As higher ed futurists, we are asked about craven competition, niche branding, and distinctive marketing opportunities for a wide range of schools, colleges, and universities. One emergent strategic option for Engineering Institutes is to burnish their unique engineering, science, and technology niche, yet leverage the attributes and competitive advantages that come with attaining University Status. […]
Fast, dynamic and flexible, digital signage allows institutions to share key information regarding campus activities and to broadcast instructions in emergencies. With displays typically placed in busy areas—such as student centers and major academic halls—the technology can reach large audiences efficiently. “Digital signage allows institutions to have multiple messages in the same real estate in […]
Who could conceive that the Granite State would adopt as its motto part of the historic volunteer toast offered by General John Stark in his response declining the invitation to head up the 32nd reunion of the Battle of Bennington – "Live free or die; death is not the worst of evils." Now more than […]
Without vehicle fleets, many higher ed institutions would function in gridlock. Facilities technicians wouldn't be able to go out and make repairs, and police would have difficulty patrolling. "Fleet is a vital part of keeping an entire organization moving," says Carlos Berriz, Florida International University's fleet manager. Yet the realities in higher ed vary from […]
Trends in campus chapels mirror those of places of worship in general: New and renovated spaces are becoming more tech-enabled and multifunctional, with added emphasis on creating a gathering place for an entire community, regardless of religious denomination. Echoing national shifts, organized religion is becoming less prominent on campus. In 2015, 29.5 percent of incoming […]
In "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" Jane Jacobs reminds us that "Lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves". Among both urban and exurban cities alike schools, colleges, and universities enjoy a time-honored, town-gown relationship where the […]
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books. The Use of Life, John Lubbock, 1894 In both K-12 and higher learning settings, we spend significant time focused on traditional cognitive development, reading, scientific […]
Almost everybody ranks colleges these days—old stalwarts like U.S. News & World Report, influential upstarts like Washington Monthly and click-baiting websites that measure everything from campus sustainability to most attractive students to coolest mascots. William Destler, president of Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, even found his university named one of the "geekiest" in […]
Alumni. That’s what alumni association magazines should, to a much greater extent, be about. At least they should if we want them to do better at marketing the university. Marketing is not the only purpose of these publications, of course. But the alumni magazine can be a powerful marketing tool that doesn’t conflict with its […]
Officials at the University of Missouri in 2012 looked at the business troubles of its academic press and decided the most prudent path forward was to shut it down. The community disagreed, lobbying against the closure, and the university recanted. The whole affair emphasizes that academic publishing is not about dollars, but about the proliferation […]
