In a recent Chronicle article about the “crisis” of higher education, Lisa Schoenbach wrote that “the days are gone when scholars and teachers could afford to work in ignorance of or disdain for their universities’ decisions about budgets, outreach and lobbying. We need to understand the interrelations between the life of the mind and the…Read more
Author: Amy Mallory-Kani
The College Choice Conundrum
We travel extensively to college campuses around the country to listen to students, faculty, staff and administrators speak about their experiences. During discussions with students, we always ask about how they ended up at x, y or z university and what helped them to make that decision. In a recent session, we heard one student…Read more
CRM as Technology and Strategy: A Core Value of Student Success
A few months ago, the Chronicle highlighted recent efforts by the University of Maine to centralize its processes and programs through an initiative called “One University.” This initiative not only creates system-wide efficiencies, but also breaks down barriers to student success. As Lee Gardner wrote in the piece, “bringing more students into a traditional ecosystem of individual state universities that duplicate the same sorts of programs and resources,” might tentatively improve enrollment, but it could never fix systemic issues relating to student recruitment, persistence and overall satisfaction…Read more
Knowledge Is Power, But Power Can Be Knowledge, Too
Traditionally, colleges and universities have communicated with prospects by illustrating that they offer something powerful that can quite literally change the course of your life. And that “something” is knowledge, expertise and the ability to apply those elements to careers, graduate study or to life more generally. Put differently, colleges and universities often (rightly) believe that they empower students to think, create or act in ways that they may have never imagined. But what happens if students are already empowered?…Read more
Aligning Position, Product, Delivery, and Message: Are You Student-Ready?
It has become commonplace to discuss whether prospective students are “college-ready,” especially in terms of academic preparation. But, are American colleges today “student-ready,” that is, prepared to meet the academic and social needs of rapidly changing demographics ? Prospective students and parents expect to see institutions promoting their “academic excellence.” But what, exactly, does this mean? Terms like these, while they look good on paper, are empty of content. That is, they fail to fully articulate a differentiated market position (and they do little to address the specifics of student-learning)…Read more
Taking the Long View on the Liberal Arts
There has been a persistent stigma amongst liberal arts colleges associated with discussing “vocationalism,” the idea that liberal arts colleges should offer career development training for students. Many liberal arts colleges worry that such training, which generally focuses on resume-building, networking, and other forms of professionalization, could usurp the preparation that students receive more generally for their lives as critical thinkers and citizens…Read more
When Marketing Your College or University, Don’t Just Be Distinctive; Be Avant-Garde
In 1913, the American art world was rocked by a major exhibit that has come down to us as a pivotal moment in the history of American culture. Known as the “Armory Show” because it was held in the expansive rooms of the U.S. National Guard armories in New York City, the exhibit showcased work…Read more