bodner089

Back in August, I recommended that readers take a look at a video posted online by my friend, Bill Sams.   If you haven’t watched it, check it out at www.epic2020.org .   On the Epic web site, you’ll find links to other sites of interest. In the Epic 2020 video, Sams drew on recent and current events to forecast a radically different environment for higher education, by the year 2020.   Regardless of your personal point of view, and certainly regardless of what you want the future to be, I think Sams captures trends that deserve attention.   The video has been viewed over 40,000 times, so lots of people are paying attention. Now, Sams has posted a new video, providing a “…concise view of what has already happened.”   The video, which is a brief, Ted-type lecture, leads to the conclusion that 2012 may actually be the tipping point, following which traditional higher education will be forever changed.   Check the video at http://epic2020.o...

Early in my administrative career I became interested in marketing.   Before a new campus dean and I were appointed, the campus had drifted toward the low end of its enrollment cycle, which also contributed to a budget deficit.   I don’t remember how I moved from thinking about recruitment and retention to educating myself on marketing, but when I did, I found a natural fit for a psychologist interested in social behavior. I don’t want to overstate my own marketing contribution, because we had staff working on marketing and advertising, and we also used a local marketing firm.   However, I did a lot of reading, and I talked with anyone I thought could help us.   I also think I brought some leadership, in terms of linking marketing with academic and other strategies. The single most useful thing I did was to create a marketing advisory committee, including several small business executives.   These folks gave me a master class in marketing, and...