MARKETING HIGHER EDUCATION A periodic electronic Newsletter to help you market your school, community college, college, or university. Vol. XII, no. 8, August, 1998 -------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS Cheap shots.... by Robert (Bob) S. Topor & Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard Millernet.org: A Success Story of a Different Color by Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard -------------------------------------------------- Cheap shots.... by Robert (Bob) S. Topor & Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard Bob: As a professional higher education marketer, I often see academicians "put down" by administrators. I must confess I have done my share of this too. I want to take this opportunity to right that error. Being a faculty member at a college or university requires great fortitude and a devotion to the fine art of teaching. It can be a very stressful and demanding activity. To add marketing requirements on top of an already expanding list of duties can be very unfair. To expect faculty person to become a marketing advocate can be extremely wrong. Some faculty are natural marketers (due to their personal skills or chosen discipline). It is not unreasonable to ask a talented business faculty person to assist in participation on a marketing committee, provided she/he is compensated in some way. But to ask a professor of classics or art history to do the same (unless they have a natural propensity for this) is very unfair. This is a plea for faculty fairness. The average faculty person is underpaid and overworked. Further, the migration towards part-time faculty is eroding tenure, putting much more pressure on the teacher. Today's student is quite different from students of my time. I can see that teaching is not as easy as it once was. Pronoun Wars For decades I have heard "them" vs. "us." These were internal references.... inside the institution! I admit to thinking and speaking this way too. I have often referred to faculty as "them." I have heard many other administrators speaking in pronoun war ways! I now realize how destructive that is. It tears down your culture. It breeds fear and distrust and hate. I wish I had, during my administrative career, been smarter, more compassionate. I now realize how wrong I was! My partner, Professor Elizabeth (Liz) Pollard comes from "the other side of the fence." As a faculty member, she has seen the damaging results of "pronoun wars." I invite her to add thoughts to this article. Liz: Divided We Fall......... If Bob has heard administrators speak of faculty with contempt and disrespect, I must admit to having heard faculty speak of administrators the same way! What is it that makes us divide ourselves into camps like this? When we sit around and carp at the other side, aren't we just passing the buck? Aren't we simply blaming someone else for the institution's, and possibly our own, failures? We need to realize we are all, ultimately, working toward the same goal, quality higher education for students. Each of us fills an important niche in the workings of the institution. Let's recognize each other's accomplishments! Whoever it was who said "United we stand, divided we fall," might have been speaking directly to you. The maxim is as true in higher education as it is in politics. And speaking of politics, nowhere is it worse than in institutions of higher education! The urge to compete is bred into Americans, but it also shows up on campuses in other countries. High powered careers are on the line every day in academe! While it is true that marketing responsibilities should not be piled atop a full teaching schedule, it is also true that my faculty colleagues often denigrated marketing efforts on the part of the university. Wait, folks, why are you biting the hand that feeds you? How do you expect the institution to build a healthy enrollment without someone to promote it? Where do you think your salary comes from anyway? Why are you here? Why Are You Here? Maybe that last question should be the real focus for all facets of a college or university. Ultimately, the goal is education, and the focus of all efforts, teaching, administrative, and otherwise, should be on the students! Instead of complaining when they are asked to cooperate in recruitment efforts, the faculty should be pitching in willingly! Instead of asking faculty to do it all themselves, administration should be equipping them with appropriate tools and opportunities and helping them in that task! There is a maxim handed down from the Indians that I have always tried to live by: "Never judge another man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins." Would that all of us took this to heart on a regular basis. It puts a whole new face on any task if YOU have tried it. Bob speaks of some faculty who are "natural" marketers. By all means, they should be given the tools and the opportunity to use that talent, but they should be given appropriate remuneration and/or released time to do so. Administrators should try teaching a freshman class in their chosen discipline occasionally (on top of their regular assignments) to remind them how much effort is expended in preparing lectures, lecturing, grading papers, and counselling students. On the other hand, faculty should try their hand at administration now and then. Try running a faculty meeting in your own department, sitting in for the department chair while s/he is on vacation, or taking an office in the faculty senate. Both roles, administrative and teaching, require special skills and preparation that deserve their own rewards. Put yourself in the other fellow's shoes on occasion, and that might become clearer. WE/US - the Goal to Strive For! Most of all, realize that running a college or university effectively requires cooperation! The football or basketball team doesn't put together a winning season as individuals. Neither do the faculty and administration! Pitting ourselves against each other only diverts attention from the task we should be accomplishing. Faculty should be doing an effective job of teaching, research, and counselling, and administrators should be providing them with space, equipment, and materials, as well as appropriate compensation for their task. On the other side of the fence, administrators should be coordinating, fundraising, and marketing the institution. To do so effectively, they need cooperation from faculty to provide them with the materials they can use to draw attention to the school's achievements. They need faculty to provide them with accurate records of what they do. They need faculty to give them careful consideration in making decisions. In the long run, everyone benefits more from working together than from badmouthing the "other side!" Liz Pollard - (stepping down from soapbox) ********** Liz Pollard * Smoke Signals Enterprises Web site: http://www.smokesig.com E-mail: lpollard@smokesig.com & ********* Bob Topor * Topor Consulting Group International Higher Education Marketing Evangelist Web site: http://www.marketinged.com E-mail: topor@marketinged.com ********* NOTICE: As a subscriber to this electronic newsletter, you have permission to reproduce and use this article on your campus. All others please note ©1998, Topor Consulting Group International. Comments about, or requests to reprint should be directed to Bob Topor at topor@marketinged.com. ********** -------------------------------------------------- Millernet.org: A Success Story of a Different Color by Elizabeth "Liz" Pollard Introduction: My partner, Professor Elizabeth Pollard and I recognize the importance of technology and its application to our work in higher education. Together, Liz and I present this "story" as an example of how distance education touched and changed one person's life. --Bob Topor Some of you work in institutions with distance education programs of various kinds. This method of getting an education is becoming more and more popular, especially with adult students who must work and take classes at the same time in order to advance their careers. For the most part, though, such students have great difficulty finding a program that offers what they need to prepare them for a career or a career change, although the situation is improving in recent years. For another group of students, the disabled, distance learning may, indeed, be the only way to gain an education! Without distance options, these people often have no hope of preparing themselves for a productive career or even supporting themselves comfortably. For both groups, more information on available distance education programs is needed, especially in reputable, established institutions! This is a story about one disabled student who used his distance education rather successfully to create his own small business. Several years ago, through some online work I was doing with students, I met a young man who, though deaf and blind, was busily pulling himself up by his bootstraps, so to speak. After years of special schooling and training in the use of computers and the Internet, he undertook a rigorous program of self-education. He had problems finding a program which would accommodate his disabilities. He comments of that experience, "Most so-called distance learning schools don't provide materials in accessible form or require using materials that are inaccessible." The program where he earned his degree was especially helpful, he says, as it provided "texts in a form best for me and let me work at my own pace. Unless care is taken to ensure otherwise, distance learning can be as severe a barrier as traditional." Howard Miller finally earned a PhD online in a distance education program, using only ASCII or other electronic text based materials, the only kind his braille display can process. He also uses a text based browser, the Lynx product, since graphics mean nothing to him. He points out the importance of providing options for disabled users, such as a text-based alternative to a graphics-heavy page. Academic Web designers may want to take this advice to heart! At that point, he was casting about for a way to use his education to earn a living and become a useful member of society. Recently, I heard from him again, and he has developed a way to supplement his income, using the Web and his computer! Howard Miller's passion has always been literature and ideas, especially fantasy and science fiction. He considered writing as a vocation at one point, and may still do some writing in the future. For now, he has put those passions to another use to help support himself. Through networking with friends and educators online, Howard taught himself HTML, and he has programmed and mounted a site at http://www.millernet.org that is a real triumph! Howard Miller has started a service for searching and ordering books, magazines, music, and software online! He keeps no stock on hand and processes no orders himself. In essence, Howard is a representative and promoter for existing dealers in these products. His site offers a variety of choices in vendors and merchandise! Miller works through agreements with Amazon Books, Barnes and Noble, and eventually probably other vendors, by which he receives a small percentage of every sale for which the buyer clicks through from his site! There are two main pages there at present, one for searching and ordering from each of the two dealers, and Howard has been working on it for several weeks. There are search engines from both dealers through which one can search for specific merchandise or for a subject. Direct links then allow rapid ordering from either vendor. In addition, Howard provides links to book reviews, recommendations for new literature and for classics, and an "About Howard Miller" page on which he tells about himself and has mounted a photo. He has recently added a photo of his dog, Pandora, a Portuguese water dog. If anyone doubts the value of distance education, they should see what this young man has done, in an essentially hopeless situation! Howard Miller's disease, a rare condition, is deteriorative, and it may well cut short his productive life, but in the meantime, his distance education and his computer have helped him find a way to live and, hopefully, prosper. If you ever order books, software, CD's, etc. online, consider stopping by http://www.millernet.org first. Let your fingers do the shopping for you! ********** Liz Pollard * Smoke Signals Enterprises Web site: http://www.smokesig.com E-mail: lpollard@smokesig.com ********* NOTICE: As a subscriber to this electronic newsletter, you have permission to reproduce and use this article on your campus. All others please note ©1998, Topor Consulting Group International. Comments about, or requests to reprint should be directed to Bob Topor at topor@marketinged.com. ********** SPECIAL OFFER For Marketing Higher Education newsletter subscribers ONLY. Download the updated second edition of Bob's "classic" book, Marketing Higher Education - A Practical Guide, directly from his Web site at http://www.marketinged.com Special Deal: As a subscriber to this newsletter you have permission to make copies and distribute on your campus... a great aid for marketing committees! Make as many copies as you like (limited to your campus). You can get this book from the Home page on Bob's web site. It costs $40 (U.S.) It is easy to download to your computer, then you can reproduce it in your print shop or make photocopies. The first edition of this book has been one of CASE's best selling publications and has been used around the world. If you have questions call Bob at (650) 962-1105. NEW! "The Complete Guide to Focus Group Marketing Research in Higher Education" book is now available for downloading to your computer... Bob Topor's 55-page practical guidebook for running focus groups is now available for downloading. As subscriber to this electronic newsletter you have permission to purchase this book and make unlimited copies for use on your campus (copyright free). You can purchase it for only $25. It is a great guide for how to do focus groups and has been Bob's best selling book ever! Don't miss this special offer! It's easy to order (secured credit card) and download... just log on to Bob's web site at http://www.marketinged.com and find it on his home page. Questions? Call Bob at (650) 962-1105 or e-mail him at topor@marketinged.com NEW! Download "Wasabi & Ginger" ($35.95 US) .... a book by Bob and his partner Dr. Moshe Engelberg .... for life development. It combines ideas from the business world with ones for personal satisfaction and success. You can use these ideas both in your business ventures as well as your personal life and success activities. Bon Appetit! This book is easy to download from Bob's website: http://www.marketinged.com -------------------------------------------------- Original posting: 8/30/98 Marketing Higher Education Newsletter is published by Topor Consulting Group International (http://www.marketinged.com). Newsletter posted by WEBB Internet Marketing & Consulting (http://www.firstchapter.com). copyright 1998 Topor Consulting Group International