current resources because they are hard to find. I am a returning Resident Mentor at UofSC, and I had trouble finding these resources. If I struggled to find these resources as a housing employee of UofSC, then transfer students are not going to easily find them. We must implement better communications to help our transfer students.
Personal/Future Implementation
While I will not be implementing the following plan through the University of South Carolina next year, I will be implementing a version of it as a collegiate missionary in Shandon College Ministry. In my last year of college, I encountered so many transfer students, and almost all of them struggled to find community. While I have built friendships with them and became their designated "college friend", I know there are more out there who need someone. I cannot wait to improve Shandon College's communication strategies to reach transfer students and give them a college community to belong with.
Also, while I will not be college student next year, I have younger Resident Mentor friends who are interested in working with me- as a collegiate missionary- to implement this plan through the university and on-campus organizations in Fall 2022.
The "Now"
Currently, the University of South Carolina relies heavily on transfer students to increase their own involvement- which is difficult since they have not been on campus enough to know what they don’t know. Artifact 1 is a screenshot of the UofSC transfer webpage. Transfer students already live off campus (, or in housing on the outskirts of campus, like YOUnion or Park Place), and they do not know where to go to find community. They need to receive information from trusted sources in an intentional way. There are transfer advisors, but, frankly, advisors are not the best way to provide information or engage students. Advisors are almost as out of touch with campus life as transfer students are- based on my experiences as well as my close peers’. Advisors do not go to class, attend events, share experiences or know the best spots to do “x”. Students who have been on campus a while know these things. Yet, the University seems to rely on people, like advisors, who are not in touch with campus life in order to communicate with transfer students. Or, it relies on emails that get deleted before they are even read. While emails are a part of a good communication strategy, emails should not be the main basis of communication. Emails should be a reinforcer of a message or interaction with someone. As a Resident Mentor at the University of South Carolina, I know most of my residents miss a lot of important emails. If they do not outright miss them, residents skim through emails and miss most of the information. Right now, emails are the main communication between transfer students and campus life, but emails are too impersonal and easily missed.
Communication Mishap
Part of the problem is from an information problem: cognitive miser. Both Polage’s as well as Bowman and Cohen’s essays explain how people’s lack of mental effort (cognitive miser) and the use of heuristics lead them to believe taking shortcuts saves them effort. Polage notes that, “We usually lack the time and means necessary to determine the veracity of everything we hear. Therefore, we default to believing that others are generally being honest” (Polage, pp. 236). Bowman and Cohen similarly note that people’s brains do not have the capacity to critically think through everything they encounter, and heuristics like source credibility and repetition enforce people’s default mode of information control (Bowman and Cohen, pp. 223). That is why people default to believing an official’s advice on reaching transfer students- they are from an esteemed institution, like the University of South Carolina, and the advice is ‘long established’ and repeated. The University repeatedly uses this communication strategy to reach transfer students, so it became more believable that it works rather than trying something different.
Recommendation/Implementation Plan
But, advisors and emails won’t cut it. No matter the cognitive miser, this strategy is not working. Instead, the University of South Carolina should go to where a majority of the transfer students live and offer a designated “college friend”.
Therefore, my recommendation for helping transfer students get the resources they need and find community in college is to improve communication strategies between them and the resource providers. This can be achieved through the plan below:
-A lot of non-freshman have classes on the extreme ends of campus, so the communication strategy should first make sure to advertise and host events where the students are.
The University should hang up flyers and signage where they live (e.g. YOUnion or Park Place) or their most common means of transportation (like the bus systems) instead of just sending emails. Diversifying the means of the message can do a lot of good.
The University should also use its prominent social media accounts to inform both transfers and other students about transfer student information. I personally can provide curated content, and other organizations on campus (like college ministries, the Student Success Center, etc.) can provide their own content. This will reach more students with the message in a place they are more attentive in. They might not read emails, but students do pay attention to prominent social media pages, especially the university's.
Instead of hosting events in Russell House or central campus, events should be hosted closer to where they can walk or get to. If students live in Park Place or YOUnion, then host events in Darla Moore, Community Table or Strom Thurmond Wellness and Fitness Center. Or, if they live off campus, have consistent events near Close-Hipp or the School of Music.
-Then, the people involved in sharing this information should consist of other students who enjoy campus and love to interact with people.
The communication strategy should be first-and-foremost carried out by other students. Students know campus best, and they are the peers that transfer students make community with.
Whether held through Resident Mentors, Greek Life, Student Success Center or a new campus organization, a designated “college friend” should be offered to transfer students. This “college friend” is someone who is willing to take time out of their college schedule and do the normal things with them (walking to class, eating lunch together, sunsets on Horizon Garage, etc.).
Following these steps would increase transfer students’ connectedness to campus and improve their college experience. They could learn of the resources available to them and find community in college.
Works Cited & Artifacts
Bowman, N. D. and Cohen, E. (2020). Mental Shortcuts, Emotions, and Social Rewards: The Challenges of Detecting and Resisting Fake News. Fake News. pp. 223-233
Polage, D. (2020). Source Credibility and Belief in Fake News: I’ll Believe You If You Agree with Me. Fake News. pp. 235-243.
Artifact 1
