February 2, 2011:  Snow Day Thoughts

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported yesterday on the annual meeting of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, which triggered a few random thoughts on this snowy Groundhog Day, when I assume Phil popped his head out, thought, 'damn, it's cold and snowy.  Six more weeks of winter and revolution in Egypt.  Goodbye.'

First off, the public often perceives private colleges and universities as elitist, well-funded and prestigious (as with Harvard, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Cal-Berkeley, Notre Dame, and Vanderbilt).  The truth is that there are hundreds of private institutions that operate without the name and reputation of these other schools, and as a result often get "lumped" in with them during heated discourse.

In Michigan, this mis-perception of private institutions has been an on-going frustration as it relates to the Michigan Tuition Grant (MTG), a state-supported grant program designed to help students pay for education specifically at independent colleges and universities.  As the governor and state representatives struggle to balance the budget each year, the MTG is often a proposed target for cuts, as it seems "superfluous" to be giving money to students who must be wealthy enough or smart enough to get scholarships from the private colleges and universities.  And each year, the private institutions in Michigan descend upon Lansing armed with dozens of needy students to show that the MTG doesn't merely supplement the cost of tuition. It often is the primary source for tuition.

The Chronicle article cites a session from the NAICU meeting on branding (called "Image is Everything").  As previous blogs and It's All Academic have shown, I am generally a bit of a cynic when it comes to the amount of time spent by administrators on "determining the brand."  Still, the article cites one part of that session that I agree with: institutions need to better define themselves "by developing more coherent and consistent messages."  It frustrates me to review a university's website and see completely different messages from college to college or department to department.  Sometimes the differences aren't that significant, but if nothing else they are irritating.  Why is it that if I go to the English department's page and see faculty biographies, I can go to the math department's page and not see any reference to faculty. 

Does that consistency matter, especially to students?  I don't know, but I would have to think that with students who are "web savvy," this is very likely.

However, my favorite part of the Chronicle summary concerns points about leadership (after all, the attendees at the meeting were university presidents).  As you look at the list, you can't help but wonder, "duh? How can such well-educated leaders not know these things?"  We do know, however, that frequently the busy president (or CAO, or CFO, or any leader) forgets the importance of these:

• Avoiding the use of high-end rentals and hotels on retreats;
• Encouraging interaction with faculty and staff by both open-door policies and getting out to where the faculty and staff work;
• Coming at the end of events rather than coming at the beginning and leaving early, which suggests there are "better things to do."  I have seen the effects of this many times in my own career, and often did my best to attend for the entire event to show complete support;
• Defusing conflict early, especially be responding promptly to e-mails and phone calls.

Meanwhile, for the usual element of fun, read the comments to the Chronicle article to see how the sky is falling.