Was reading the front page of the Southern Illinoisian this morning and came across Caleb Hale's piece on SIU. Not only did Caleb write a nice piece, but it has a marketing story that can be believed by any reader.
Notice the beginning of the end for Southern at 150 and Saluki Way in this message. Of course, there are many good things in Southern at 150, but the major milestones are stupid and destructive. As soon as you include the opinions of people on campus, you are going to see the end of these programs.
Hopefully this is the new direction and quality we can expect from the Glenn Poshard's new team in the PR area at SIUC. We know the Wendler/Davis team could never tell the truth is such a compelling way.
2 comments:
This is a good sign. No more empire building, it's all about the students -- our customers.
I was thinking that SIU is like a large corporation (think Chrysler circa 1980) with seemingly perpetual, insoluble problems. The third guy trying to be like the big guys but the reach beyond our grasp.
Poshard could be our Lee Iaccocca. He needs to do two things:
1. Get us focused on the positive -- and on the students (which means higher enrollment).
2. Wake up the faculty to the crisis we are facing. We really need to change our attitudes and "accentuate the positive," becoming the "friendly downstate" university. An "open door university."
Implementation is key: Faculty will go their various ways and will need incentives -- positive or negative - to make more contact with current and prospective students. There are many tried-and-true ways from business to do this (I have ideas) but it will take a srong management and a faculty that realizes it's "change or die."
I'm not sure that empire building is over, but maybe the worthless administrators will be forced out. Empire building by the best leaders is a good thing.
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