1. On-Campus Involvement
Bronze Team
Megan Yelton and Morgan Martin
December 5, 2016
1

2. Table of Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………………………..3
Literature Review…………………………………………………………………5
Methods and Procedures………………………………………………………….9
Results and Data………………………………………………………………...11
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...19
Sources:...............................................................................................................20
Appendix……………………………………………………………………….21
2

3. Introduction
College is a time where you leave home and are free to experience a life on your own.
A campus is its own world, and students have the chance to experience a wide range of
activities. ​Coastal Carolina’s Office of Student Life​ ​provides activities and events around the
campus to keep students engaged, involved, and entertained with the university. They do an
excellent job at providing opportunities for students to help get the most out of their
collegiate experience- but why then, is attendance so low for certain events? The last concert
held filled only 9% of the stadium. The movie theater on campus sees on average only 12
students when it is made to hold over 200. Office of Student Life is seeking help to create
activities and programs that students want to attend as well as successfully market them to
increase attendance.
The prime objective of this research project is to help Coastal Carolina’s Student Life
identify why certain event attendance is so low and then create possible solutions to the
problem. We hope to achieve this by conducting studies. We can do this numerous ways,
such as sending a survey to all Coastal students and ask what types of events they would
enjoy and want to attend as well as which performers they would come see perform. We
must also identify the different factors that could contribute to attendance for these events,
such as working status, gender, school year, major and whether the students live on campus
or not. Giving the students options to choose from would be a great way to get feedback
from students on how the events can be improved. If we can appeal to student’s wants/needs,
3

4. then attendance for the events will increase, and also allow us to get positive feedback from
events and positive PR for future events.
We must also measure the effect social media promotion has on attendance.
Marketing activities towards college students is always a difficult task. Creating programs
that students what to attend is getting more difficult as the numbers of attendees is
decreasing. The Office of Student life has implemented a few marketing methods such as
Tissue Talk, Student Activities Weekly, and Social media platforms, but do not use them to
their full potential. Our goal is to help create new marketing tactics that will better appeal to
their target market of college students and will make students want to come to more
on-campus events and activities.
4

5. Literature Review
College can be very demanding on students financially and emotionally. With
wanting to do the best they can with grades, students tend to spend large amounts of time
studying for exams, completing homework, and other external activities outside of class
alone. Some students may also not be able to support themselves financially without having a
job during the school year as well, so outside of prepping themselves for school, they are also
spending most of their time at their jobs, making money to pay for school and everyday life
necessities. Students cope with the stress of school in different ways (Deatherage). Some
students may try to escape the “real world,” turning to the internet to allow them to take
some time out of their day and look at pictures online, see what’s going on around the world,
and watch a funny animal video here and there. What most students don’t realize is that they
need to take time for themselves to participate in activities that they enjoy in order to be
successful. The main purpose of on campus events and activities is to allow the students to
have that time to enjoy themselves and see what all Coastal Carolina University has to offer
them outside of the class time.
An additional purpose of this research paper is we want to bring awareness to
students that they need to take care of themselves and participate in activities that entertain
them to help remain content with their life, while also continuing to be successful in school
and their work.The way we are going to do this is by using social media and marketing
5

6. techniques in order to get attendance up for On-campus events that involve many different
interests and activities that would appeal to every type of student.
The way the authors of the article analyzed and tested their hypothesis, they took a
group of senior students, male and female, gave them questionnaires for their motives of
going online and used instruments to measure how stressed the students were and would
observe what they did to cope with the stress. For our test subjects, we would include
different members from each level of education (freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior) and
get subjects that part are not involved in any organizations on campus, some that may be
apart of greek life, and some that may be on a sports team here at Coastal, so that way we are
able to get different “types” of stress among our subjects. We would simply ask our potential
subjects if they would want to take part in helping us better on-campus life and events, they
give us a yes or no answer, no pressure to our subjects. Instead of using instruments, we
could give similar questionnaires, but ask how they cope with stress and if there are any ideas
for future events that would relieve some of that stress that they would attend. We could give
a similar questionnaire to our subjects as a group, and adding to the purpose of this research
paper, we want to be able to help OFSL to reach as many students as possible and increase
attendance so all the planning of these events aren’t wasted.
Social media also plays a large role in students everyday life. As students are walking
from class to class, most are going to be on their phone, on some sort of social media.
Checking in on different social platforms and seeing what people are doing on Twitter,
Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, etc. With the newest generation, the youth centers their life
6

7. around their phones and being able to access the internet at all times. In the article, The
Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing, it states the importance of Facebook updates about
campus events. Nowadays, Facebook is not as popular as it use to be. Most students mainly
focus on Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram. The article also states that students that may have
been highly involved in high school activities, become “deficient” in their activities at the
beginning of their college experience (Bayne). This could happen because new college
students may want to make a new name for themselves in college, don’t want to be compared
to the person they were in high school. Activities may not be something that everyone will
have in common, but social media is something most students, close to everyone, will have
in common.
As a group, another question we need to be able to answer is what is the most
effective way to use social media (Twitter, snapchat, etc) to get information about events out
ahead of time and how can it be made appealing and want students to attend the events. In
order to test our questions, we could form a focus groups, made up of an athlete, greek life
member, non-organization member, freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior, and other
organizations members. We would only need about 10-15 people in this focus people so it is
not overwhelming so that way the subjects can get their ideas and concerns across without
too many people trying interrupt or shut down their ideas. Social media is an amazing tool
when properly used, it is our purpose to find out how we can use it to our advantage for
OFSL.
7

8. A potential issue for on-campus events, especially on the weekends, is off-campus
parties. As freshmen students are coming to college, finally being on their own can get a little
overwhelming. Before even coming to school, students have seen movies that make college
out to be one big party, without adding in all the activities, actual work, and events that are
involved with school as well, so that is what the freshmen expect as soon as they step foot on
campus and they have sent their parents off. If events are planned on weekends, they need to
be the most appealing out of all events, because weekend events attendance is usually very
low, because students plan their weekends around partying. There’s not right or wrong way
to test out how many students will actually attend an event that is schedule during a saturday,
but what we can see is if it is required for some organizations to attend this event, will they
influence their friends that might not be in any organizations to attend the event so they can
attend together, then go on with their day after the event is over. All this being said timing
and location are everything for OFSL to be successful with any event that is planned.
8

9. Methods and Procedures
Again, the purpose of this research paper is to help the Office of Student Life increase
attendance at on-campus events. In order to achieve our goals in the most efficient way, we
have decided to disperse hands-on surveys/ educational tests. Our group has attached a copy
of the exact questionnaire that we will be handing out to several different groups among
Coastal’s Campus; which include, but are not limited to, Greek Life, CAB, Student Athletes,
several freshmen participants, several sophomore participants, several junior participants,
and several senior participants. We want to be able to gather as much information as possible
throughout Coastal and that is why we are choosing to give the survey’s to many different
“demographics” throughout the campus.
We chose to collect data with the hands-on surveys because it is the minimal risk and
less stress/worry on the participants that have agreed to take the survey for our research
project. Before we give out the survey’s, our group will explain to each potential participants
why we are conducting the research, how the survey’s will work, what we will do with the
data, and how we will destroy the data once the research is complete.
The survey’s will have no affected on the participant if the data gets out, because we
are not asking for their name, we want our participants to feel comfortable filling out the
survey's honestly so we’ve kept the survey’s anonymous.
We have collected 48 surveys and in order to store our data and findings, we will
create an Excel file that has the correct formulas and calculations that will allows us to
9

10. efficiently and quickly fix any errors that we deem necessary. Again, with no names included
on the surveys, our group members will share one copy of the Excel file through Google
Docs, that way changes can be made right away in a timely manner. Once we have all of the
data from the surveys collected and sorted the way easily read, we will put all of the data into
charts that will go along with the data and better explain how and what we can improve to
help attendance. The two main charts/graphs we will most likely use is a bar graph, line
graph, or pie chart to easily relay our data to our viewers.
Once we have all data collected, put into charts/graphs, and the final research paper
presentation is complete, we will dispose of all the surveys collected and data saved. We will
start off by shredding the surveys to pieces, so they cannot be taped/glued back together. The
saved data files will be deleted permanently, so that there is no trace of the files anywhere on
our accounts. In the case of our group having to use an emergency flash drive, we will delete
all files on every flash drive used.
All the data that is being collected is for the benefit of our participants, with us
wanting to improve on-campus events to increase attendance, the improved events are going
to possibly improve the life of our participants as well.
10

11. Results
In the following pages, we have gathered all data results from surveys and put it all together.
A total of 48 people took our survey, from different grade levels, organizations, with
different interests. The first few questions were basic personal questions, like gender, grade
levels, and involved organizations. Of the 48 surveys taken, 39 were females and 9 were
males. The following charts are the results from questions from the survey.
We then proceeded to ask if they were an active member of Greek life on Coastal’s campus:
38 responded yes, 10 responded no. Along with asking if they were an active Coastal
Athlete: 3 responded yes, 45 responded no. The next question asked participants if they were
apart of any other Organizations at Coastal, here are the results.
11

12. The following section is when we proceeded to ask questions regarding On-Campus Events
where participants were asked questions like how many events they attended, why they
attended those events, and what type of events they enjoy.
12

13. We then asked why they attended the events; was it mandatory for them or did they go out of
leisure? Of the 48, 18 responded with leisure, 30 responded with mandatory. We then went
on to ask if participants felt knowledgeable about the events.
We then asked how they heard about events, giving the options of flyers, peers, social media,
or other.
13

14. When participants selected other, the responses that we got mentioned the weekly emails sent
out regarding weekly activities around campus. We then asked what form of
marketing/advertising that The Office of Student Life should utilize and use more of.
Participants were then asked what events interested them.The options they were given were
Spring Concert, Movie Theater, Teal Tuesday Shirt Giveaway, and Final Frenzy.
14

15. Participants were given an example of a certain On-Campus event that was not successful
and gave them some factors that could’ve played a part in the reason it wasn’t successful.
Then, the option to list two artists the participants would enjoy to see on campus and the
location was given.
Here are the results for location.
15

16. Here are the results for artists participants wish to see: Drake, Lil’ Wayne, The Weeknd,
Anime, Rae Sremmurd, Gucci, Kodak, Florida Georgia Line, Future, Kayne West, John
Pardi, Luke Bryan, Lil Uzi, DRAM, Wale, Migos, G-Eazy, Zac Brown Band, Rachel Platten,
Blake Shelton, Justin Bieber, Trevor Hall, J. Cole, 21 Savage, Chainsmokers, Fetty Wap,
Halsey, Imagine Dragons, Chance the Rapper, Kenny Chesney, 21 Pilots, Kane Brown,
Foster the People, Darius Rucker, Jason Aldean, Brantley Gilbert, Eric Church, Brad Paisley,
Chris Lane, Beyoncé, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Swift.
The participants were then given ticket prices that they were willing to pay to see the certain
artists.
Participants were given the data from the movie theater showings on Fridays and Saturdays.
Show times are 6 and 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays, tickets pricing at $2, which includes
popcorn. They were given options as to why attendance is so low.
16

17. Then took responses
on which days they
should show movies
instead, along with
genres.
The genres suggested were Comedy, Horror, Thriller, and romance. For the final question of
the survey, we asked what events participants want to see Coastal try; responses include,
Tailgate Concerts, stronger tailgates, Homecoming Concerts, and Fall/Spring festivals.
17

18. Conclusion
After gathering all of the data, we have come to the conclusion that Coastal needs to
utilize social media in their marketing efforts more. Students seem to react to social media
better than other forms of marketing. With that being said, over half of the students that took
the survey said they were know knowledgable of events and still did not attend. This survey
showed that people like the events Coastal was hosting but there were other factors in play as
to why they didn’t go.
The movie theater needs to switch showtimes to more weekday and show genres
students want to take the time to see. The concert artist needs to be someone students want to
hear and they need a bigger place to host it. Students said they would be willing to pay
various amounts for the spring concert, but $1 - $40 was the most picked, having tickets cost
that much and hosting it in the stadium would bring in more revenue to have bigger names
come to Coastal Carolina.
Another recommendation is to form a focus group.The campus and The Office of
Student Life office needs to form a focus group, consisting of students from each grade level,
different organizations, lives on/off campus, and different aspects of Coastal Carolina
University. You can’t force students to attend events, but making them more enjoyable and
marketing them well will increase attendance tremendously.
18

19. Sources
Stress, Coping, and Internet Use of College Students. Deatherage, Scott
Servaty-Seib, Heather L. Aksoz, Idil. Journal of American College Health. Jan2014, Vol. 62
Issue 1, p40-46. 7p. 2 Charts.
The Effectiveness of Social Media Marketing: The Impact of Facebook Status Updates on a
Campus Recreation Event. Bayne, Kendra S.1. Cianfrone, Beth A.2
Recreational Sports Journal Oct2013, Vol. 37 Issue 2, p147 13p.
Student Experiences at Off-Campus Parties: Results from a Multi Campus Survey. Jakeman,
Rick C. Silver, Blake R. Molasso, William
Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education. Aug2014, Vol. 58 Issue 2, p64-85. 22p.
Website used to created survey and collect data: ​www.freeonlinesurveys.com
19

20. Appendix
The purpose of this questionnaire is to gather information about The Office of
Student Life’s events. We are looking into how well or poor they are marketed and
perceived to Coastal Carolina University Students.
Circle your answer to the following questions
1) Gender:
Male Female Prefer not to say
2) Grade Level:
Freshmen Sophomore Junior Senior
3) Are you an active Greek member?
Yes No
4) Are you an active School Athlete?
Yes N
5) Are you a member of any other organizations?
Yes No If yes specify here:
The following questions will be a mix of circling, checking, and a few fill in your response
answers:
1) How many CCU hosted events have you been to in the past year?
0-5 6-10 11-15 Over 15
2) Pertaining to the above question, were the majority of events mandatory or did you
attend on your own leisure? Explain
3) Do you feel as if you are knowledgeable of events taking place on campus?
Yes No
4) How do you most likely hear of events coming up on campus?
Flyers Peers Social Media Other:
5) Which marketing method should the Office of Student Life increase use of?
Tissue Talk Student Activities Weekly Social Media
20

21. 6) Which of the following events interest you? (Check all that apply)
● Spring Concert
● Movie Theater
● Teal Tuesday Shirt Giveaway (25 free shirts every Tuesday)
● Finals Frenzy (At Hicks dining hall, serve free breakfast and snacks, raffles)
7) The last Spring Concert was Elle Varner, in the HTC Center and tickets were free. 810
tickets were sold and only 351 were in attendance. Rank the following factors in your
opinion as to why this event did not succeed: (1 being the main factor and 3 being a
small contributor)
_ Location ​ _ ​Artist _ ​Lack of Marketing
8) List two artists you would like to see on campus, and circle the location you’d like to see
them:
Artists: Location:
_ HTC Center Prince Lawn
_ Stadium Track
9) What amount are you willing to pay per ticket to see one the artists you have listed
above?
Free ticket $1-$40 $41-$75 $76 and over
10) The Movie Theater has two showings every Friday and Saturday 6pm and 9pm. The
theater has 210 seats and charges $2 per ticket (includes free popcorn), but on average
attendance is 15 on Fridays and 9 0n Saturdays. Rank the following factors in your opinion
as to why this event did not succeed: (1 being the main factor and 3 being a small
contributor)
_ Movie Genres ​ _ ​Days Playing _ ​Lack of Marketing
11) List two nights of the week you think the theater should play movies and list two
genres of movies you’d like to see:
Days of the Week: Genre: _
12) Do you have any ideas for events you’d like to see Coastal try?
Yes No If yes specify:
21