We’re now entering the second-half of the academic year and many of you are probably realizing that your programming budgets aren’t taking you as far as they used to. With deep budget cuts affecting universities across the nation, programming and student activities budgets can sometimes be the easiest for administrators to cut. But we still need to create fun, effective and educational programs for students. Below are some strategies that programmers use on my campus to cut costs and still run thousands of successful programs.

Believe it or not your speaker or other campus guest cares whether or not you get a good turn-out for your event. And many speakers are willing to get involved and help you promote your event to students, faculty, staff and the local community in any way they can. The best speakers know what draws people to their events and are often willing to devote extra time to insure your success.

What the….? “Where’s the Fun?” is NOT the first thing I thought when I saw these four t-shirts comin’ at me. Then I thought, “How the… are they getting away with that?” Followed immediately by, “Oh, I gotta ask!” — “Hey! You guys! What the…?” — That’s a conversation starter every time – especially in New York City!

If you have access to a student email list on your campus, this simple but effective triple-action, strategy can put it to efficient use. By composing a repetitive, three-part email campaign to promote your campus speaker everybody will get the details about your event in logical intervals. Conducting a triple action campaign is as easy as 1, 2, 3.

It can be hard to get students to come to a speaker-based event – no matter how well you’ve planned it. You’ve got to overcome that fact that they’ve been sitting in class all week and WILL NOT come to another boring lecture. First, don’t pick a boring speaker and second promote the heck out of it using every available channel. Budgets are tight, but these low-cost (and sometimes free) ideas can have a huge impact on the attendance at any student activities event.

When the outcome is on you, you may feel pulled in a thousand directions dealing with all the details, disruptions, headaches and nightmares of your next campus event. Dealing with the details is necessary, but we can do without the disruptions, headaches and nightmares. Let’s go for ‘teamwork,’ ‘smooth sailing,’ and ‘a good time was had by all’ with these six ‘big picture’ leadership tips.

If you’re gonna pull of your next campus event you need everybody’s support! The faculty, the staff, the dean, the chancellor, the provost, the president, the librarian, the janitor, the lawn maintenance guys – I mean everybody! We spend lots of effort trying to get students to attend, but what if we got professors, staff and advisors totally on board?!

I got this e-mail from a frustrated Student Affairs Coordinator in Florida: “How do you keep from feeling as though NOTHING IS WORKING, when you follow all the steps and STILL staff and faculty AND STUDENTS do not participate and even go so far as to say (1) “No one told me,” or (2) “I never read those e-mails anyway.”?

When you bring in a speaker for your next event consider all the costs involved. By considering everything up front, you can reduce costs by a significant amount. From travel fees to follow up surveys, there are countless places to reduce the costs especially if you’ll consider these easy tips to slash prices.