UB Buzz

Sharing the Wealth

What do Alicia Keys, David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Gates, 50 Cent, and Magic Johnson all have in common? What's that? You say they all have more money than most of us will see in a lifetime? Well, yes, that may be, but the point is that they are sharing the wealth.
That's right, each of these celebrities has created a scholarship to help students continue their education beyond high school. According to CollegeOTR "a website for the students and written by the students," these celebrities, as well as the Phoenix Suns basketball team and CosmoGIRL! magazine, have created scholarships in their names, ranging from $1,400 to more than $20,000. Some of the scholarships are targeted to minorities and disadvantaged young people, but others are open to anyone. Significantly, some of the celebrities listed (such as Keys, Gates, and 50 Cent) either never attended college themselves (Keys, 50 Cent) or didn't complete their education (Gates). Still, they all believe in the value of helping fund students' continuing education. That's what we call giving back. Read more about the scholarships here.

Tips for Budget Crunching Times

When faced with a budget crisis, it can be difficult to know where to begin trimming costs. Patrick McCullum and consultants from the California Collegiate Brain Trust, a consulting firm that serves higher ed institutions and other organizations, has these tips for campus leaders on surviving the crunch without impacting students:

Be a surgeon, not a butcher. It is politically easier to make across-the-board cuts, but budget problems actually provide an opportunity to make necessary changes. Furthermore, unilateral cuts are not reasoned reductions. Colleges should try to reduce expenditures in a manner that makes the most sense for students and the institution based on recent experiences and data.

Focus on revenue. The usual tendency during times of budget problems is to focus on expenditure reduction. However, the first effort should be to increase revenues. Then, when making expenditure reductions, make sure they are done in a manner that maximizes revenues.

Consider your ability to resurrect cuts. All budget problems are temporary. When you do have to make cuts, be sure to first focus on cuts for which the effects could be easily reversed. For example, it is much easier to resurrect summer session enrollments than it is to reinstate enrollments in the primary terms.

Rely on your previously set priorities and avoid simply applying across-the- board cuts whenever possible. Be cautious not to overreact. Drastic actions can be taken to offset proposed cuts and the final outcome may not be so dire. Each district should assess the potential impact of a cut and its ability to take the hit. If reductions are needed, look for those that would be the least disruptive on completing the fiscal year.  Try to avoid shotgun actions which may seem arbitrary.

Avoid mid-year cuts of full-time personnel.  Unless the institution is already upside down, stay away cutting any full-time personnel in a mid-year reduction. A mid-year reduction of full time personnel is politically troublesome and does not achieve the needed outcome.  During a mid-year budget reduction, it is possible to decrease part-time and hourly personnel immediately and then to plan to secure larger reductions as the upcoming annual budget is prepared. If the next year budget reduction is significant enough, full-time positions can be reduced through a planning process.

Take one or more quick actions. Consider a hiring freeze and hiring deferrals; set up a committee to study high cost/low productivity programs; explore revenue enhancement strategies by looking at excess land and creating a revenue source.

Students with Guns? Here's What You Think

In the May issue of University Business magazine, I wrote an editorial reacting to a news story about a group called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. The group's members want the right to carry concealed weapons on campus to defend themselves and others against a violent attack. Currently, Utah is the only state to allow weapons at its nine public universities. Colorado allows students at universities to carry weapons, except at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Blue Ridge Community College (Va.) also allows students with a proper concealed carry permit to be armed.

I asked readers for their opinions on this highly charged topic. What follows are some of their responses. Please feel free to add your own comments to the discussion.

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In your article in the May 2008 edition, you covered only the issue of students “packing.” I agree that to let students at a university carry would be putting fuel on the fire, most of my students are not ready to confront a problem like that of Virginia Tech. However, allowing more seasoned adults like faculty to carry could reduce the effect of a tragedy after it started. Police forces are not equipped to be at the point of most shooting incidents like the one in Virginia Tech, so if trained and stable faculty were available and willing to be available for backup, the tragedy could be minimized.

-- Joseph B. Wulffenstein, Northwood University

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Show Them How They've Grown

Muhlenberg College (Pa.) officials have turned a simple orientation exercise into a way to get graduating seniors to reflect on their years at the school and how it has helped them grow into the people they are today.

During orientation, students are asked to write down their "expectations" for the next four years. The responses, which are placed in envelopes, range from "I will meet my spouse" to thoughtful commentary on how they want to grow personally and develop and mature, according to Mike Bruckner, vice president of public relations. “They hand these in and basically forget about them,” he adds.

But the Dean of Students doesn’t. That office holds onto the expectations, which are handed out during senior week at a champagne brunch. This year’s event was held May 18 and was attended by 354 of the approximately 500 in the senior class. (Those who don’t attend still get their envelopes to open in private.)

One example: “I want to be prepared for the future, meet lots of people, make my mark here, make a difference on campus, and carry that into the real world.” The female student who wrote that expectation, Bruckner says, did extraordinary things at the college, including being a campus rep to the Board of Trustees and being heavily involved in student government and campus greening efforts.

Undoubtedly, many of the mementos are tucked away and travel with graduates as they begin their post-college lives. And as they stumble upon them again one day, most likely they’ll be smiling as they think of their alma mater. Now if only advancement officers could time the next annual fund campaign to hit on the same day those papers get pulled out…

Less Work Days For More Fuel Savings

Employees of Eastern Kentucky University will catch a break this summer, thanks to a pilot program that will allow people to work 37.5 hours in four days each week during June and July. In an e-mail announcing the flexible work schedule program, President Doug Whitlock noted that it will help employees juggle family demands and other lifestyle changes inherent in the summer months, as well as have the added benefit of potential fuel savings by reducing the number of drives to campus. For jobs not well suited to a flexible schedule, he asked supervisors to work with their vice presidents to seek ways to permit employees to participate. The program still has university business offices open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily, per usual. Specific guidelines for EKU supervisors and employees were posted on the human resources website.

With the national average for regular unleaded gas at $3.94 as of today, summer gas prices historically rising higher each year, and the semester schedules at most colleges and universities, administrators elsewhere should be implementing similar programs -- as well as considering other ways, such as telecommuting, to reduce the number of commutes employees must make to work.

"I Give You Everything..."

Sometimes there’s no planning for what a planned giving team is handed next. According to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article that was included in today’s UB Daily, an alumnus of Juniata College (Pa.) has left his entire estate to the school. Administrators there were aware of his intent to leave the college a large gift, but what they didn’t expect to get from Dr. Larry Johnson, a California radiologist who never married, was the entire contents of his two-bedroom condo, including a .38 caliber handgun, the food in his fridge, and his cat Princess.

While the gift does leave the giving team at Juniata with some tough decisions to make about what to keep and what would be more appropriate to sell or simply give away, one key decision was made early on. Director of Planned Giving Kim Kitchen opted to travel to California herself to sort through his belongings. “By his gift, Larry was elevating us up to the level of family,” she was quoted as saying. “I thought it was important for me to be there.”

During the visit, she found a home for Princess (with a neighbor) and helped spread the donor’s ashes over San Francisco Bay. As for Larry’s Lexus, it was Kitchen’s transportation back home.

The college might have hired someone to weed through the donor’s belongings, sell what could be sold, and send a check back to Juniata. The fact that administrators didn’t handle the complicated gift in that way speaks volumes about the heart of the institution and his leaders.

Marketing Momentum

Readers of University Business are familiar with the concepts of integrated marketing and institutional branding, as espoused by marketing columnist Robert Sevier. A senior vice president at Stamats, Sevier has written extensively on "the brand as promise," that is, delivering on the expectations and ideals you want to portray to the public. In his new book, Building Brand Momentum: Strategies for Achieving Critical Mass, Sevier takes the concept to the next level. The book builds on his earlier work to show how colleges and universities can sustain the brand momentum they've built for the long term, to the point where it becomes the very embodiment of the institution. Loaded with examples of successful branding campaigns from colleges and universities around the country, the book also includes interviews with marketing gurus Don Schultz and Jack Trout. Sevier believes that integrated marketing is a key part of an institution's strategic plan, as he explains here:

For all practical purposes, a strategic plan and an integrated marketing plan have the same goal... the only difference is the vocabulary. Most college and university administrators, however, are more comfortable with an integrated marketing plan or brand marketing plan that is separate from the strategic plan because they believe, at least at one level, that marketing is a communication and/or tactical undertaking and not a strategic one. Over time, as more and more colleges and universities realize the benefits of integrated marketing, we suspect that it will become more strategic and be tied more completely to the larger institutional strategic plan.

No Engineer Shortage Here

While there is some hand wringing going on over the decrease in American bred engineers, South Texas College, a community college in McAllen, is busy educating some. This semester 36 students have graduated from the institution's Dual Enrollment Academy—33 from the Engineering Academy and 13 from the Medical Science Academy. They also earned a combined $1.8 million in scholarships and acceptance to major universities including Stanford University, Texas A&M University, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas-Pan American, Kettering University, Norwich University, Baylor University and Texas Tech University.
If you aren't impressed yet, keep in mind the program is aimed at first generation, low income, often ESL students. After meeting GPA and intent criteria, the high school juniors and seniors accepted to the program attend STC for free and earn their AA and high school diploma simultaneously. Support services during the program include community service opportunities, summer internships, free tutoring, free college tours, scholarship searches and free ACT/SAT prep.
According to the college's web site: To date, 59 students have graduated from the college’s Dual Enrollment Academies, 61 more are currently enrolled and 116 new students will be starting academy programs in fall 2008.

Concerns in California

May has been a tough month for California’s higher ed institutions, as they face a fiscal challenge brought on by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget cuts. The top administrators in the state’s three-tiered system visited the state capitol to make their pleas to lawmakers, while students organized study-in protests and demonstrations. We caught up with California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed and asked him for details on how this would affect higher ed institutions there.

UB: It is interesting to note that officials from these three systems have been collaborating in this joint campaign against these proposed budget cuts. What message do you think this representation sends to your state’s lawmakers?
Reed: “This unprecedented collaboration among our three institutions underscores the severity of the proposed cuts and their potentially devastating effects on the people of this state, now and for years to come. If we want California to be competitive in the global economy, then funding for higher education needs to be a top fiscal priority.”
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For Your Inner Spielberg

You're a student affairs administrator, and you love your job, but... what you really want to do is direct!
Well, now is your chance. The first social networking site specifically for Student Affairs administrators -- coincidentally called iStudentAffairs.com -- is sponsoring a video contest for its members on the theme of "Campus Life and Technology."
The content of the video must include some aspect of the use of technology in campus life. Examples could be: the Internet, PDAs, cyberdating, e-mail, illegal downloading, cyberstalking, personal computers, instant messaging, spam, pop-up, ads, gaming, cell phones, and so on. Videos can be up to 3 minutes in length. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners, although maybe not quite enough to finance your next feature-length flick.
The contest will feature two main categories (Most Creative and Most Educational) as well as a "Fan Favorite" division, as voted on by iStudentAffairs.com members.
Contact Stuart Brown with questions, or visit the site for more information.