Summer Seminar Highlights

Our fall issue of The Lawlor Review will provide a complete synopsis of the ideas and issues addressed at last month's Summer Seminar and pre-seminar workshops, but in the meantime, here are a few of the intriguing marketing-oriented tidbits that were revealed by our presenters:

Amanda Lenhart (Pew Internet & American Life Project)

• Content creation is "the new big way teens are using the Internet," as 57 percent of online teens express themselves by posting photos, video, stories, artwork, and music.
• E-mail is less effective than it once was, with more teens shifting toward text messaging and posting on social networks.
• Teens "have a weariness regarding unsolicited contact" and appreciate social networks as "a place where they can interact with their friends and be left alone by marketers," so the best practice is to give them a chance to tell you how they would like you to communicate with them by offering them choices for how to opt in.

Chris Carson (Campus Tours, Inc.)

• Virtual tours ideally operate on two levels—both for those taking an approximately eight-minute "first look" at a campus before visiting it physically, and for those who return to explore more deeply as they refine their college choices.
• Examples of some of the most impressive virtual tours are infused with the culture and voices of the campus community.

Presentation: Recasting the Campus Visit Experience for the Stealth Marketplace (.pdf, 1.3 MB)

Nina Hale (Nina Hale Consulting)

• Destination schools, online schools and schools that target their ads to a specific geographic area are all using pay-per-click sponsored links on search engines like Google.
• Electronic marketing tactics, like sponsoring user-generated content contests, creating affinity groups on social networking sites, podcasting, mobile advertising, and buying "real estate" in Second Life, represent opportunities for colleges and universities to creatively tap into Web 2.0 technologies.

Presentations: Generating Leads through Search Engine Marketing (.pdf, 3.4 MB) and Building Your Institutional Brand Online (.pdf, 2.9 MB)

André Bell (The College Board)

• Because of demographic changes (more racial diversity, less affluence), "the current college-bound pool is insufficient to achieve enrollment and societal goals," so schools will need to work to expand this pool.
• Removing barriers to college access for low-income and minority students means focusing more on K-12 preparation, admission and financial aid policies and processes, and retention.
• State policy trends could "increase the social acceptability of starting at two-year community colleges," so other institutions will need to pay more attention to transfer populations.

Presentation: Transformation and Change: Charting a Course in Challenging Demographic and Policy Currents (.pdf, 15.4 MB)

Tim Malefyt (BBDO Worldwide)

• Because rituals have the power to make life meaningful, anchoring your institution's brand story in public and private rituals can create a larger emotional whole.
• Colleges and universities need rituals and narratives that can shape a unique and memorable campus experience.
• While "traditions" can seem old and stagnant, rituals can (and must) be kept contemporary.

Presentation: The Power of Rituals in Building A Brand Identity (.pdf, 2.9 MB)

George Kuh (National Survey of Student Engagement)

• The U.S. Secretary of Education is pushing for "a robust culture of accountability and transparency" in higher education, so "wise decisions are needed about what to measure in the context of campus mission, values and desired outcomes."
• Because indicators of college persistence and success are so closely linked to student engagement, NSSE measures student-faculty contact, active learning, prompt feedback, time on task, high expectations, experiences with diversity, and cooperation among students.
• Finding: A smaller institutional size is generally better for student engagement.

Presentation: Student Success in College: Lessons from NSSE (.pdf, 2.8 MB)

Jon McGee (College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University)

• Defining oneself as "middle class" is more about social and cultural values than income or wealth. The professional middle class sets the trends for lifestyle in America, and they have "a large and loud political voice."
• The middle class has, if not an inability, then at least an unwillingness, to save—yet they qualify for little or no need-based financial aid, so 76 percent of parents with children likely to attend college are worried about their ability to pay for a college education.
• Sixty percent of Americans believe the middle class is hit hardest when it comes to paying for college. Coupled with demographic trends that foresee a rising demand for need-based aid, this perception suggests "an expensive and looming two-front battle."

Presentation: Educationomics — Mean, Median, Middle: What Does It Really Mean? (.pdf, 108 KB)

Lloyd Thacker (The Education Conservancy)

• It can be argued that turning education into an industry (complete with test prep, independent counselors, financial modeling consultants, and ranking publications) is undermining educational values (such as the idea that education is a process and not a product).
• The Education Conservancy is working to eliminate rankings that oversimplify and mislead because "colleges' competitive acts of rationality have resulted in collective irrationality" for the higher education industry.

Jennifer Delahunty Britz (Kenyon College)

• To be an advocate for change in recruitment methods means resisting the "cult of celebrity" and realizing that "selectivity is a scourge." Rather, conduct outreach efforts in the belief that you can do well by doing good.
• Leadership also requires being transparent in terms of telling prospective students what you are looking for, and showing people what you do and why you do it.
• Possibilities: Have a "pre-qualification process" for applicants, so they can know if you will be saying "no" on fit; buck the bond-rating agencies as a driver of your efforts; be "market smart" and drop the programs/processes you don't have to do.

Pamela Jolicoeur (Concordia College)

• To succeed in the coming era of accountability and transparency, senior administrators at colleges and universities will need to be publicly engaged in evaluating quality. Instead of simply "railing against federal intrusion," they should lead the way on assessment.
• Making strategic investments in outcomes will most likely require cutting other costs, stopping the tuition discounting competition and growing endowments.

David Laird (Minnesota Private College Council)

• Colleges and universities should "stop portraying ourselves as victims"; presidents and trustees must find their voices as public leaders and be proactive in educating those in control about opportunities.
• Colleges and universities must restore public trust by valuing the transformations they create in their students, rather than focusing so much attention on "reputation."
• "The best quality of education is neither efficient nor predictable."

Presentation: Presidential Panel Discussion notes (.pdf, 20KB)

In the News: "Wild" Suggestions for Reducing Admission Anxiety

Jay Mathews, the Washington Post education columnist, compiled the ideas of parents, students, counselors and admission officers who contribute to his online discussion group into a list of "Ten Ways to Reduce College Application Stress," with "some of them pretty reasonable, others kind of wild." Among the more intriguing items were "make the super selective colleges tell all potential applicants that their admissions processes are often irrational and that getting accepted is akin to winning a lottery," and have parents and students "repeat this phrase every day: In America, people succeed because of the quality of their character, not the notoriety of their college."

Did You Know?

A recent national survey of 1,814 students in grades 7 and 8 revealed that 55 percent of these students say they definitely will attend college, and another 37 percent say they will probably attend college. However, 68 percent reported having little or no information about how to select high school classes that will prepare them to attend college.

Source: Harris Interactive