RHB founder and principal Rick Bailey appeared on the IngenioUs podcast with host Dr. Melissa Morriss-Olson, provost emerita of Bay Path University, on July 27, 2020. · · · Transcript: Announcer: Hello and welcome to IngenioUs, the podcast where we talk about higher education, innovative practice and leading-edge thinking. Your host is Dr. Melissa Morriss-Olson.…Read more
Author: Rick Bailey
Four Ways to Think About Trimming Your Budget
For a period of years, I sported a combover. I was resistant to losing those strands that separated me from baldness. One day, as soon as I sat down in the chair, the stylist grabbed a fistful of long hairs flowing from the right side of my scalp and made two quick scissor snips. It…Read more
Are You Like Your Institution?
Your frontline sales staff carries the weight of finding, promoting, compelling, convincing, engaging and securing the members of the incoming class. That’s quite a load of responsibility to carry for people we often take for granted. Often, we consider these warriors as mere entry-level, low-salaried starters rather than the first faces of our institutions. I…Read more
Four Considerations for Engaging Your Campus Community
When it comes to communicating about your institution, you have thousands of mouths to feed. And most of the time, everyone is hungry. Right now, though, it may seem that there’s absolutely not enough of you to get to everyone who needs your attention. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents, prospects, donors, neighbors, community leaders, peers…Read more
How to Evaluate Your Scenarios for the Future
Almost every client we speak with right now is in the midst of creating, evaluating or focusing on scenarios to describe the path forward when limitations are lifted post-pandemic. Without knowing specific dates, details about anticipated economic recovery or ongoing health-related behavioral guidelines, we’re hearing from campus administrators who are stymied. We’ve been advising that…Read more
Five Assurance Messages to Help Secure Your Class
I’ve made fun of how many emails and spot ads begin with “in these unprecedented/uncertain/challenging times,” and I’m fairly tired of hearing that expression. It’s time to move on to what’s next. Assuring your customers at this critical moment will help everyone do so. At this time of year, even when you’re not facing challenges…Read more
The Next Best Thing
I’m guessing you don’t need one more person telling you how to manage through the COVID-19 pandemic or the economic downturn. I’m also guessing you’re close to your wit’s end wondering exactly what to do right now. The unknowns may be keeping you up at night. The knowns may be upsetting your stomach. My inbox…Read more
Four Tests You’re Taking Right Now
Talk about tests seems to be overtaking our conversations: the availability of COVID-19 tests, the time it takes to read them, the delivery options (drive-thru!) and the accuracy of the results. In higher ed, we’re talking about the value of standardized testing, the delay of testing and the consideration of optional submission of scores for…Read more
Looking Back to Move Forward
You may remember academic year 2008-09. If you worked in higher education then, you may recall that enrollment was gaining ground, money seemed abundant, recruitment and capital campaigns were robust, life was pretty good on campus. We were listening to concerns about a housing bubble bursting and watched banks begin to crumble. The more we…Read more
You Don’t Know What You Have
I often refer to that classic story of the man who spent his life in search of riches only to discover that his own home sat over a diamond mine. The lesson from the story popularized in the late 19th century by Russell Conwell, founder of Temple University, suggests that what we seek, particularly in…Read more