Memo of Transmittal

To: Cheryl Andrus

From: Isobelle Espiritu
Date: 27 November 2016
Subject: Proposal to Improve Advertising of Cal Poly San Luis
Obispos Safety Escort Services
Attached below is the requested recommendation report. The purpose of this report
is to improve advertising of Cal Polys safety escort services.

Recommendations

I will be proposing two possible solutions throughout this report:

Advertise Cal Poly safety services through online platforms such as the Cal
Poly Portal and e-mail reminders
Advertise Cal Poly safety services in person through more flyers around
campus and night class teachers

Methods

I did thorough research to back up each proposed solution through both primary and
secondary resources.
Primary Resources:
Email Interview with Cheryl Andrus
Online survey of on-campus residents
Secondary Resources:
Cal Poly University Police Department
M.S. Thesis Paper
Scholarly Journal Article
Online Newspaper Article

Results

My findings from my research are explained in the Results section and analyzed in
the Conclusion section.

Final Recommendation

My recommendation is to increase advertising Cal Polys safety services online

through the Cal Poly portal and e-mail reminders.
Thank you for your time and consideration of my recommendation report. Please
feel free to contact me if you have any more questions.

Prepared for Cheryl Andrus

University Police Department

Proposal to Improve Cal Poly San Luis

Obispos Safety Escort Services

Prepared by Isobelle Espiritu

Submitted November 27, 2016

Table of Contents
Introduction.........
..................................1
Methods..............
.............2
Primary....................
.........2
Secondary................
....................................2
Results................
.................................2-5
Primary.................
..................................2-4
Secondary.
.................................................4-5
Conclusion.
..........................................5-6
Recommendations
.................................6
.
References...........
................7
Figures Referenced
...........................
...7

Table of Figures
Figure 1..
.............................................
..4
Survey results on how students first heard about safety escort van
Figure 2..
............................4
Survey results on how students first heard about Mustang Patrol
Figure 3.
.....................................................4
Survey results on how well safety services are advertised
Figure
4....................
...............................5
Recognition accuracy for different types of stimuli

Introduction
Purpose
The University Police Department at Cal Poly currently offers safety escort services
to students who need assistance getting around campus at night safely. While these
services are very useful and beneficial to the safety of the students, they are not
being utilized enough because many students are not aware of the services or how
to use them. In this report, I will propose two solutions that will help publicize these
safety services so that more on-campus residents will feel safer getting around
campus at night. My first solution would be to push the advertising of these services
through online platforms such as the Cal Poly Portal and e-mail reminders. My
second solution would be to focus on advertising these services in person by
posting flyers throughout campus and ensuring that faculty is advertising these
services during their night classes.
I currently live on-campus in Poly Canyon Village and always feel paranoid when I
have to walk home alone at night. I had always seen the safety escort vans around
but never knew much about them or how to use them. Safety is of the utmost
importance to both the school and to each student here at Cal Poly. Everyone should
be completely aware of the resources provided to students in order to ensure their
safety. It is necessary to implement proper and sufficient advertising in order to
inform students of these safety services. I plan to address the University Police
Departments Community Services Coordinator, Cheryl Andrus.

Background
Cal Polys Safety Escort Van Service is offered Sunday through Monday from 7:00 PM
to 12:00 AM. The service offers rides to students within the campus only. The van
service stops periodically at five locations each night: University Union, Kennedy
Library, Poly Canyon Village, Cerro Vista, and Grand Avenue [1].
The other safety service offered by the Cal Poly Police Department is Mustang
Patrol. This service involves campus safety walking escorts on Friday and Saturday
nights only from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM. Students are required to call the services
phone number in order to request a walking escort [1].
According to my survey, more than half of students rated the advertising for the
safety services at a 3 or below, with 5 being the highest rating [3]. Despite the fact
that this information is available online, many students are unaware of this
information because it is not readily available to them.

Organization
Following the introduction, this report will include primary and secondary sources I
used in my research. The results of my research will be included next, followed by a
comparison of my two solutions and my final recommendation. My two proposed
recommendations are:

Advertise Cal Poly safety services through online platforms such as the Cal
Poly Portal and e-mail reminders

Advertise Cal Poly safety services in person through more flyers around
campus and night class teachers

Methods
In order to gain more information on utilizing safety services, I interviewed a staff
member from the University Police Department, conducted a student survey, and
researched several scholarly articles through Cal Poly Librarys databases.

Primary Methods
Interview
I emailed Cheryl Andrus from the University Police Department and she answered
several questions about the current system for safety services and the current
methods of advertising being used.
Cheryl Andrus
Community Services Coordinator
University Police Department

Online Survey
I conducted an online survey that 112 students who live on-campus. I distributed
this service through a PCV Facebook group and asking people in person to take part
in this study. I asked the following questions:
How did you first hear about Cal Polys safety escort van service?
How did you first hear about Mustang Patrols safety walking escort services?
On a scale of 1-5 how much advertising have you seen for Cal Poly's safety
escort services?

Secondary Methods
Cal Poly University Police Department

I reference information from the Public Safety tab of the University Police
Departments webpage.

M.S. Thesis

I found a thesis paper from a Journalism and Broadcasting student from Western
Kentucky University. Her paper is called 27 Floors of Support: Effectively
Advertising Campus Resources to College Students.

Journal Article

I will use information from an article from Neustar entitled, Whitepaper: Online
advertising & marketing to college students.

Newspaper Article

I will use an article from The Atlantic entitled, Study: For Memory, Hearing Is Worse
Than Seeing or Feeling by Julie Beck.

Results
The information I obtained from the interview and survey helped me have a better
understanding of safety services on Cal Poly in particular. The other articles gave
me more information on how to advertise to the younger generation and keep
campuses safe.

Primary Methods
Interview

I asked Cheryl Andrus the following questions and her answers were as follows:
1. How has the school gone about advertising these services throughout each
quarter?
We advertise the services throughout SLO Days and WOW
presentations, as well as Facebook, Twitter, posted flyers, signs at the
escort van stops, media at the Library and Mustang News Mail Home
and WOW Editions.
2. Do you think that it would be more effective to implement more online
advertising (i.e. Cal Poly Portal or social media) or through flyers around
campus and having night class teachers announce these services to their
students?
I think night class teachers would be a great way to extend the
advertising, as well as channels through ASI and other Cal Poly social
media accounts.
3.

How would an increase in advertising the services affect the departments

budget?
Additional advertising through Mustang News might be helpful,
however ad pricing is quite high.

4. Does the police department plan on expanding these services so that there
are more safety escort vans are available?
We do not currently have plans to purchase more vans for this service,
however could re-consider if the demand was there.
5. From your experience, do you believe students who live on-campus do not
utilize this service because they dont know about it or because they do not
feel the need to use it?
Our community is fairly safe and I believe our students feel a sense of
safety that may deter them from thinking they need these services.
Possibly they don't want to wait for it or walk to the pick up locations if
using the escort van?
6. Do you have any other comments on the safety escort services?
Mustang Patrol is used very little for the safety walk home. We receive
few calls for service, however those student employees still patrol
throughout the campus. It would be great to have this service utilized
more.

Safety Escort Van

16%
13% 42%
2%
27%

Word-of-mouth

Orientation

Faculty/Staff

Posters

Never heard
of it

Survey

112 on-campus residents responded to this survey with the majority being new
transfer students and freshmen.
When asked how they first heard about the safety escort van service, the results
were as follows:
47 through word-of-mouth
30 through orientation
2 from faculty or staff
15 through posters
18 have never heard of it
Figure 1: Survey results on how students
first heard about safety escort van [3]

Mustang Patrol Walking Escort

Word-of-mouth
Orientation

29%

16%

19%

Faculty/Staff
Posters

3%

34%

Never heard
of it

Figure 2: Survey results on how students

first heard about Mustang Patrol [3]

When asked how they first heard

about Mustang Patrols safety
walking escort services, the results were as follows:
21 through word-of-mouth
38 through orientation
3 from faculty or staff

18 through posters
32 have never heard of it

Rating of Safety Service Advertising

35
Students

26

26
19

When asked how much advertising they have seen for Cal Polys safety escort
services on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the most), the results were as follows:
26 rated a 1
35 rated a 2
26 rated a 3
Figure 3: Survey results on how well safety
19 rated a 4
services are advertised [3]
6 rated a 5

Secondary Methods
Cal Poly University Police Department

This page gives information on the times and pick-up locations of the safety escort
van. Also, it gives information on how to reach the Mustang Patrol walking escort
service. This site also gives various other links to safety resources at Cal Poly.

M.S. Thesis

This thesis focuses on advertising university resources available to students at

Western Kentucky University. The author conducted a survey asking residents of an
on-campus housing facility to rate how well they know about the resources provided
to them and conducted a campaign to improve awareness through poster
advertisements. She chose this form of media because of their ability to reach a
large audience, their cost, and longevity that they provide [4]. She used a specific
color scheme on her poster to evoke the feelings of support, relaxation, and
professionalism to draw in her audience. After her poster campaign, she took
another survey of the residents and their average rating for knowledge of campus
resources rose .90 points from 3.76 to 4.66 [4].

Journal Article

This article analyzes advertising strategies so companies can successfully market to

the college student demographic. Although it is more focused on selling products,
the information provides insight into how to gain the attention of students through
online campaigns and other digital platforms. The college experience is becoming
more based online and more than half of college graduates say they used a laptop,
smartphone or table computer in class [5]. This article also explains that students
spend only 30% of their time on campus and marketing needs to extend more into
digital platforms in order to reach students and get their attention [5].

Newspaper Article

This article explains a study that was conducted to test the memory of 82
undergraduate students and see how effectively they retained auditory, tactile, and
visual information. Each student was exposed to the different types of stimuli for
five seconds each and their memory was tested later that day, the day after, and
the week after. Their
results, as seen in Figure 4,
show that the participants
remembered the audio clips
they listened to significantly
less accurately. The
students memory for the
visual and tactile stimuli did
not differ too much [6].
Figure 4: Recognition accuracy for
different kinds of stimuli [6

Conclusion
The two solutions I am proposing are be to push the advertising of these services
through online platforms such as the Cal Poly Portal and e-mail reminders or to
focus on advertising these services in person by posting flyers throughout campus
and ensuring that faculty is advertising these services during their night classes.
Currently, many studentsparticularly freshmen and transfersare not wellinformed on how to take advantage of the security services offered by the school
because the majority are getting their information through word-of-mouth [3].
Obtaining information through word-of-mouth is much less reliable and detailed
than getting the information straight from the school. Many students are taking or
will take a night class during their time at Cal Poly and it is important to ensure that

those students are and feel safe while on campus. After speaking to many fellow
residents of Poly Canyon Village, I realized that many people were also feeling
concerned about their safety after dark. It is important to ensure that the safety
services are advertised effectively so that students can easily make the effort to
remain safe while on campus.
The first option to push more online advertising has various pros and cons. Online
advertising would be effective because the majority of students are constantly on
their phones and checking the Cal Poly Portal or their e-mail accounts for homework
information. As explained in [5], the college experience is moving more online and
advertisers need to utilize the online platform in order to reach students.
Additionally, making the information available in writing presents a better chance
that students will retain what they read making online advertising more effective
[6]. An issue with advertising on the student portal is according to Cheryl Andrus,
there is already a lot of online advertising already being done through various
platforms. She also mentioned that ad pricing is quite high, which may present
problems with the budget [2].
The second option to push more in-person advertising would be very effective in its
own ways. Putting up flyers all around campus would be easy to see when students
get out of class. The experiment done by Amanda Peerce shows that a poster
campaign is effective in raising awareness for campus resources [4]. Also, if
teachers were to advertise the safety services at the end of their night classes, the
students would find the information more relevant to themselves because they may
have to walk home immediately after class. The issues with this form of advertising
is that flyers may not be seen as well since bulletin boards are usually filled with
various flyers and students may not stop to read them. Also, studies from [6] show
that auditory information is more likely to be forgotten after a certain amount of
time.

Recommendation
After thorough research, my recommendation is to implement better online
advertising for the safety escort services on the Cal Poly portal and through e-mail.
We should begin by creating advertisements to post that would catch the attention
of students and get in contact with the Information Technology department.

References
[1]"Public safety - University Police Department," in Cal Poly Administration &
Finance. [Online]. Available: https://afd.calpoly.edu/police/safety/. Accessed:
Nov. 27, 2016.
[2] C. Andrus, Community Services Coordinator, University Police Department.
Interview. San Luis Obispo, CA. 16 Nov 2016.

[3] I. Espiritu Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Nighttime Safety Services, Survey. 11
November 2016.
[4] A. Peerce, 27 Floors of Support: Effectively Advertising Campus Resources to
College Students, M.S. thesis, Western Kentucky Univ., Bowling Green,
Kentucky, 2016.
[5] Whitepaper: Online advertising & marketing to college students, in Neustar,
Neustar, 2016. [Online]. Available:
https://www.neustar.biz/resources/whitepapers/advertising-to-collegestudents. Accessed: Nov. 13, 2016.
[6] J. Beck, Study: For Memory, Hearing Is Worse Than Seeing or Feeling, The
Atlantic, March 4, 2014. [Online].
Available:http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/study-formemory-hearing-is-worse-than-seeing-or-feeling/284184/. Accessed: Nov. 13,
2016.

Figures Referenced
[3] Figure 1. Survey results on how students first heard about safety escort van,
Survey. 11 November 2016.
[3] Figure 2. Survey results on how students first heard about Mustang Patrol,
Survey. 11 November 2016.
[3] Figure 3. Survey results on how well safety services are advertised, Survey. 11
November 2016.
[6] Figure 4. Recognition accuracy for different types of stimuli, The Atlantic. 4
March 2014.