Cachet of Cool: Why Your Campus Wants It?

This month, we speak to three experts on the topic of "cool." How can an institution's image impact faculty recruiting? The panel is comprised of Paul Baldasare, President of St. Andrews Presbyterian College, a small liberal arts college in Laurinburg, North Carolina; Jason Cook, Vice-President of Communications and Marketing for the Texas A&M University System, a large research university with tens of thousands of students all across the state of Texas; and Tom Gariepy, District Director of Marketing and Communications for Maricopa Community Colleges, which has ten campuses with nearly 250,000 students.

After reading, we invite you to continue the discussion in our LinkedIn group or follow HigherEd Careers on Twitter.

Questions to All Three Schools:

Andrew Hibel, HigherEdJobs: When considering your school's brand or image within professional circles, what do you try to highlight?

Paul Baldasare, St. Andrews Presbyterian College: I highlight three qualities that are related to one another -- academic excellence, creative exploration, and the value of community. First and foremost, we strive to maintain academic excellence in all that we do, from the professional qualifications of our faculty, to the expectations and demands we place on our students and on one another. With that commitment to excellence paramount, we also encourage and celebrate creative exploration so that faculty and students feel free to study outside their disciplines as broadly as within it; to take advantage of different opportunities, whether attending or participating in a theater production, a musical event, or a sporting event; and to put forward new ideas. We want faculty and students to be analytically critical when listening to a lecture, reading in an area that may not seem at first glance to connect to their primary areas of interest, or simply solving a problem in the classroom, in a residence hall, in a faculty meeting, or in the president's office. There are no ideas beyond consideration and discussion.

Our first response to a new idea is to analyze it. If it seems like a good idea, then the second response is to think about how we might make it work. And here, a good idea from a junior faculty member is treated with the same seriousness as a good idea from a senior faculty member. It's the idea that matters, not the rank of the person proposing it. Finally, our hope is that all of the members of this academic community will be intentional about living and working creatively and cooperatively in this academic community.

We like to think of St. Andrews as "a college where you can..." There are too many places where the greater emphasis is on what you "can't" -- you can't focus on teaching or student advising the way you might want to, you can't develop new courses as easily as you'd like, you can't go a year without a publication, you can't teach an interdisciplinary general education course, and so on. Our ideal is a place where people, opportunities, connections and experiences all come together -- for students as well as faculty members -- to create an exciting, enriching intellectual environment.

Jason Cook, Texas A&M University System: The combination of world-class academics (teaching and research) and our overwhelming spirit of purpose, leadership and service. Typically, universities are strong at one or the other. Here at Texas A&M, we believe that we are strong in both areas.

Tom Gariepy, Maricopa Community Colleges: In terms of the professional circles from which we can attract talented prospective employees, it's important that prospective employees know as much as possible about our mission, vision and values to ensure the best fit possible. So we try to ensure that people know about our emphasis on teaching, learning and student success. We also highlight our size and the fact that each of our colleges has its own proud history and strong ties to its community.

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The Growing Role of Hispanics in Higher Education

HACU is a national organization that represents more than 450 colleges and universities that collectively serve two-thirds of the more than two million Hispanic students in U.S. higher education across 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. HACU works to advocate for increased access to higher education for Hispanics, as well as working toward improving the quality of higher education that people receive. HACU is active in helping Hispanic higher education professionals network, interact, and work toward improving both their careers and the institutions in which they work.

After reading, we invite you to continue the discussion in our LinkedIn group or follow HigherEd Careers on Twitter.

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Andrew Hibel, HigherEdJobs: The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) does a lot of work advocating for increased Hispanic access to higher education and for improving the quality and relevancy of their higher education experience. Tell us a bit about some of your current initiatives and other work in this area.

Antonio R. Flores, HACU: A major advocacy thrust is for increased federal funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). This set of some 270 colleges and universities enroll more than half the Hispanics in higher education today, but receive only a little over half the federal funding per student as all of higher education. In addition, we are urging passage this year of the DREAM Act, which would allow states to offer in-state tuition to certain undocumented residents and open the way to citizenship.

We have also instituted a Hispanic-Serving School Districts initiative intended to promote collaboration between K-12 and higher ed, especially HSIs, to address pipeline issues.

Annual conferences provide networking opportunities and a chance to learn about promising practices. In addition, we do a number of student, faculty, and staff programs aimed at building institutional capacity and preparing students for college and careers.

Hibel: Hispanics represent the largest and fastest growing minority population in the United States. Likewise, within higher education, Hispanic enrollment is up 15 percent¹ in U.S. colleges and universities. Do you think that a similar increase in Hispanic faculty, staff, and administrators in colleges and universities is an important goal, and why?

Flores: Absolutely. Students need to see faculty and administrators that look like them; they need to see real-life examples of Latinos in higher education to recognize the full range of their academic and career possibilities. In addition, institutions need to have the experience of Hispanic educators who understand the culture and background of the students, and who can help the institution broaden its own understanding of its mission and methods.

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State of our States: What will be the lasting effects on higher education?

It seems every year that state funding of higher education becomes an even more critical part of the operation of our state-supported institutions and programs. This year is no different, with so many states facing critical budget issues due to decreased revenue from the recession. What does this mean for higher education and your career? This month, we addressed these questions to one of the foremost experts in this subject, Paul Lingenfelter, President of the State Higher Education Executive Officers association (SHEEO).

After reading, we invite you to continue the discussion in our LinkedIn group or follow HigherEd Careers on Twitter.

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Andrew Hibel, HigherEdJobs: Dr. Lingenfelter, you currently serve as the president of the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) association.¹ Would you please briefly explain what the role of the association is, along with what your primary focus and responsibilities are as president?

Paul E. Lingenfelter, SHEEO: The members of SHEEO are the chief executives of statewide governing and coordinating boards. Our role is to help them and the states they serve develop and sustain excellent systems of higher education through annual conferences, policy studies, and a variety of related professional development activities. Our primary focus is to increase educational attainment in each of the United States, and our work touches on everything related to that priority -- finance, educational standards, accountability for student learning, financial assistance, governance, and the full range of public policies related to the effectiveness of higher education.

Hibel: Governors from several states including California, Minnesota, Nevada and Rhode Island are proposing large budget cuts to higher education programs. How can the colleges and universities in these states, and other states facing similar cuts, meet the needs of students if the state support isn't available?²

Lingenfelter: The current, especially deep recession (compounded by other issues that exacerbate its impact in some states), is putting great pressure on state budgets. The effects of these conditions on higher education are serious, and should not be minimized. But these conditions are not permanent, and no state has, or is seriously contemplating, ending all support for higher education. The inescapable question facing both states and educators is: How can we generate the numbers and quality of educated people our country needs in the future? That question has an affirmative answer. I'm confident most states, and I hope all states, will find their own version of an affirmative answer. I expect success in this agenda will require changes that increase the productivity and efficiency of higher education, as well as changes in state policy and increases in state support. Eventually we'll make these changes because we have no choice.

Hibel: Senator Seth Harp of Georgia, chairman of the upper chamber's higher education committee, was quoted saying, "We have to come to grips with the reality that we don't have any money. The Constitution mandates K-12 (education). Higher education is one of those areas where every one of us knows it has value -- but we also know there is not a constitutional mandate for higher education." Knowing that this statement most likely infers that the student will be forced to pay more since the state "doesn't have any money" to give to higher education institutions, will students really see the "value" and pay higher tuition rates to attend college?³

Lingenfelter: There is no constitutional mandate for higher education, but there is an economic mandate. And that mandate affects both individuals and the communities and economies in which they live. We have long expected students in higher education to pay some of the cost of their education, and that could well increase. But if those costs lead to lower levels of education in our society and workforce, the negative effects will be widespread. They will affect everybody, not just the people who fail to obtain postsecondary education. This is the issue facing both educators and policy makers.

Hibel: Given the current political environment, has that economic mandate changed and, if so, how do you think it has affected the ability to fund higher education?

Lingenfelter: I think the mandate has become stronger in this economic climate. So it creates some cross pressures -- discretionary money is harder to find, and we need to increase investment in things essential for our future. This affects students, their families, and public policy makers. We all will have to evaluate tradeoffs and make decisions.

Hibel: Senator Harp goes on to say, "We're asking sacrifices be made by students. We're asking sacrifices be made by programs. All we're asking is that the Regents, in using the toolbox, have shared sacrifices." There have been talks of "a 77 percent increase in tuition, thousands of layoffs, closing of some satellite campuses, ending of popular programs, gutting of course sections and limits on the number of incoming freshmen." Since other states might be in similar situations, do you think this is an acceptable "sacrifice" that must be incurred?⁴

Lingenfelter: I've not met Senator Harp, but I imagine he believes some aspects of higher education are discretionary, disposable. "Sacrificing" such items is not really a sacrifice, but making a statement about priorities. I don't know anybody in higher education, even people who share my view of its vital importance, who believe everything in higher education is of equal value. Especially when money is scarce, people have to make more difficult decisions about priorities. Good decisions about priorities consider value -- present value, future value, and options for maximizing value. The value of public investment in higher education needs to be gauged in these terms. I think higher education will come out well in any serious consideration of these issues, but I don't think institutions of higher education can afford to be complacent about the conversation. If higher education does nothing to respond to public demands for greater affordability and productivity, we will miss an opportunity to build a stronger public commitment.

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