The Commons

Conversations for Nonprofits in Tough Times

‘Insight’ Archive

Is NBC’s Sitcom a friend or foe to community colleges?

2009 Sep 22
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Does NBC have a hit on its hands with “Community“? It appears it might.
The new sitcom about students at a community college was the second-highest rated show of the night.  But as I blogged earlier this year, the question for higher ed is, “What impact will the program have on the image of the community [...]

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Get Schooled

2009 Sep 9
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I attended the launch yesterday of “Get Schooled,” a new, five-year public engagement effort funded by the Gates Foundation in partnership with Viacom and several other corporate partners. Viacom committed an extremely rare 30-minute “roadblock” on all of their properties to broadcast a short film to officially launch the initiative. The film showed how the [...]

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Confessions of a Campus Tour Guide

2009 Aug 24
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“We’re walking, we’re walking…”:  Anyone who has been through the rigors of a multi-college campus tour knows that Bonnie Hunt must have modeled her character in the movie Dave by shadowing a college campus tour guide. The backwards-walking, über-perky tour guide that can rattle off anecdotes that date to the 1800s has reached the level [...]

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Can ‘Community’ Provide an Opportunity?

2009 Aug 3
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Years ago, NBC had a slogan that went, “Let’s All Be There.” Many fans of community colleges have already decided the network’s new fall show, titled Community, is the last thing they want to be there to see.  They’re worried that it’ll be a retread of tired, negative stereotypes about community college students and teachers.  [...]

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Sacred cow tipping (Debunking Conventional Wisdom on College Costs)

2009 Jul 24
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There is a big hubbub right now on an Inside Higher Ed piece by Dennis Jones and Jane Wellman called “Bucking Conventional Wisdom on College Costs.” Judging by the commentary, they have clearly gored a small herd of sacred cows by attempting to debunk the conventional wisdom that budgets will (should) only rise, that spending [...]

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Share your stories: Raising Funds in a Recession

2009 Jul 9
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Scott Pansky’s story in this week’s Philanthropy Journal makes a strong case for nonprofits to build mindshare as they struggle to raise dollars in an economic recession. Pansky’s point is valid—but it’s not enough.
Last week, we hosted a group of Chicago-area development officers who shared their opinions on the challenges of raising money during [...]

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Three Paths to Staffing Social Media

2009 Jul 1
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Bring up social media in a group of nonprofit leaders, and the conversation stops.
There’s often a long silence — the kind that makes presenters wince — and then someone raises a hand and asks, “How?” Not how to do it, not how to figure out what to say, but how can we possibly do that, [...]

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Dive in and explore the social media “coral reef”

2009 Jun 23
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Late last week Masha Alexander and I were at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. Among other cool stuff, I had the chance to hold a hefty Aplysia californica – a.k.a. a common sea slug. Aplysia are bred in quantity at Rosenstiel because their neurons are large and [...]

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Don’t panic – a college education still a best bet

2009 Jun 1
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A recent posting on The Chronicle of Higher Education blogsite worries, “Is it possible that higher education might be the next bubble to burst (pdf)?”  Now, I’ve never been one to denigrate hyperbole – believing it, in fact, to be the most outstanding rhetorical device that has ever been employed!!! – but this strikes me [...]

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Advice to enrollment managers and college marketers: It’s more than yield.

2009 May 14
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There is a plethora of news stories emerging right now about colleges – particularly elite schools – and the trouble they’re having making their fall 2009 class. The focus is typically on yield — the percentage of admitted students who enroll at an institution. Why yield? Because this metric has long been considered the bellwether [...]

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