Comments on: Let’s Kick It Up a Notch

By: Karlyn Morissette

Karlyn Morissette — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:53:57 +0000

@Jesse Leadership dictating tone has nothing to do with whether they are/were faculty or not. And it has EVERYTHING to do with day-to-day operations since its the day-to-day that dictates the culture of an organization – not a proclamation from on high. You aren’t innovative every once in a while. You’re either innovative or you’re not. It’s a constant mindset.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:46:57 +0000

@Karlyn but leadership dictates the tone of the organization and if the leadership is not dynamic, innovative, etc or open to it then you can bet those that report to them are not… and that trickles down.

This has nothing to do with day to day operations… the problem is far more ingrained in the institutional culture.

By: Karlyn Morissette

Karlyn Morissette — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:40:26 +0000

@Jesse I maintain my position. Working in admissions, faculty usually tried to get their words in during the recruiting process, but they didn’t control it. The VP of Enrollment did. In my current position in development, I never hear hell or high water from a faculty member. The VP of Development controls it. Do you know many Presidents that are involved in the day-to-day operations of an office? I don’t. So the fact that they came from being a faculty member is really immaterial.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:33:06 +0000

@Brad and @Karlyn If academics don’t ‘control things’ (do you have a Dean’s council? Ever been to a meeting? we have an Exec Council which is even more fun) their legacy from back when they did certainly exists in the culture of higher ed. I would shocked if your President wasn’t a phd though…

But its the culture we are talking about here and that culture is heavily influenced by academic process thrown in with a dash of public service style bureaucracy (if the school is big enough).

By: Karlyn Morissette

Karlyn Morissette — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:30:44 +0000

@ Brad – Well Brad you may not be able to be blamed, but if you can’t take credit for adding value than you can also be considered expendable. If layoffs come from lack of numbers than the office is going to layoff the people they can afford to lose. If you can’t show what you’ve contributed, where does that leave you? Now, of course, this is all hypothetical.

@Kathryn – Anyone taking a job in higher education knows they aren’t going to get rich from it. Now I agree that salaries are a HUGE problem in higher education. But saying that salaries are responsible for people not behaving professionally in their jobs (I consider slacking off and blaming the salary you agreed to in the first place to be unprofessional) is just abdicating complete responsibility for your own actions.

By: Rob S.

Rob S. — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:19:05 +0000

“Wouldn’t it be so much greater to kick things up a notch and really make some moves in the industry? Won’t the team that actually embraces this be miles ahead of their competitors? Why are we constantly measuring ourselves against other universities that are moving at the pace of a snail as well?”

The innovative players in higher ed aren’t always the ones showing their hand at the card table

Marketing isn’t a dirty word at all colleges. Some colleges embrace much of the business model, innovation, etc. What amazes me is how few and far between they seem to be.

I don’t think operating under a business model is necessarily at odds with higher ed ideals. Indeed, it can help enrollment numbers, giving, cash flow, etc., that allow those higher ed ideals a place to exist and even expand.

By: Brad J. Ward

Brad J. Ward — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:15:35 +0000

@Kathyrn – True and unfortunate. Then those who are stalling the process continue to stay at the university and do business as normal, and the cycle repeats itself over and over again.

@Karlyn – Yep, I am in Admission. I sort of look at what I do from a few ways: 1) find leads and get them to our system, from which point the counselors/comm flow takes over, 2) provide social media that will keep students connected to our university and provide them a chance to ask questions via the web, 3) make sure we are staying in their minds by using email/social media. If our numbers increased significantly I wouldn’t be able to take the credit, so at the same time if our numbers dropped I don’t think I could take the blame (although it sure would be easy to pass it on to the ‘new guy’!)

By: Kathryn Spruill

Kathryn Spruill — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:56:28 +0000

What contributes to the environment being somewhat progress-repellant is the fact that promotions are hard to come by and raises in higher education are so far from what they are in the corporate world. The really talented people take entry level positions and then move on if they are not amply rewarded. Without incentive to put in the extra work that change innately requires, we get stalled at, “wow that’s a great idea…” and never implement those great ideas.

By: Karlyn Morissette

Karlyn Morissette — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:03:41 +0000

@Brad – I hear you. I had an advantage in being an admissions counselor before I moved into the interactive recruiter role. But I would still argue that your job is to sell students on Butler. You’re based in the admissions office right? You do a lot of web 2.0 type stuff so I can see why you’d want to soft sell a bit more there but ultimately, if Butler doesn’t meet the numbers than you may not have a job….that should put you in a competitive mindset real quick

By: dw

dw — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:58:56 +0000

@dw I’m sorry but I just don’t buy the whole “we have no money” argument.

Well, money buys resources. Yes, there’s all sorts of free stuff, and I rely on it pretty heavily. But someone still has to set up and maintain those systems.

And that’s where the money problem comes in. Money buys time in the form of people. We don’t have the money, so we can’t hire more people. And I’m finding this on every level of website creation — I fight for time with our writer, I fight for time with our DBA, I fight just to make sure I have the time to do everything.

So, yeah, we don’t have to drop money on software, but someone still has to maintain all of that.

Most of my job involves time tradeoffs. That’s where the money problem comes in. If I had money, I’d hire another me, or my own writer. I don’t, so I’m stretched.