higher education – Page 281

I tried this idea out at the CASE Conference in Philadelphia I co-chaired back in September: get some journalists who blog in a room with bloggers and let them talk about how the two disciplines — old-school reporting and new-media blogging — are merging and blurring the lines of distinction between news, opinion, and other aspects of journalism. It worked so well then (with a mere two journalist-bloggers) that we decided to try it again here at the CASE District VI Conference in Kansas City. And just for fun, we added another kind of blogger into the mix: someone who writes a blog for a non-profit organization. Our panelists were:

Tony Bodello, a freelance writer in Kansas City who also authors the popular KC blog Tony’s Kansas City.
Joe Mannies, political reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who also oversees and frequently posts on the P-D’s Political Fix blog.
Desiree Vargas, a specialist with Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and a blogger for the foundation’s Kauffman Perspectives blog.

The three had a lot of good information to share about the nature of their blogging, the future of social networking and new media, the challenges facing traditional media such as newspapers, and the benefits of blogging for institutions such as Kauffman. Check out their three very different blogs to get a sense of how blogs are being used to address various issues — whether it’s to promote programs, entertain readers or help political junkies get their fix.

While you’re at it, check out UMR’s research blog, Visions. While I was in a panel discussion at 8:30 this morning, three of our staffers were presenting to a packed room about their experience with converting Visions from a quarterly research webzine to a more frequently updated blog. They even had buttons and magnets to give away.

One of these days I’m going to attend one of these CASE conferences not as a presenter, moderator, organizer or member of the planning committee, but as a mere attendee. That way, I can devote the time to thoroughly blog about the sessions from more processed notes, rather than from the combination of scribbles on scraps of paper and a faulty short-term memory. Until that day arrives, though, I’ll have to post what I can, when I can, about the sessions I’m involved in as either a speaker, moderator or panelist — as well as those few sessions I can get to as a sponge to soak up knowledge.

But this morning, the first full morning of the CASE District VI Conference in Kansas City, Mo., found me first serving as a panelist on a big-picture session on the “horizon” issues being explored by CASE (more here), then moderating a panel of three bloggers (one of whom was 15 minutes late for the session, which threw me into panic mode, but that’s for another blogpost).

About that horizon session: around 15 folks sat in on the discussion, which was led by CASE President John Lippincott. Lippincott shared five big issues, then asked me and my fellow panelists — John Amato of the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Michael Johnson of the University of Northern Colorado Alumni Association — to comment further on the issues and challenges we see looming.

Lippincott’s top five:

The growing demand for our work as advancement professionals — whether it’s in marketing, fundraising or alumni relations. “As advancement officers, we’re being asked to do more and more,” said Lippincott. The trend toward more capital campaigns, bigger campaigns, the greater competition for dollars and students, the growing demand for our services caused by new communications technologies, etc., means we’ll be keeping busy for a while.
The global nature of work — or “glocalization” — means that “we’re being asked to operate in a global marketplace and still resond to local needs.” As more universities in Europe and elsewhere begin to focus on fundraising, for example, they are recruiting fundraising talent from North America. Lippincott rattled off some four or five universities in the UK that have recently hired US fundraisers to lead their advancement operations.
The erosion of public confidence in education is resulting in an increased emphasis on accountability as well as cynicism toward charitable organizations, increased attention from government.
The impact of technology in our communications and marketing areas — the growing interest in social media such as blogs and wikis. The popularity of sites such as Facebook will influence alumni relations in the future.
The need to embrace marketing on our campuses — not just in advancement, but across all areas. “We have to embrace the ‘M’ word: marketing,” Lippincott said. Quoting Henry Beckwith (author of Selling the Invisible), he said: “Marketing is not a department; it is an institutional commitment.”

Lippincott concluded that these changes in the field of institutional advancement mean a greater emphasis on developing the profession, more use of research to drive our work and measure results, a more strategic role for advancement in leading and managing a campus, and a need to integrate the advancement disciplines to reinforce one another and strengthen the institution. In short, “It means long hours, a long career, and taking the long view. … In these days of short-term presidencies there is a tendency toward short-term thinking. We in advancement are the keepers of the flame.”
And then Amato, Johnson and I all spoke, and the four of us took questions from the audience.