ENMU offering online tours of campus

PORTALES — Thanks to a new online virtual tour, you don’t have to come to Portales to visit the campus of Eastern New Mexico University.

Since the end of November, prospective out-of-state and international students and their families have been able to explore ENMU’s classrooms, residence halls, athletic facilities and more, all from the comfort of their own home.

“Basically it allows students from all over the state, all over the region and all over the world to see our campus ... So it really opens our doors to students from anywhere in the world to come take a look at Eastern New Mexico University,” said John Houser, ENMU assistant vice president of marketing and communication.

Available at enmu.edu/virtualtour, the tour contains over a dozen stops, each with 360-degree panorama images of campus spaces that visitors can explore by clicking and dragging.

As you take the tour, a narrator explains the background of every campus spot you visit, which includes the recently renovated Golden Student Success Center and lesser-known locations like the bonebed at the Blackwater Draw site and the KENW television studio.

“It really showcases areas the people even in our community might not have seen before, so it’s really a very well put-together tour,” Houser said.

Houser said since the virtual tour went live on the university’s website on Nov. 28, there have been nearly 2,200 visitors averaging 5 1/2 minutes with 27 interactions, meaning they’ve clicked on 27 of the tour stops or additional photos and videos like interviews with ENMU students.

Jeff Elwell, president of ENMU-Portales and chancellor of the three college system, said the school believes that once prospective students visit campus they won’t want to leave. But for many of the out-of-state students the university is trying to recruit, physically coming to campus is not a realistic option.

So he said the next best thing is to be able to see images of the campus, hoping the online tour will help drive up recruitment.

“Those students that are attracted to us for our programs or our cost or a combination of both, they’ll be able to see what the campus really looks like. And we think that will help us convert interest into enrollment,” Elwell said.