Remote working arrangements for higher ed teams were once reserved for edge cases, such as: staff that have moved away but continue to work on your team, medical leaves, child care, or long commutes for some – all valid reasons to remote. Or, you might work with consultants remotely. But in general remote hasn’t caught … Read more
Working remotely is scaling up. When will it come to your institution? It’s probably already there – maybe it’s time to study how it can improve everything you do. I spent some time over the last couple of months participating in a global virtual design sprint. What is a global virtual design sprint? Well, it … Read more
Some thoughts on what happens when those images of ivy-covered buildings and hallowed halls disappear from higher education brand identity. Many schools are making every effort these days to rebrand themselves before (or maybe during?) the coming enrollment apocalypse—and many of these rebrands go well beyond cosmetics—but even these structural reforms seem like too little, if not … Read more
I’m in the middle of campus tour season so I’m experiencing quite a few higher ed brands. Each school pitches their brand experience differently, whether it’s explicit or implicit, and as a brand practitioner I’ve become accustomed to seeing the difference very quickly. To define my terms: an explicit pitch is constructed, deliberate and considered. It usually … Read more
Congratulations to Trinity University for being well on their way to achieving a long-sought goal: to pivot the reputation of Trinity from the typical “safety school” to an aspirational app school. Applications are up to 9800 this year, which means the acceptance rate could drop to 29% for 2019. Quite a shift from 2013 when … Read more
It’s College Fair season again, or maybe it’s always the season? Anyway, I noticed something noteworthy at one and wanted to make note of it. This one was at a local auditorium so that it could hold over 200 schools, open to all high school students, and a large crowd had gathered. My daughter cut … Read more
My son is getting the usual (insane) amount of mail from colleges right now.
With a couple of high school students in my house there’s a fair amount of college shopping going on.
Awhile back I was meeting with a client to discuss some upcoming project milestones…