Thursday, August 17, 2006

SIU - the PR message is just plain bad

I was reading the DE yesterday; it was the back to school edition from August 2006. Got into page 2 and the article with the Wendler interview. Here is what is quoted near the end of the article (sorry, no link) "My challenge is to make he campus better so it provides the very best education opportunities for our students." Now there are two ways to read this quote, he is in charge of this "campus" and not the whole University, and he needs to make SIUC better. The other possible meaning is that he is an architect and he only cares about the "campus" (AKA buildings, roads, plants and the like) and doesn't understand that the people are what matter.

When you look at leaders of any large institution their real job is to set direction and deliver the marketing message. One of the largest failings of the Wendler years is his inability to deliver his marketing message in a way that inspires anyone. It isn't very hard to do. I wonder why he doesn't learn how to do it?

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