Georgia Highlands College is a modest sized 2-year institution in the Northwest portion of the state, with Atlanta as the closest major market. The school is a part of the University System of Georgia, which has several satellite campuses.

Two main campuses account for the majority of programming done by GA Highlands, the Floyd Campus in Rome, GA and the campus in Cartersville. All together there are about 4,500 students spread across these two locations and three smaller instruction sites, but the activities are handled fairly centrally through the primary Floyd Campus.

John Spranza, the director of student life at GA Highlands has been with the school for about six years and tells us more about the unique program and challenges of this institution.

“Our two largest campuses have about 1500 at one and 1800 at the other. We are drawing students from 12 to 14 different counties and all of them are commuters.”

With no resident population to ease boosting event attendance and more than one campus to program for, Highland Interactive Productions certainly does have a unique set of challenges to contend with. “We handle the programming somewhat centrally and with one pooled budget. As the director of student life I oversee programming at all of our locations but luckily for me only our Floyd and Cartersville campuses have the facilities or space to plan events. Our other locations are so small the we just don’t have room, so we typically try to encourage those students to take part at the larger locations.”

John admits it is somewhat difficult to coordinate these events at multiple locations at one time. “We try to offer similar programming at both the main campuses so a lot of times we book two dates on consecutive days for whatever performer we have coming in.”

This begs the obvious question of how much strain this tactic then has on the budget of this small institution. “Our budget is derived from a student activities fee and as a smaller school, we typically work more with APCA and their more affordable options. Most of the acts that we book are in the $1,000-$2,000 range, but sometimes on the high end we may spend up to $4K or $5K. Our overall budget for programming usually runs between $75,000 to $100,000 dollars a year for both large campuses.”

As a result of a fairly modest budget and such a sparse student body, Highlands Interactive Productions also brings in novelty events for the smaller campuses. “We try to do some smaller stuff when we have the opportunity like a wax hands or a t-shirt event. Being a 100% commuter campus with no residence halls, holding events that students can hit on their way in or out of class are ideal. Any entertainment where our students don’t have to come and sit through a whole show is pretty popular and we do a number of those throughout the year.”

Live entertainment could certainly be a risky venture when it comes to a campus where all the typical 18-24 students go home at night just as the older night class crowd comes in. The night students are in class and the day students are done, so driving attendance is a unique challenge. “That’s the $64,000 question. We normally schedule about four live performances every semester, typically two comedians and two musical acts. They run as all-day shows, usually around noontime in the student center. Our Rome campus is the only one that really has a cafeteria, so lunchtime shows there is really the best place for us to catch the largest group of students possible.”

These particular circumstances always leave the board dealing with an extremely fluid crowd. “Even when we do live entertainment, kids are coming in and out to class, but we try to do well as far as attendance goes.” This doesn’t exclude finding aid outside of the activities department itself either. “We work a lot with our faculty and get them involved,” John says, “and they will often offer their students extra credit to attend shows.” He says this works especially well when the live performances are culturally or academically inclinated. “A lot of times the live performers we book are a little bit more culturally based because we can get the added incentive thrown in.”

Music and comedy are the universal best bet for HIP, as these genres appeal to wider demographics of audiences than anything else. Some past favorites at GA Highlands have been Buzz Sutherland, Alfred & Seymour and on the music side, Black Violin. “We had a really good crowd at both locations for their performance. That is the music show this year that was a huge hit and everyone is still talking about it. They are two friends who are both classically trained violinists that infuse a contemporary Hip-Hop influence into their music. It is a really cool sound and it was easier for us to draw in some students who may look at the violin and think it’s not their cup of tea. When they see what this group is all about, it really gives them a different perspective on what normally might fall under the ‘arts’ heading.”

Part of getting the faculty involved includes encouraging their attendance to the events as well. “We usually have a nice little contingent of faculty that come to the events too, which is good for the students to see.”

One series of events that it isn’t difficult to get faculty to attend are the number of lectures hosted by GA Highlands. “We have a speaker series that is in its second year as a matter of fact and it is the only programming we do in the evening as well. These programs are open not only to our campus community but also to the local public.” Highlands hosts two speakers per semester, giving students there a fair amount of food for thought each year. Students may have to travel from the other campuses though, as the Rome hub is the only one with the necessary venue for speaking presentations. “We don’t have a large theater, but we do have an auditorium complex where we end up doing our speaking series.”

As on many other campuses, effectively promoting and marketing events can be one of the most difficult tasks acing an activities board. HIP uses a lot of traditional posters and banners in high traffic areas, as well as word of mouth. And like many boards, they have discovered the power of online networking communities. “We send out emails to the college email addresses for all the students, but we have found going to the Internet communities is much more effective. We utilize facebook quite a lot and it has been very beneficial for us. We all know most of these students check their Facebook or MySpace pages dozens of times a day and they might not check their college email once a week.”

Highlands Interactive Productions is a modestly sized board, but healthy nonetheless for this size campus where everyone has the temptation just to go home at night as soon as classes are out. “Our board is normally between 12-15 students that are involved with a smaller number at our Cartersville campus. That location is fairly new and we are still working on getting those students involved. Right now, they are retaining between 6 and 8 people every year.”

A significant and intriguing difference between the way things are done here and the typical activities board is the very structure of the board and basic functions each student performs on it. Most institutions have a fairly standard committee-based structure set up with an executive board including a president and vice president to oversee things. HIP practices an entirely different tack with a system that often spreads the experience past only the top tier key members of the board. “We don’t have a president or chairperson of the group for the year. I prefer to designate at each event a different student who will take the lead for programming. They will coordinate with the rest of the board on publicity and set-up and such, but this way everyone has the opportunity to learn to produce a show and get some leadership experience.” This also once again is a useful tactic because of the fluidity of a student body in a 2-year commuter college. “We don’t have students on the board for more than a year, two at the most, so having one person as the head honcho for an entire year isn’t really practical and isn’t all that smart. They haven’t had a chance to develop and blossom the way they would on a board for three or four years, so they aren’t as qualified to take the ball and run the whole board all the time either.”

John understands that it is a double-edged sword. While he is giving new opportunity and experience that his students may not have on a larger board with less individual attention, he is also putting “rookies” in charge of the show. “I am definitely there right behind them all the way. Many times the students have never had an important task on their shoulders and they are kind of nervous to take the reins, so I am very diligent in offering support, suggestions and advice to point them in the right direction. Both my assistant, Jen Wright (who works primarily at the Cartersville campus), and I like to get my hands dirty with the students.”

To find out more about dealing with the unique sets of challenges of programming for a small rural commuter school, contact HIP at (706) 295-6363.