Turning Green into Gold: A CENTERS Case Study
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The case study focuses on the 2023 “All That’s Green Is Gold” experience, a revamped fall kick-off event at Cleveland State University. The event aimed to address challenges such as the move-in weekend gap, declining interest in the previous event “Rock the Rec,” and the broader issue of declining student engagement. The event was strategically timed for Sunday afternoon during move-in weekend and reimagined to appeal to Gen Z students. The primary focus was on enjoyment without overt promotion, while subtly showcasing the offerings of University Recreation and Wellness (URW). The event aimed to create an immersive experience and unique atmosphere by incorporating a Hollywood, lock-in, and dance club combination theme. It featured a green carpet walk, unique and interactive spaces, diverse activities, music, decorations, and more. The event was a resounding success, exceeding attendance goals and contributing to increased participation in URW programs. It also strengthened university partnerships and demonstrated the effectiveness of a student-centered approach to engagement.
THE EVENT
“All That’s Green Is Gold” is an annual welcome event that takes place at the start of the fall semester at Cleveland State University. The inaugural event – and focus of this case study – took place on Sunday, August 27, 2023, from 4–7pm. The event’s primary goal is to engage and entertain students before classes begin with an interactive, fun, and immersive experience without pretense. It combines elements of an after-hours lock-in and a club-style party with an annual theme to create a unique and exciting event for students. The event utilizes the entire Recreation Center and includes more than 25 different games, activities, and interactive features in which students can participate, as well as places to simply relax and unwind with friends.
CHALLENGES
Move-in Weekend “Gap”
Ahead of the Fall semester, residential students move in on Thursday through Saturday, leaving them with little to do on Sunday before classes begin. This creates a gap in activities during the move-in weekend.
Decline of “Rock the Rec”
For over 15 years, “Rock the Rec” served as URW’s signature Fall kickoff event, introducing new and returning students to the Rec Center’s offerings. However, interest and attendance gradually declined in recent years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping from a peak of 600-700 attendees to less than 150 in 2022.
The event’s approach and features, including Minute-To-Win-It games, inflatables, and a focus on sports and fitness activities, became dated and unappealing to students. This lack of interest contributed to decreased awareness of URW’s facilities, programs, and services.
Declining Engagement & Participation
The decline in engagement and participation in URW offerings isn’t solely attributed to Rock the Rec’s decline, but it was a contributing factor. An overabundance of campus-wide events, especially during the Week of Welcome, overlapped and competed with URW’s offerings in terms of timing, activities, and student engagement, leading to “fatigue.”
Supporting Student Retention & Engagement
Declining student enrollment, retention, and matriculation, along with freshman melt, are ongoing challenges in higher education, with projected declines continuing through at least 2029. CSU, like many other institutions, is facing these trends. It is crucial for university departments and organizations, particularly student support and engagement services, to maximize their positive contributions towards student retention and engagement efforts.
GOALS
- Fill the move-in weekend “gap.”
- Launch a reimagined URW fall kick-off event.
- Identify strategies to interest and engage Gen Z students.
- Reach attendance of at least 500 students.
- Enhance move-in weekend and encourage investment in CSU.
- Build awareness of URW offerings to grow participation.
- Contribute to increasing Rec Center student traffic by 10% for the Fall semester.
- Increase participation in URW programs by at least 10% for the Fall semester.
SOLUTIONS IMPLEMENTED
Timing Shift of Fall Kick-Off Event
URW strategically moved its annual Fall kick-off event to the Sunday afternoon of move-in weekend, directly addressing a gap period identified by Undergraduate Admissions that needed to be filled. Accompanying the time shift, URW also revamped the long-standing event format that was “Rock the Rec” into an event named “All That’s Green Is Gold.”
Reimagine Fall Kick-Off Event for Gen Z
URW’s Fall kick-off event was redesigned entirely with intentionality and specific goals to resonate with Gen Z students’ diverse interests. It is also worth noting that several other elements detailed throughout this case study were chosen with Gen Z students in mind.
- Primary Focus: Pure Enjoyment, No Pretense
The core aim was to provide students with a genuinely good time, free from any overt promotional agenda. To achieve this, external departments and organizations were not permitted to table or directly advertise during the event. Instead, a “sponsorship” model was adopted, allowing university departments to run activities and gain recognition on event materials without direct sales pitches. This approach proved highly successful, contrasting with the typical university event model that often includes off-putting sales elements.
- Secondary Focus: Subtle Showcase of URW
The event indirectly highlighted URW’s offerings and facilities in ways that enhanced the experience without overshadowing the primary focus. This included utilizing spaces for their intended sports and activities (such as basketball, pickleball, and setting up the mocktail bar on the “Green Roof” patio), ensuring fall marketing materials were in place around the facility for widespread visibility, and creating event activities derived from URW programs and classes, such as the boxing challenge (derived from Pink Gloves Boxing), hosting an e-sports tournament with our club and varsity e-sports teams, and running a dodgeball tournament through the Club Dodgeball team.
Create a More Immersive Experience
Creating an immersive experience involves designing an environment, event or situation that fully captivates a person’s senses, blurring the lines between reality and the crafted experience, making them feel truly present and involved.
Key characteristics that contribute to an immersive experience include:
- Sensory Engagement: It stimulates multiple senses like sight, sound, touch, and even smell, and taste to create a rich and realistic experience.
- Presence: It fosters a feeling of actually being within the experience rather than merely observing it. This can be achieved through technologies like VR or AR, or thoughtfully designed physical spaces and activities.
- Emotional Connection: It evokes emotions and forges a bond with the experience, ensuring it remains memorable and impactful.
- Interactivity: It empowers participants to interact with the environment and influence the unfolding experience, enhancing their sense of agency and involvement.
The ultimate goal of crafting an immersive experience lies in transporting participants to another “world,” leaving a lasting impression and cultivating a deeper level of engagement. CENTERS @ CSU successfully created a more immersive experience with the “All That’s Green Is Gold” event in the following ways:
Wearing Green & Gold “Swag” (CSU’s colors) Creating the event atmosphere and carrying out the theme started well before the event took place and relied on attendees to participate by wearing green. Several marketing efforts and communications were distributed to encourage students to create green costumes, don their favorite green garb, or simply accessorize their outfits with green. URW also gave away green “swag” as students entered the event, including:
- Custom CSU-themed reversible bucket hats (a popular and trendy item for Gen Z)
- Green beads
- Green glow necklaces
- Green glow bracelets
- Green leis
- Green branded sunglasses
Combo Theme: Hollywood + Lock-In + Club
“Walk the Green Carpet” – the largest overall feature of the event was a Green Carpet Walk, complete with a 90-foot green runner, green up lighting, and dedicated photo stops manned by photographers to create a feeling of walking an event press circuit. Each photo stop had its own backdrop or photo element tied to Cleveland State to further integrate the theme with the university, including life-sized “C-S-U” letters, logo backdrops, themed selfie frames, and a 360-degree photo platform. Another aspect of the combo theme that made this event unique was the after-hours “lock-in” element. Taking place after the Rec Center was closed for the day and only allowing students to attend created a feeling of exclusivity and contributed to the uniqueness of the experience for students. The third element of the combo theme derived from dance clubs and primarily focused on music.
Surround Sound
Music is essential for creating an exciting and immersive experience and this event was no different. All-encompassing sound that filled the facility was also an essential element in fulfilling our vision for the event as part dance club. Via a DJ, upbeat contemporary music was played loud enough to be heard throughout the entire facility for the duration of the event. This not only accomplished an integral part of the overall sensory experience but also greatly contributed energy to the atmosphere being created. Outdoor spaces also featured music for a consistent atmosphere and ambiance.
Decorations Tied to Cleveland State (green and gold)
Often underrated or overlooked, decorating the lobby and other parts of the Rec Center was a crucial part of creating an exciting environment for attendees and directly connected the event to CSU. Students were greeted immediately with a fully decorated entry: balloons and paper spheres in green and gold were strung in lines overhead across the lobby, decorative balloon stands flanked the check-in table and entry, and paper flag and crepe paper garlands were strung along railings and overhangs to set the tone. For grand impact, a 16-by-12-foot logo fabric welcome arch (borrowed from Undergraduate Admissions) was also installed as part of the entryway.
Throughout the facility, tables were dressed in black tablecloths with green and gold centerpieces, crepe paper swags were hung along mirrors, balloon stands punctuated key event features, green and gold foil curtains hung in doorways, and colorful green-and-gold event signage hung throughout the building to help direct students around the event, identify spaces and activities, and add to the overall decorative theme.
Unique, Diverse, and Interactive Activities
It was vital for the “All That’s Green Is Gold” event to appeal to a diverse population of students, not just those who might assume it was a sports-and-fitness-type event because it was being hosted at the Rec Center. Additionally, it was important to ensure the very large international student population on campus felt included and welcome, as well. Lastly, being the inaugural year for this event, it was particularly important to the team that the event be especially memorable and set a rousing, positive tone to kick off the semester. Therefore, URW intentionally included activities and features that were unique, diverse, and interactive, but also representative of their programs and amenities related to wellness and being active.
- Primary event features included: “Green Carpet” walk; custom reversible bucket hats; rooftop mocktail bar; tattoo “parlor”; e-sports tournament; dodgeball tournament; money machine; and the CSU food truck, “The Longship” with free food vouchers and outdoor picnic space
- Additional games and activities: mini chair massages; zero-gravity massage chairs; boxing challenge; 3-point and free throw tournaments; pickleball; volleyball; badminton; wallyball; putting games; bocce ball; pool tables; foosball & air hockey tables; table tennis; board game room; cornhole; shuffleboard toss; giant Jenga; giant Connect 4
Themed Details
The devil is in the details. It’s very often the smaller details that take an event to the next level. Some of the themed details that were implemented include:
- Themed mocktails served at the Rooftop Mocktail Bar
- Viking-themed temporary tattoos for the tattoo “parlor”
- CSU and URW-themed prizes and giveaways
- Green- and gold-wrapped candies throughout the facility
- Snack-sized bags of regular and sour cream and onion Lay’s potato chips (green and gold bags)
- Free cotton candy (donated by Dining Services)
- Additional photo ops
RESULTS
Event Highlights and Outcomes
The inaugural “All That’s Green Is Gold” event surpassed all expectations and was a huge success for URW and the university thanks to the CENTERS @ CSU team’s efforts, as well as their collaborations with several university partners on campus.
Key highlights and outcomes include:
- 816 students attended the event, exceeding the goal (500), including 456 RSVPs in advance .
- “Sold out” of all 250 food vouchers within the first 20 minutes.
- “Sold out” of all 500 custom bucket hats within the first 30 minutes.
- 3,000+ pieces of green swag were given out.
- 65 students participated in the Boxing Challenge, which ran the full duration of the event.
- Nearly 40 students participated in the Money Machine contest, which ran non-stop (not including resetting) for the 2-hour “qualifying” period before giving the top 3 finalists their chance to win the grand prize.
- 900+ “Walk the Green Carpet” photos and 600+ event photos and videos captured.
- More than 110 post-survey responses with an 87% satisfaction rate.
Additionally, the event delivered extremely well on the initial measurable goals related to attendance, building awareness of URW offerings, and growing participation:
- Event attendance surpassed the goal of 500 students by more than 63%.
- URW came very close to reaching its goal of increasing Rec Center traffic by 10% for Fall. An overall increase in foot traffic of 9% during the Fall 2023 semester versus Fall 2022 was reported, which correlates with the inaugural” All That’s Green Is Gold event” – 44% of the increase in foot traffic took place in September which correlates to the timing of the event
- Lastly, URW far surpassed its goal of increasing participation in programs and classes by at least 10% for the Fall semester. An 18.4% increase in participation for the Fall 2023 semester versus Fall 2022 was reported, which also correlates with the inaugural “All That’s Green Is Gold” event.
Green to the Max!
As mentioned, creating the event atmosphere and carrying out the theme started well before the event took place and relied on attendees to participate by wearing green – and they came through in a big way. Almost everyone in attendance wore some sort of green outfit, costume, or accessories in addition to the green “swag” and buckets that we handed out.
Strengthened University Partnerships
Through the development of the “All That’s Green Is Gold” event, URW strengthened its relationships with several key departments on campus—chief among them were Undergraduate Admissions, Dining Services, University Marketing, Residence Life and Housing, and Hospitality and Campus Services. Collaboration with these departments not only helped identify the need to engage students on the Sunday of move-in weekend but also led to solutions that greatly enhanced the student experience on campus through the “All That’s Green Is Gold” event. It would not have been as successful without the support of these departments, truly making it a university-wide collaborative event.
CONCLUSION
The inaugural “All That’s Green Is Gold” event at Cleveland State University proved to be a remarkable success, surpassing expectations in terms of attendance, student engagement, and overall impact. By strategically addressing the move-in weekend gap and reimagining the traditional fall kick-off event, URW effectively tackled the challenges of declining student interest and participation while enhancing the on-campus experience for students and building investment in the university. The event’s focus on pure enjoyment, subtle showcasing of URW offerings, and creating an immersive experience resonated strongly with Gen Z students. The positive outcomes, including increased Rec Center traffic and program participation, highlight the event’s contribution to student retention and engagement efforts. The success of “All That’s Green Is Gold” underscores the importance of understanding both university and student needs, fostering collaboration across university departments, and aligning all these elements to achieve meaningful and lasting impacts. The event serves as a model for future events and initiatives aimed at enhancing the student experience and promoting a vibrant campus community.
About the Author:
Matt Schmiedl has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and graphic design working in a variety of industries and sectors, most notably higher education and publishing. He has been working with CENTERS, LLC for more than a decade at Cleveland State University (CSU), leading marketing and business development on behalf of the University Recreation and Wellbeing department. He has developed and launched a number of initiatives to catalyze business growth and implemented new marketing strategies to build engagement with both the CSU and Cleveland communities. Most recently, Mr. Schmiedl was tapped to lead Enterprise marketing efforts for CENTERS as he brings his marketing expertise to new and existing CENTERS’ clients. Matt is a nine-time NIRSA Creative Excellence Award recipient, the recipient of the CENTERS Quest for X Award in 2017, and the winner of an APEX Award of Excellence and Magnum Opus Honorable Mention Award, both in 2011.