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In my last few posts I’ve emphasized the need for branch campus leaders to immerse themselves in data, studying enrollment trends in order to better understand changes that are unfolding across the country.   Recognizing trends is fundamental to effective strategic thinking. I’ve suggested some simple ways of following trends, also urging leaders to aggressively tell the story of how their campus contributes to the local community and serves an audience that is quite distinct from those seeking either a traditional residential experience or a fully online program.   Nevertheless, despite my belief that branch campuses serve an important mission and audience, I am concerned about their future, even as I observe the creation of new branches every year. To begin with, the continuing growth of online enrollment is bound to affect branch campuses.   Across the country, institutions struggle to maintain enrollment and balance their budgets, with the result th...

Touching on several subjects, mostly personal: A few days ago I passed 20,000 views on this blog.   Given how long I’ve been posting, 20,000 is anything but “viral,” but it pleases me that some people either subscribe/follow or simply stumble on the blog, and from the feedback I receive find it to be helpful.   Nice. Originally I started this blog to provide a service to the National Association of Branch Campus Administrators (NABCA), as well as to help me organize my thoughts for a book I wanted to write.   That book, Out on a Limb:   A Branch Campus Life was published almost two years ago, and I’m pleased to see that it continues to sell, in both print and electronic versions on Amazon. Speaking of NABCA, if you haven’t attended the conference, you should consider doing so ( www.nabca.net ).   Unfortunately, it often isn’t until a person attends that he or she realizes how valuable it can be to meet other people working in the branch world...

I feel as if I should offer an end-of-the-year post, but I don’t see a lot of change in the past twelve months that would affect what I wrote last year.   (See http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-few-end-of-year-thoughts-on-branch.html   and http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2014/12/a-few-more-end-of-year-thoughts-about.html ) I do have a couple of suggestions for people interested in branch campuses.   First, in the past I wrote about immersing yourself in data.   It is only by digging into the information available to you that you can confidently identify trends.   It is equally important to take a “macro” view of things that are happening broadly, so that you can see the bigger picture beyond your own situation. If you are looking for that macro perspective, you might consider using Google Alerts.   I have an alert for “branch campus,” and nearly every afternoon I get an email with one or more hits from the Internet that mention ...

Last time I wrote about planting seeds and suggested that the mission of branch campuses is to plant seeds in the lives of their students and then nurture their growth.   Keep in mind, however, that a “campus” is just a place; it is people who plant and nurture those seeds.   In that context, I want to acknowledge the importance of individuals who had the vision and determination to establish those branches and launch the opportunity for their contribution.   Anywhere you see a branch campus, you can be sure that the campus reflects someone’s vision for reaching out to serve place bound students.   The motivation for that vision may have been financial, political, or pushed by some other force.   Regardless, a seed was planted, an idea was nourished, and it made a difference. I feel drawn to offer a “shout out” to a few individuals who launched and built Ohio University’s branch campuses.   None of these men has a branch building, let alone a campus n...

I’ve mentioned this before, but it interests me that the most read post on this blog is the very first one, which followed an opening introduction.   That post concerned branch campus characteristics, and it has been viewed more than twice as often as any other.   It can be seen at http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2007/07/characteristics-of-branch-campus.html .   Dating back to 2007, it continues to get regular hits, which I assume means that I chose a good title that shows up on Google searches. Other frequently and persistently viewed posts mostly relate either to some aspect of branch characteristics, or to financial matters and revenue sharing.   With regard to branch characteristics, in presentations at NABCA and RBCA this year I discussed some emerging trends that I believe are worth watching.   (As usual, what I have to say represents personal observation, rather than any sort of systematic data collection.) One trend is to open branche...

The annual Regional and Branch Campus Administrators Conference (RBCA) just concluded today.  For a number of years the conference has been held in June, meeting at the Longboat Key Club resort, which is a stunning venue.  RBCA limits attendance to about 60 participants and typically has just one program track for everyone, which has worked well for this group. As usual, organizers did a fine job.  Jim Smith, campus dean at Ohio University Lancaster was the conference chair, and the program committee clearly worked hard to create a strong set of sessions.  I have attended RBCA most years since 1995, and I always have a great time.  Indeed, I believe that the annual NABCA and RBCA conferences are highly complementary, and I encourage branch leaders to consider attending one or both, whenever possible. This year, I provided the opening keynote, discussing my new book, as well as offering some thoughts on future opportunities and risks for branch campuses.  On...

Continuing to share from my personal experiences, I’ve been fortunate to visit a wide range of branch campuses both across the United States and internationally (Hong Kong, Russia, Mexico and Canada).   Some of the domestic visits tied to meetings of NABCA or RBCA, whereas others were consulting jobs, mostly over the last five years. The consulting work shaped my understanding and opinions more than I expected.   In the absence of a substantial literature or research that identifies best practices, institutions developed branches for their own reasons at varying times in their history.   Every institution I visited had a unique story to tell.   There were common themes, of course, such as struggling to bring programs from the main campus, wrestling with interference from certain main campus offices that think they know more about the branch audience than the people who work there, and making sure that courses and class schedules actually meet stude...

I consider myself to be an advocate for branch campuses.   At their best, branches create access and opportunity for individuals and contribute to the economic development of the communities they serve.   In Out on a Limb:   A Branch Campus Life I go into much more detail about why branches matter, but for present purposes the key point is that branches serve an audience that is different than the audiences served by a traditional main campus or by a fully online program.   There are excellent opportunities for campuses and programs to partner in multiple ways, but it is a mistake to overlook the differences. Institutional leaders certainly recognize that the world of higher education is much more complicated and more competitive than it was just a few years ago.   Count me among those who believe that the financial/business models are broken, and the impact of technology has forever changed delivery options in ways that are exciting but also...

Early feedback on my book, Out on a Limb:   A Branch Campus Life , has been gratifying.   I’m pleased that people find it an interesting read, but even happier when they find helpful information or ideas.   There are so few resources for people working on branches that I hope my contribution might provide some support or encouragement. A few friends have asked about my intended audience, and that’s a good question.   Although I’d like to think that lots of people might find Out on a Limb interesting, the specific reader I kept in mind as I wrote was a campus chief administrator (dean, director, or whatever the title).   In particular, I was thinking about an individual who recently landed on a branch campus without having an extensive branch background.   I know from meeting people at NABCA and RBCA meetings that one can feel a little lost and alone out on that limb, and so I wanted to extend a helping hand. Secondarily, I also was thinki...

Last time I wrote about two concerns I have, regarding branch campus administration, if institutions hope to see an entrepreneurial attitude and significant enrollment growth.   These choices stem from not understanding innovation and entrepreneurship, and they get in the way of an outreach mission. My third concern came as a shock to me, when I began consulting.   Many institutions actually have their academic departments at the main campus develop the class schedule for their branch campuses.   This never, ever works well . When the schedule is set at the main campus, I hear about courses required for graduation that are scheduled at 10:00 am, when the intended audience is working adult learners.   I hear about courses added and deleted, without anyone bothering to tell the branch administration about the changes.   Even worse, I hear about programs being offered without any predictable plan for delivery of required courses, at all.   S...

If it isn’t apparent, my recent posts reflect growing concern and frustration with the way institutions administer their branch campuses.   Having spent some years working with online programs, as well as studying the implications of disruptive environments on organizations, I also see important strategic connections between branches and online delivery. Moreover, virtually every consulting role I’ve filled was at least in part tied to a president who wanted to see enrollment growth at their branches and in their online programs.   Although I’m pleased and impressed that these presidents recognize the potential significance of branch growth, the press of day-to-day crises at the main campus makes it nearly impossible for presidents to personally lead specific initiatives. I should add that, again in my own experience, provosts or academic vice presidents seem less consistently concerned than presidents about enrollment growth through new audiences.   De...

I have not written about innovation or disruption in higher education, on Creating the Future , for a while, although I do write about it on my branch campus blog.   This post will be published on both.   (The blog addresses are www.branchcampus.blogspot.com and www.drcharlesbird.com/creatingthefuture .) I’m intrigued by the rapid progress of MOOCs (massive open online courses) and other online options, but the trigger for this post is the pushback we see, especially from some faculty members.   The defense of traditional classroom education seems disingenuous, appearing to suggest that all faculty members create vibrant learning environments and transform students into sophisticated critical thinkers, even as students also acquire undefined benefits from the residential experience. Actually, there are remarkable professors out there, and I know full well that important growth can come through the traditional experience.   The issue is how consiste...

Through most of my career, I both enjoyed and benefited from the fact that people at the main campus paid little attention to their branches.   For all the frustration and difficulty of getting programs or courses approved, the circumstances worked to our advantage.   In addition, because we were financially separate from the main campus, we developed a deeper understanding of higher education finance than most of the chairs, deans and vice presidents with whom we worked.   (Not bragging; just sharing the facts.   My experience with finance or budget administrators really was no different, because they tend to focus so strongly on cost control and risk avoidance that we found negotiations usually worked to our advantage.   Keep in mind that I am a devotee of mutual gains bargaining, so our success was mostly a matter of careful listening and addressing the interests of others, but with a strong understanding of our own interests.   Thus, i...

By far the most read post on this blog is titled Characteristics of Branch Campuses, and it was posted July 11, 2007.   If you want to read it, you can find it at http://branchcampus.blogspot.com/2007/07/characteristics-of-branch-campus.html .   Be warned:   When I first started posting, I wrote some relatively long entries. One of the challenges in writing about branch campuses, never mind building a base of research on branches, is the lack of clear definitions or a shared understanding of what makes something a branch.   My piece on “characteristics” was an attempt to describe what I called an “idealized” branch, but there are many, many variations across the country. A few days ago, I saw a list of “10 Satellite Campuses With Impressive Reputations All Their Own” on a site called thebestcolleges.org.   ( http://www.thebestcolleges.org/?s=satellite )   I’m familiar with nearly all of these campuses, and there are interesting stories al...

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...