Online Summer Reading

Four "Online Only" articles accompany the July/August 2009 issue of University Business magazine.

In higher education, digital signage can be applied to just about any need for communicating information. In "Digital Signage for Education," Andrea Waldin, vice president of marketing for Scala, provides the technical how to on what makes digital signage effective and how administrators can get started on establishing their needs for a system. Waldin provides two examples of this application in use at Utah Valley University and State University of New York in Binghamton.

With the fallout of significant budget cuts at public universities, it can be hard to find a silver lining. However, Brian Mueller, CEO of Grand Canyon University (Ariz.), argues there is a success model: private, market-driven higher education. He writes in his piece, "Down Economy Presents Opportunity for Private, Market-Funded Universities," that since these institutions are operated by investors and owners, and do not rely on government funding from tax monies, a market-driven university is compelled to adapt to changing economic and social trends for long-term sustainability.

Feel confident your campus emergency plans are effective? In "Continuity Planning and Crisis Communications – Their Dual Role in Campus Evacuations," Tim Patterson and Matthew Rose find that one of unconsidered factors in emergency planning is the integration between the operational/logistical response and the communications response. These functions, they say, should go hand-in-hand. Patterson is president of Paratus and Rose is executive vice president and global corporate communications practice leader for MWW Group.

The more students for-profit colleges can retain, the more they obtain degrees and help make these institutions financially successful. Neal Raisman, president of AcademicMAPS, provides data and insight on this lesson in his piece, "Why Students Are Leaving Your College or University."