Findings Press Release: Dec. 13, 2004

Contact:
Brenda Dow, Vice President of Client Services
Vincent McCabe, Inc.
Phone: (315) 685-7227

Project KEEP US Findings: 14% Plan to Stay in 12-County Area; 33% Undecided
Study Reveals College Students’ Motivations Regarding Staying or Leaving the Area

(Dec. 13, 2004) -- The findings of Project KEEP US, a research study conducted this fall by students in the “Public Relations Research” class at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, were announced at a press conference today by Jean Vincent, the course instructor and president of Vincent McCabe, Inc., a marketing research firm which sponsored the project.

The study targeted college students pursuing degrees at colleges and universities in the 12-county Central Upstate area outlined in the Essential New York Initiative, a report issued by the Metropolitan Development Association (MDA) of Syracuse and Central New York, Inc. in February 2004. The area encompasses Cayuga, Cortland, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, Seneca, St. Lawrence and Tompkins counties.

The study found that college students in the 12-county area belong to one of five clusters, each of which is motivated by different factors when deciding to stay or leave the area after completing their education. “When it comes to the complex decision of where to live after graduation from college or graduate school, there is not ‘one’ typical student profile,” Vincent said. “Rather there are different types of students with different motivators and needs. The student’s study showed five different student clusters exist, each of which are motivated in a different way.”

Responses collected from 26 key questions in an online survey, ranging from factors of importance in the decision-making process to demographic information, were used to build extensive profiles of each cluster. The research team used advanced statistical techniques to analyze and compress the data and assigned a name to each cluster to bring to light the differences among the five distinct groups. Better Life Seekers are 20.34% of the college student population; Homebodies 20.96%, Dreamers 8.21%, Recruitables 31.51% and Careerists 18.98%.

Students were asked “Where do you plan to live and work immediately after completing your education?” Many are undecided, with 32.89% selecting “I’m not sure yet” as a response and 14.27% indicating they plan to live in the 12-county area. For the multiple response question, 18.05% selected “Another county within New York state,” 34.97% chose “Another U.S. state (not New York state), 5.94% selected “Outside of the 50 United States” and 35.62% chose “In or near my hometown area,” the place where a student primarily lived before attending college. For those respondents whose hometown is in the12-county area, 42% of those respondents indicate they plan to stay in the 12-county area.

The study also asked, “What can the area do to better familiarize you with what it has to offer new college graduates?” resulting in 1,700 responses. Many of the student respondents indicated that they had little knowledge of the area surrounding campus and had suggestions ranging from job fairs for local companies to free shuttle bus service.

A total of 2,299 full-time and part-time students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate degree-granting programs at 25 different institutions completed the study, providing information about decision-making preferences, current studies, work and internship experiences, their dream job and industry preferences. According to Vincent, a sample size of more than 2,000 is twice what is typical for polls and studies that predict behavior for people in the entire United States.

“While our sample was broad and diverse, there is a high degree of concurrence, or agreement, among the students,” Vincent said. “More than 87% of the responding students indicated it is important or very important that they can immediately get or start a job that at the very least will pay the bills. Thanks to this similarity in behavior and response patterns, the study can make projections for the students in the 12-county area as well as offer insights into student differences. Results from the entire sample have an accuracy level that is comparable to professional research standards. However, like all samples, especially ones developed over the Internet where precise selection cannot be controlled, results should be matched with existing knowledge and used as a tool rather than a final word. Student populations are always changing so data such as this would require updating on a fairly regular basis.”

Brenda Dow, vice president of client services at Vincent McCabe, developed and championed the idea for Project KEEP US and acted as client liaison for the project, working with the class throughout the semester. “The overall project goal was to add to the knowledge base to improve leaders’ decision-making when it comes to retaining area college graduates,” Dow said.

Project KEEP US addressed four objectives: to determine if students at area colleges are staying, leaving or undecided about where to locate upon completing their college education; to determine factors that influence students’ decisions to stay or go from the area where they attended college; to determine student characteristics ¾ by location, by career choices, etc. ¾ to better understand research results; to determine conditions or actions that may surface in the study that may be taken to keep graduates of area colleges in the area.

“Project KEEP US information can be used to complement knowledge already gained by the community and business organizations,” Dow said. “We hope this resource will be used as another tool for our community. Given the large amount of data collected and the various ways the multitude of organizations throughout the 12-county area may wish to use it, the students ¾ through Vincent McCabe, Inc. ¾ are making the data collected available on the project web site at www.projectkeepus.com.”

Cluster Details

Students were asked to rate the importance of 25 factors, which were developed through the qualitative phase of the study. “Responses were subjected to multivariate statistical analysis that revealed the sub-conscious dimensions of importance,” Vincent said. “These advanced statistics reveal the nature of the respondents and how they relate to the dimensions of importance. The student researchers analyzed the statistical results and the characteristics of the groups emerged. The names were developed by the student researchers to capture the nature of the college students in each cluster.

Better Life Seekers: What’s important to Better Life Seekers is: reasonable cost of living ¾ housing, taxes, transportation, utilities, etc.; housing options ¾ sufficient amount, quality of facilities, neighborhood locations; a safe environment, feeling of being safe; diverse and/or tolerant population. “Better Life Seekers don’t care if the better life is in their hometown, and they won’t move to a place just for the money,” Vincent said.

Homebodies: What’s important to Homebodies is: being near their family; being very familiar with the area; living with family to save money. “Homebodies are not motivated by quality of life ¾  such as cultural offerings, arts and music,” Vincent said. “Nor do company or community recruiting efforts, nor benefits and/or special incentives work for homebodies, unless, of course, it’s from their hometown.”

Dreamers: What’s important to Dreamers is their compelling vision of what they want to do. “Dreamers don’t care if there are a lot of jobs in the field or if they’ll get a high salary; they don’t care if they have a good standard of living, and they will sacrifice or forego relationships for the sake of the dream,” Vincent said. “Dreamers will sacrifice to realize their dream. Their wildcard motivators are unique to their vision and transcend other issues.”

Recruitables: What’s important to Recruitables are: efforts made by a company or community representative to recruit them; recommendations from trusted professors; benefits and/or special incentives such as loan-payback programs; being near professional contacts. “Recruitables are looking for the best deal overall and will amend their mission in order to get it,” Vincent said.

Careerists: Vincent said what’s important to Careerists is “The Career. The Career. The Career.” They seek high salaries for jobs in their field; excellent opportunity to land their dream job; the opportunity to immediately get or start a job that will at least pay the bills. “Careerists are not concerned about reasonable cost of living, housing options, neighborhood facilities or a safe, diverse environment, unless it’s in a place that is known for their field,” Vincent said.

About the Respondents

Of the 2,299 participants in the study sample, 13% are full-time students pursuing associate’s degrees, 1% are part-time students pursuing associate’s degrees, 66% are full-time students pursuing bachelor’s degrees, 2% are part-time students pursuing bachelor’s degrees, 16% are full-time students pursuing graduate degrees and 2% are part-time students pursuing graduate degrees.

Data was collected from students enrolled at SUNY Canton, Cayuga Community College, Cazenovia College, Clarkson University, Colgate University, Cornell University, SUNY Cortland, Crouse Hospital School of Nursing, Empire State College, SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry, Hamilton College, Herkimer County Community College, SUNY Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, Ithaca College, Le Moyne College, Mohawk Valley Community College, Onondaga Community College, SUC Potsdam, St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center College of Nursing, St. Lawrence University, Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Tompkins Cortland Community College, Utica College and Wells College.

Participating students represent a broad range of hometowns, with hometown defined for students as “the place where you lived most of your life prior to attending your current college.”

The percent of participants by hometown location are: Cayuga County, NY (Auburn, Aurora area) 1.7%, Cortland County, NY (Cortland, Dryden area) 0.52%, Herkimer County, NY (Herkimer, Old Forge area) 1.49%, Jefferson County, NY (Watertown area) 1.27%, Lewis County, NY (Lowville area) 0.48%, Madison County, NY (Cazenovia, Hamilton, Morrisville, Oneida area) 2.66%, Oneida County, NY (Clinton, Rome, Utica area) 6.51%, Onondaga County, NY (Syracuse area) 11.93%, Oswego County, NY (Oswego area) 2.36%, Seneca County, NY (Seneca Falls area) 0.31%, St. Lawrence County, NY (Canton, Potsdam area) 6.99%, Tompkins County, NY (Ithaca area) 0.44%, Another county within New York state 24.9%, Another U.S. state (not New York state) 34.64%, Outside of the 50 United States 3.8%.

Research Design

“Working with college students to develop the research design and questionnaire was critical to the study’s success,” Vincent said. “Based on their personal experience and close contact with fellow college students, the student researchers were able to get in tune with the project rapidly and determine through ideation sessions what factors were most likely to come into play in the decision-making process. They came up with creative ways to recruit students to complete the study as well as used scientific methods to develop and analyze the findings to determine the insights of greatest value.”

The student researchers are Sally Alfis, Rebecca Baden, Holly Bernesser, Heather Bowes, Jenna Dalto, Luci Franklin, Alia Galal, Jody Gavin, Lauren Karis, Kathryn Mack, Nicole Moore, Lauren Munroe, Rebecca Neufeld, Rachel Nierenberg, Jacki Pilato, Rashi Ratan, Kim Tomasch, Sharleen Valentin and Matthew Werder.

Dow, who assisted the students in their search for existing information on which to build, said, “Significant secondary research was conducted prior to the start of the course to identify a niche for information that the students could effectively fill, as well as to build on previous studies of Central New York and similar research conducted elsewhere in the country.

For the local area, in addition to the Essential New York Initiative, the literature search included the Greater Syracuse Citistates report and Syracuse Post-Standard coverage of related topics spanning the last five years. “At the national level, of particular note were studies of college students and recent college graduates that were conducted on behalf of greater Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, all with the goal of holding on to college students after graduation,” Dow said.

After studying the existing materials, the student researchers separated into three competing teams, each presenting their recommendations for the project design. Dow and public relations and marketing veterans from leading local agencies and major companies with Syracuse-based headquarters judged the competition. The winning presentation was used as the foundation of the project, modified to include best practices and ideas from the other teams.

The study involved qualitative and quantitative methods. For phase one, the qualitative stage, student researchers completed over 55 personal interviews with a broad spectrum of college students. Results from the personal interviews were used to develop phase two of the study.

For phase two, the quantitative stage, an online survey was designed and posted to the Project KEEP US website, through which responses were automatically collected and tabulated.

To acquire data, the student researchers made over 225 telephone calls, posted over 1,000 flyers in campus public places and sent over 2,508 e-mails inviting college students to visit the web site and complete the online survey. “The students used an ‘nth name’ selection using student directories to ensure that every person had an equal opportunity to be selected,” Vincent said.

The student researchers also posted information to online forums and other Internet outlets visited by students enrolled at Central Upstate colleges. In addition, administrators at 15 institutions, including Syracuse University, supported the study by sending e-mails or placing flyers in student mailboxes inviting students to visit the web site and complete the online survey.

Students eligible for the study were given the opportunity to enter a drawing for $500 as an incentive for completing the study.

“It’s important to keep in mind the tremendous amount of work that went into this effort, and all within an extremely challenging timeline,” Vincent said. “In just one semester – about 15 weeks – students had to learn about all facets of research while completing this full-scale research project. All 19 students in the class worked incredibly hard. Without their efforts, it would not have been possible to complete this study.”

"This research project was very challenging for our class but it was a great learning experience,” Bowes, a junior, said. “We designed an entire survey based on qualitative data we collected and we were introduced to advanced statistical data. Not only was it a great learning experience for us, it’s also going to be something very useful for the community."

“The project was one of the most worthwhile of my academic career thus far,” Galal, a senior, said. “The cliché ‘real world experience’ is thrown around and many times associated with internships. Generally it is not a term that one uses to describe a college course, especially one of this nature. Yet, the project that my fellow classmates and I have just recently embarked on gave us just that. I have done a few internships and have spoken to many others who have as well. Sometimes filing or answering phones at a firm is ‘real world’ but in my opinion, does not give that ‘experience’ necessary to excel in an area of our focus. It is seldom that I take a course and feel that I was given a chance to be part of something big. I am proud to say that I had a part in Project KEEP US.”

Community Involvement

In addition to reviewing existing research information, Dow and Vincent discussed the project with community and Syracuse University leadership in order to make certain that the project would fill a need and dovetail with existing work. “The Metropolitan Development Association was very supportive, and the students were delighted when we received a personal letter from Chancellor Cantor supporting our work,” Vincent said.

“Vincent McCabe, Inc. assisted in the completion of the assignment,” Vincent said. “That assistance included use of our professional Internet-based design and data collection software packages, SNAP and SPSS, statistical analysis support, sponsoring the $500 cash chance to win that was used as an inducement for students to complete the survey, and design and hosting of the project’s web site. This extra measure of support helped the students bring their project to the professional level as rapidly as possible.”

“The student researchers’ analysis of the data scratches the surface of what is possible in terms of how the data captured can be used to learn more about college students and what motivates them,” Vincent said. “Our hope is the students’ research findings will be useful to economic development entities and other groups seeking to have more college students settle here, by bringing the voice-of-the-student to the fore via this class project.”

The final research report and all data will be available on the project web site after Dec. 13.