College plans marketing effort

BISMARCK — A North Dakota college forced to button up its campus during peak recruiting season wants to make sure prospective students are not scared away by record flooding.

A legislative negotiating committee is recommending $200,000 for Valley City State University to use in a marketing campaign. The school’s building and grounds are closed while Valley City residents monitor the swollen Sheyenne River. Students are finishing the semester through online classes.

“The campus has been shut down at a time when we’re very active in recruiting students and donors,” said Sen. Larry Robinson, D-Valley City, the college’s director of university advancement. “It has put us in a compromising situation.”

Robinson said Valley City State does not have the money for additional marketing. Legislators said the marketing bill should include an emergency clause so the money is available as soon as the bill is passed.

Robinson and Valley City State President Steven Shirley said it’s important to reach out to students shopping around for colleges.

“If you’re going to pick a terrible time for something like this to happen, April is as bad as it gets,” Shirley said. “Obviously, this is not a scenario that any of us on the campus had hoped for.”

The campaign should reassure students that school buildings have not been damaged and the campus is in good shape, Shirley said. The buildings were closed after the city encountered sewer problems and residents were asked to leave to clear room for emergency vehicles.

“It’s a little quiet around here,” Shirley said. “It doesn’t have a feel like it should at the end of the year.”

Valley City gets most of its students from eastern North Dakota and western Minnesota. Robinson said the school has a strong record of landing prospective students once they meet the college staff and tour the campus nestled in the Sheyenne valley.

“But we’ve got to get them there,” Robinson said. “We spent three weeks telling them to stay away.”

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