IUP Enrollment RFP (Request for Proposals)
IUP’s Recruitment/Retention Problems
- Enrollment at IUP is declining
- The local Western Pennsylvania population is growing older and the number of college-age students is projected to decline in the coming years
- IUP is having problems with student retention (too many students are dropping out or transferring)
- State funding for IUP is declining (IUP is getting 3% less money than last year)
- Tuition is going up (by about 5%)
- Costs are going up (especially energy costs, technology costs, healthcare costs etc.)
The Scenario
IUP President Dr. Tony Atwater has created the IUP Enrollment Health Fund to address these growing problems. This fund will be distributed by the IUP Office of Recruitment through a competitive proposal process. The best plans for addressing IUP’s recruitment and retention problems will be funded for a 2 year time period.
Request for Proposals (RFP)
The IUP Office of Recruitment seeks Recruitment and Retention Project Proposals for up to $20,000 to address any of IUP’s enrollment problem areas.
Proposal Guidelines
All proposals should include the areas detailed below. The best thing to do is copy and paste this list of headings into Microsoft Word. Then keep all the headings, but insert your own text:
- Proposal Title–Create a suitable name which can be used to identify your proposal
- Proposal Team Contact Information—List names and email addresses for all proposal team members
- Team Description–For this task, I want you to envision yourselves as a group of students working with some faculty member at IUP who is seeking to win this grant award. You can pick a real faculty member or create a fictional one to be your team leader. In this section, describe your team’s qualifications (the professor’s reputation, your majors, your years as students at IUP, etc.) for carrying out the project you are proposing. Note as well if you will be hiring any outside experts to also work with the team. (This is the “who are we section?” where you explain your team’s qualifications to do this project; not everyone is good at everything, so stick to the skills most related to your team’s talents or plan to bring in outside experts.)
- Proposal Overview–What IUP problem area does your proposal address: recruitment, retention, or both recruitment and retention? How does your proposals seek to address these problems? (This is the “where are we?” section in which you explain what spefically is causing IUP’s problem with recruitment or retention–why do you think we are having trouble getting students to come to IUP? what type of student tends to leave the university before completing a degree?)
- Proposal Rationale–Why are you proposing this specific approach to the problem? How will this approach solve the problem? (This is the “what should we do section?” where you explain why your solution to the problem is the best solution.)
- Project Scope–Outline specific details of your plan (This is the “how can we do this?” section where you give specifics about how to implement the solution you propose.)
- Timeline–Include a rough 2 year project timeline. You can break your project into 4 semesters, or year 1 and year 2, or 4 semesters and two summers, or even month by month. (This is the “when should we do this?” section in which you map out how long the project will take to implement.)
- Evaluation–How will you evaluate the success of your project? How will you measure success? For example, if you send out flyers to high school students about IUP, what percentage of these high school students should write for more information?
- Budgetary Needs–What resources are needed for the project (for example: maybe your team needs to buy a laptop computer and projector for making presentations at high schools). Listed below are some of the common types of things for which money might be requested in a proposal:
- Equipment Costs
- Mailing Costs
- Training Costs
- Advertising Costs
- Outside Experts–If your project requires expertise beyond your team’s members, then note in this section the type of experts you would hire (or recruit to work voluntarily)
- IUP Resources–What resources do we already have that can be used for the project? For example, your team might be able to use IUP’s post office, a computer lab on campus, a digital camera or xerox machine or scanner. As you discuss your budget, you may want to discuss how you are using IUP resources to help control costs.
Your Task
As a group, create a proposal following the guidelines above to apply for this funding. To write your proposal, think about your own experiences. What information did you get about IUP as high school students? What aspects of the university and its reputation did you consider in deciding to enroll here? Why have you remained an IUP student and not transferred? What sorts of experiences have you had as students at IUP, both good and bad? What would make your experience more positive? You want to write your group proposal in a way that will attract other students, like you, to attend IUP.
Proposal Review Process (and Prizes!)
You should write your proposal for an audience of university reviewers. These reviewers may include faculty members, students, staff members, alumni, and even local townspeople.
After all the proposals are written, they will be posted online. Then the proposals will be evaluated to see which ones are the best. The top vote getters will receive some sort of super great (yet low cost) prize!
Disclaimer
Please note that this is a simulation for a class activity. This is NOT a real RFP and IUP and Dr. Atwater are not responsible for, nor affiliated with, this simulation.