Category: Blog

Rethinking Your Approach to Corporate Donors

Corporations are giving less frequently this year and in smaller amounts, and in many cities the corporate landscape has changed dramatically during this recession due to mergers, consolidations, and bailouts. In an editorial this week, the CEO of Western Union suggested that universities and other nonprofits need to seek out more holistic and intentional partnerships with corporate donors. Caroline Preston’s op ed is timely and implies a broader question — how can universities take stock of what has changed and adjust their approach to corporate donors accordingly? Chris Groff, executive director of corporate and foundation relations at Fairleigh Dickinson University, offers advice for how shops need to re-engineer their approach to cultivating and stewarding corporate donors this year. Profile Your Top 50 “Who are your top 50 corporations that you want to do business with? Update a profile for each of those.” Chris Groff, Fairleigh Dickinson U Given the extent of recent changes in the corporate environment — mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical industry; mergers, bailouts, and takeovers in the banking industry — Groff suggests that the most pressing need is to recalibrate your prospect list. “You need to know who is still viable, and who is not, and you need to start looking […]

Contract Training in a Changing Economy

An Inside Higher Ed article this week noted that with fewer large businesses influencing workforce training, many colleges engaged in contract training are shifting their approach away from serving larger employers and toward serving as a training “hub” for numerous smaller businesses. We reached out to Leah Kier, community outreach and custom training director for the University of New Mexico’s continuing education division, and Amy Wartham, director of corporate training for the office of continuing education at the U of North Carolina at Charlotte Ben Craig Center, for their advice on how colleges (including four-year institutions) need to shift their contract training approach to be effective in both meeting the needs of this changing economy and identifying new revenue streams. Revisit Your Offerings The reality in most regions is that corporations have cut back severely on their training budgets. Wartham notes that many large organizations are internalizing their training, rather than outsourcing to vendors or universities. And smaller organizations with fewer staff are not likely to find the expense of a university course to be an effective training solution. Kier and Wartham recommend reinvesting your existing resources, transitioning from offering customized training courses toward more consultative services. For example, you can […]

Speaking with Applicants and Admits About Financial Aid

by W. Kent Barnds

The 2010 Student Poll published by the College Board and Art & Science Group, LLC confirms that most college applicants are dismissing colleges from their list on the basis of sticker price, without considering net price. The study also finds that applicants are nonetheless willing to attend a higher-priced school for: In this article, W. Kent Barnds, vice president of enrollment and communication at Augustana College and Robert Massa, vice president for communications at Lafayette College, share their tips for smaller, liberal arts institutions on how to approach the conversation about net price and financial aid with applicants. No Silver Bullet There are standard ways to help educate the public about the sticker price/net price difference: But Barnds and Massa warn that these methods do not address the real issue, and they share concern that polls and media (as well as federal) attention to the problem of communicating net price to the public actually focuses attention on a “red herring.” “Providing a net price calculator is not enough,” Massa warns. “Because you will package students differently, there may be so many packaging options that would change the cost to families — and a student’s total college expense is affected also by personal and […]

Recruiting Men: Four Strategies

by W. Kent Barnds

In this article, W. Kent Barnds, vice president for enrollment, communication, and planning at Augustana College, offers four key strategies for boosting enrollment of undergraduate men: Audit Your Academic Offerings Traditionally, colleges hoping to boost the number of men on campus make significant investments in men’s athletics. For example, Hendrix College and Stevenson University have both recently added football. Barnds notes, though, that colleges need to be attentive not only to athletic/co-curricular offerings but also to their academic offerings. “Are you offering programs that are of interest to 17-year-old boys? Some assessment of that is essential to maintaining a critical mass of men on campus.”W. Kent Barnds, Augustana College Barnds cites the example of a college with an excellent occupational therapy program that enrolls 40 women each year — but it is a rarity to attract men to the program. Education and social work may be programs that see a similar mix. In this case, the college needs to identify programs that can be offered to help balance the mix. The college may need programs that traditionally appeal to both men and women equally. Or the college may need to add a few programs that appeal mostly to men. To audit […]

Safety and Risk Management Training for Faculty Leading Study Abroad: Part 1

May 2010. After some initial controversy over FERPA and student privacy, a set of documents from Laramie County Community College were made public, prompting a media flurry and providing a cautionary case of how one college may have mishandled a response to the suicidal behaviors of a student while leading a 2008 class trip to Costa Rica. The incident raises questions for institutions of higher education, including what training to provide for faculty and other trip leaders who are taking students abroad, so that trip leaders know how to respond in the event of an emergency and who to contact. The Chronicle of Higher Education noted that before Eastern Illinois University faculty members can teach courses overseas, they are required to complete a workshop on risk management and student health and safety. At Academic Impressions, we followed up with Wendy Williamson, director of study abroad at Eastern Illinois University, and Brent Barker, the University of Washington’s travel security and information manager, to learn: The Safety Workshop for Faculty Both Eastern Illinois University and the University of Washington require that faculty or study abroad program directors complete a several-hour safety and risk management workshop prior to the trip. The University of Washington also requires that […]

Positioning IT as a Strategic Partner on Campus

Though institutions of higher education are increasingly looking for technological solutions to strategic challenges, downgrades in the rank of the chief information officer at institutions such as MIT and the University of Chicago raise questions about the CIO’s role in university leadership. While there isn’t any conclusive data to suggest that the CIO role is shrinking, concerns voiced over that possibility do serve to direct increased attention to one of IT’s pressing challenges: that is, how to position the CIO, and the broader IT organization, as a strategic partner within the institution. We turned to Gene Spencer, principal of Gene Spencer Consulting and a lead thinker on IT management, for practical advice on how chief information officers can grow, rather than shrink, their role. Missed Opportunities “Running an IT organization is about relationships first, then technology.”Gene Spencer, Gene Spencer Consulting Spencer suggests that CIOs who see their role shrinking may need to first look at their own approach to key interactions with partners across the institution. Common mistakes that a CIO can make which actually reduce his or her ability to engage with key decision-makers (and be seen as a strategic partner) include: The most critical thing is to shift your focus […]

Avoiding a Media Relations Crisis: Lessons Learned from Laramie County Community College

After some initial controversy over FERPA and student privacy, a set of documents from Laramie County Community College were made public, prompting a media flurry and providing a cautionary case of how one college may have mishandled a response to the suicidal behaviors of a student while leading a 2008 class trip to Costa Rica. The incident raises several questions for institutions of higher education, including: We asked leading crisis communications expert Cindy Lawson (with the University of North Carolina Wilmington) to address that second question, and to identify what lessons other institutions can learn from these recent events. Lessons Learned: Cindy Lawson’s Analysis Cindy Lawson: “Students are colleges’ and universities’ top priority, and as such, these institutions always are concerned about (1) the safety of their students; and (2) the privacy of those students as guarded under FERPA. To be sure, names of students and other individuals always can be redacted for ‘privacy’ reasons from any document, just as they were in this case, but redaction doesn’t guarantee privacy. Indeed, colleges and universities get concerned, and rightfully so, that even with the names redacted, persistent reporters may be able to (and often do) connect the dots and figure out the names of one […]

Academic Advising for Adult Learners

The Chronicle of Higher Education recently highlighted the diverse needs of adult learners, noting the importance of developing course rotations, a broader approach to remediation, and advising strategies that make sense for returning adults and are tailored to their diverse sets of needs. We turned to Denise Hart, director of adult education and creator of the Success Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, to learn more, asking for specific advice on removing barriers to adult learner success. While course rotation and flexible scheduling are essential, the single most critical step, Hart suggests, is to take a “high-touch approach” to academic advising for adult learners. Recruit the Right Advisors “It takes a certain type of individual with certain skills to be an academic advisor for adult students.” Denise Hart, Fairleigh Dickinson U Hart recommends identifying potential advisors who, at a minimum: Know the academic program very well Are intuitive thinkers Are strong interviewers “Advising adult students is not a matter of memorizing curricula,” Hart warns. “Your advisors need to have people skills, and they need to be able to open an in-depth conversation with adult learners about their goals, their life situation, and their needs.” Hart recommends that your advisors identify themselves […]

Business Intelligence: Making Data Reporting More Effective

Attention to analytics for higher education is growing. Campus Technology recently published an intriguing interview with Florida State University, highlighting the success of FSU’s initiative to build end user ownership of data reporting, and Tech Therapy this week podcasted an interview with the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on making the transition from reliance on anecdotal evidence to reliance on ready and available data. While the Campus Technology article focused on the technological solution employed, Brian Parish, president of IData Incorporated, suggests that for institutions that are revisiting their data reporting, process and communication may be more critical to sharing knowledge across your institution than the tools and technology that will provide the vehicles for that sharing. Here are Parish’s tips for making data reporting more effective. Shift the Focus from Data to Information “Reporting is not a technology problem. The barrier is knowledge; you need to create reports that help end clients solve problems, and this means you need to help the end user frame the question. You need to understand the purpose of the report, why they need this. You need to share information, not just data.” Brian Parish, IData Incorporated Parish suggests the need to encourage […]

Recruiting Chinese Students

We have seen enrollment commitments, aspirational statements, and recruiting plans focused on Chinese students at institutions across the US. However, few colleges and universities in the US have developed a strong tradition of marketing to Chinese students. In a recent conversation with Academic Impressions, Tom Melcher, chairman of Zinch China (an entity that offers services to assist Chinese families with college choice and helps admissions officers in the US identify their best-fit Chinese candidates), offered practical advice for how institutions new to recruiting in the Chinese market can: Target a Specific Chinese Market Melcher suggests that these three questions are critical to targeting your recruiting effort: First, Melcher warns that Chinese is not a single language, and you need to be very clear whether you are recruiting students from Hong Kong or Taiwan, or from the mainland. “Hong Kong and Taiwan read and speak a different language from the mainland,” Melcher advises, “with more complex characters. The two languages are more different than the Spanish spoken in Spain and the Spanish spoken in Mexico, which at least are the same written language.” It is critical to make sure your marketing materials are in the right language for the right audience. It […]