What guidelines do you use when including students of color and their contributions in SFCC’s marketing materials?

SFCC’s Marketing and Public Relations Department focuses primarily on students of color in College marketing material. In the formulation of marketing decisions, MPR examines race, ethnicity, gender identity and other aspects of institutional data to ensure marketing material is proportionate to the populations we serve. In addition, we also recognize that the very institutional nature of “college” and “higher education” is systemically biased against students of color (and exacerbated during the pandemic) and impacts people of color disproportionately. In order to uproot systemic bias we must continue to push even harder to present and build SFCC as a space where students of color (as well as students from all overlooked and underserved areas) can feel at home. 

We exercise these equity guidelines in many forms, including the photos we select for marketing collateral, the choices of regional accents and inflections of the voice talent for radio and TV spots, providing Spanish translation when appealing to Spanish-as-a-first-language individuals, and maximizing our marketing collateral for the media consumption behaviors of people of color (for example: students of color rely on mobile technology at higher rates, thus we primarily design our digital projects as “mobile first.” 

We carefully monitor that college marketing materials accurately reflect the classes, services and outcomes we promise to deliver. We also use these marketing interactions to gather data and other information in order to continuously hone the quality and efficiency of future ca((MPA))igns and further appeal to the needs and aspirations of our students of color.