Question

You are the President of University of California, Cotati (fictitious).  

Since inception in 1911, UC Cotati has been confronted with a problem of low student application rate.  Among the low student application rates, the proportion of qualified student applicants has also been really low, unlike those of other UC campuses.

All other UC campuses have been able to attract a large number of qualified student applicants, statewide and internationally. As a matter of fact, reputations of other UCs alone have been sufficient to attract overwhelming number of qualified student applicants toward them each year without having to do any outreach activities.  Typically, UC Cotati does little to no student outreach as it has never given a sufficient budget to do a major outreach.

UC Cotati has long established all the same schools and departments that UC Berkeley and UCLA have.  For example, School of Business, School of Social Sciences, School of Engineering, etc.  And, all facilities built on UC Cotati have been state-of-the-art and can rival those of UC Berkeley and UCLA.  UC Cotati has share the same or similar admission criteria as those of UC Berkeley and UCLA.  UC Cotati’s real estate size and facilities can very well accommodate a student body of over 25,000.  However, its student body has never exceeded 10,000.

The Chancellor’s office at Berkeley has informed you that if no continual and sustainable improvements on the number of student applicants (and admitted qualified students) can be reported over the next five to six years, UC Cotati shall be closed down permanently.

*  There are no standard right or wrong answers for this assignment.  The purpose of this assignment is to walk you through the process of a typical Decision-Making process shown above via a simplistic scenario description.

Based on the sequential decision-making stages shown above, please complete the following sequentially:

(You may and should state any assumptions that you have based your responses upon)

Identify and define UC Cotati’s problem:

Low applicant rate and low qualified student applicants

(Before determining several alternative solutions) Determine the criteria that will be used to evaluate alternative solutions:

Criterion 1: (Enter your response here)

Criterion 2: (Enter your response here)

Criterion 3: (Enter your response here)

Addition Criteria, if any: (Enter your response here)

Determine a set of alternative solutions:

Solution 1: (Enter your response here)

Solution 2: (Enter your response here)

Solution 3: (Enter your response here)

Addition Solutions, if any: (Enter your response here)

Evaluate Each and Every Alternative Solutions:

Evaluation of Solution 1: (Enter your response here)

Evaluation of Solution 2: (Enter your response here)

Evaluation of Solution 3: (Enter your response here)

Evaluation(s) of Addition Solution(s), if any: (Enter your response here)

Answer 1

UC Cotati's problem: Low applicant rate and low qualified student applicants

The several criteria that needs to be taken in to consideration to evaluate alternate solutions are:

1) Overall Applicant rate

2) Qualified Student Applications

3) Cost incurred

The various alternative solutions to address the situation are as follows:

1) Advertisement on TV: A detailed video of UC Cotati showcasing the entire campus along with the facilities and the courses available for the students will create awareness among the parents and the students encouraging them to apply for UC Cotati

2) Outreach via Newspapers, magazines and Pamphlets: The awareness of the UC Cotati's programs and facilities, though not in detail, could happen by showcasing the courses and facilities in newspapers, magazines, etc. Though the outreach would not be that wide and may or may not be impactful

3) Conducting Engagement programs to create awareness

The evaluation to each of the alternate solutions are as below:

1) Advertisement on TV: The cost incurred would be very high but it will lead to increase in the overall application rate as well as the qualified application rate

2) Outreach via Newspapers, magazines and pamphlets: The cost incurred would be comparatively low but the overall application rate and the qualified application rate would not increase substantially but rather gradually

3) Conducting Engagement Programs: The cost would be substantially low so would be the overall and qualified application rate

2)