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While campus was cold and lonely as students left for October Break, the College’s Office of Admissions staff visited the balmy climates of Central and South America without ever leaving Poughkeepsie. Though Vassar has long brought students to campus through the virtual tour on the Admissions website, the Office of Admissions has worked this fall to develop a video conferencing system to bring the College to schools across the globe via Skype—a software application that allows users to talk for free over the Internet.
The Admissions staff’s international travel schedule rotates from year to year, and they would not travel this fall to Central or South America. When the American Nicaraguan School suggested video teleconferencing, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid David Borus began to explore what he calls a “pilot project” in addition to the continuation of his normal international travel.
Results of the first attempted video conferences, however, were unfavorable due to scheduling and technical issues—the American School of Guadalajara canceled because of last-minute problems with the software, and the Nido de Aguilas International School in Chile missed its Skype chat due to time zone confusion.
The one successful teleconference was with the American Nicaraguan School that had originally suggested it. The visit “worked terrifically,” said Borus. “There were about 15 students,” he continued, “and I could see their faces and answer their questions.”
Ideally, Admissions Officers would use the teleconferencing technology available in the College Center, but if the school they are conferencing with lacks the compatible technology, they will use Skype.
“It generally only lets one person on each end communicate with one another at a given time, and therefore does not really accommodate the type of group information sessions we had hoped to conduct. Obviously, if a school or counselor requests a Skype meeting in the future, we will certainly accommodate them, but teleconferencing is a greatly superior medium where possible,” wrote Borus later in an e-mailed statement.
Representing Vassar at schools that Admissions representatives do not travel to may increase the international diversity on campus. According to Manasi Jiwrajka ’12, President of Vassar International Student Association and graduate of Mahindra United World College in India, visits from college representatives make a big impact on students’ decisions to apply to any given school. “There were more applicants from my school to those colleges [that visited] than to any other colleges, even if they were not well-known outside of the United States,” said Jiwrajka. Her concern, though, is that virtual visits exclude schools with poor Internet connection.
In addition to communication with international schools, teleconferencing could reduce the College’s carbon footprint.
“When and if the presence of this technology becomes more widespread among schools abroad in the future, we could use it in some years to replace a foreign recruiting trip, but this year’s pilot attempt demonstrates that we are quite a distance from reaching that point right now,” wrote Borus.
According to a May 7 report by Sightlines, an environmental consulting firm, air travel is a notable contributor to Vassar’s carbon footprint. By replacing air travel, Vassar would be able to reduce its emissions and also save money within the department.
Despite difficulties with technology, Borus hopes to expand on the project, possibly reaching out next to schools in Europe or Asia.
Virtual visits, he emphasized, are “not to replace travel but to augment it. It behooves us to keep investigating.”
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