Traditionally, these imperatives have put community colleges in a tough spot. There is a natural tension between their institutional commitments to open-access for all students, and their characteristically low graduation rates.

This challenge has made it particularly gratifying for us to partner with Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count. Since 2008, we have been working with ATD – which has received significant funding from Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – to help community colleges stay true to their role while improving their outcomes. What began as a 26-college pilot program in 2004 has blossomed into a network of 130 such institutions spread over 24 states and the District of Columbia.

The success of this initiative receives some much-deserved credit and recognition in this Sept. 6th cover story in Community College Week. By highlighting the practices some “leader colleges” have employed to boost their graduation rates, the article provides ample food for thought for institutions struggling with similar challenges.

All told, he’s right on target.  I wrote the book to meet both a beginner’s needs and a mid-level professional’s interests in learning more.  And hey, he ends up saying, “the final product is a worthwhile how-to resource for higher ed marketers.  I plan to share it widely with members of our branding and marketing team, and maybe even with some administrators.”

Thanks, Andrew. Your autographed copy is on the way.  Bound to be worth at least $2 more than the face value, someday.

-Rob Moore, President and CEO

1. Budgets
2. Raising money
3. Alumni engagement
4. New Competitors
5. Demographics

The fans of acrostics will see it all spells BRAND – and stands as a shameless plug for my just-published The Real U: Building Brands that Resonate with Students, Faculty, Staff, and Donors, which contains perhaps the only chapter in a book published by CASE that starts with a rude quote by Bo Diddley.

So, Scott, since I stepped in for you, how about a nice blurb on the book?  Available now!

- Rob Moore, Managing Partner

-Rob Moore

We lost a great friend and colleague yesterday.  Beth Drews, who for six years ran our marketing department, succumbed to pancreatic cancer after a valiant battle.  Beth was one of those people that you’re just glad to know: positive, energetic, smart, effective, engaged…I could string out more adjectives here, but you get the picture.

If you want direct testimonials, and a demonstration of how Beth remained connected and shared her special grace with us all, you can find both on Facebook under FriendsofBeth Drews.  She will be missed by many.

-Rob Moore

Read more in her obituary.

The Real U represents the first book-length manuscript I’ve written since completing my doctoral program, which was largely focused on modern and contemporary American fiction.  And as I was finishing The Real U, I found myself contemplating one of the lasting questions of my doctoral work:  has the Great American Novel been written?  For those of you not part of this particular academic debate, the nature and presence of the GAN has been batted around like a shuttlecock by generations of literary critics, with the usual candidates being The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and other texts.

My argument in my comprehensive exams was that the GAN hadn’t been written because I hadn’t written it yet.  Writers are nothing if not arrogant.  Now, nearly twenty years later, with no more novels having clattered under my fingertips, I’ve revised my thesis.  The Great American Novel is not a novel, it’s a brand.  It’s a brand in that any novel purporting to carry the GAN label has to meet certain established criteria in order to qualify.  But on a whole other level, the Great American Story – which is what any qualifying tome attempts to relate – may not be a novel at all, but may be, instead, a brand.

Our nation has always been about ambition, about establishing something new and making it last.  From John Winthrop describing our “city upon a hill” to Charles Wilson declaring “what’s good for General Motors” to Ray Kroc and Walt Disney and Howard Shultz and Phil Knight and Steve Jobs creating iconic entities, there’s been a long and strong convergence between the essential enterprise of America and the effective force of market-driven organizations.  Our big brands – McDonald’s and Disney and Starbucks and Nike and Apple – contain the American story, with all its strengths and faults, in a way that few if any books have been able to accomplish.

And if you really think about it, America itself is a brand – carrying with it the promise of an experience that we as a people, as an entity, must fulfill if we’re to live up to our collective aspirations.  So buy The Real U, sit down with a venti latte, power up your Mac, and do a Google search for “top 10 brands.”  You’re living the quintessential American dream.

- Rob Moore, Managing Partner

Central to the site is Lipman Hearne’s best asset: the staff. Visitors can browse staff stories in the People section, hear staff members’ voices through quotes that float throughout the site, and catch glimpses of them as they travel the globe. (In one such glimpse, a space suit is involved.)

Other media-rich features include portfolios of work, curated along special themes, such as Wasabi for the Brain and The Dean’s List. In addition, the stories of successful collaborations are told through selected case studies, including University of Cincinnati and The Nurse-Family Partnership.

Key Insights reports, presentations, and articles are also available on the site. Information sharing tools make it possible for visitors to share these resources and news articles with colleagues.

Check out Lipman Hearne’s website and leave a comment here – we’d love to hear your feedback.

- Erin Kelly

Tom is known for innovation in nonprofit marketing. He brings nearly 30 years of success and leadership in the field to Lipman Hearne and has been an active leader in the nonprofit community.

You can download the report and sign up for the free July 17 webinar here.

In the meantime, we asked Andy Goodman, Director of The Goodman Center, to walk us through the highlights:

Us: How mediocre are these meetings, generally?

Andy: Survey participants gave teleconferences and videoconferences a cumulative average of about B-. Webinars got about a B overall.

Us: What’s the most common cause of bad virtual meetings?

Andy: In the survey, participants chose from six possible causes. The single most common cause was lack of participation—people on the call just don’t participate. But the cause that had the greatest negative impact on the quality of telemeetings was poor leadership and facilitation.
Just to make sure we didn’t miss any causes, we also asked participants to volunteer their own diagnoses of poor calls.  Participants cited poor time management, noise and technical problems most often. They also offered some pointed observations—one talked about “typing questions and wondering if they are going to Never Never Land.”

Us: What do think is behind all these problems?

Andy: Running a good meeting can be challenging under the best of circumstances. Now take away eye contact and introduce cameras, mute buttons, and a variety of technical hurdles. A whole new set of challenges can emerge.  And yet, an overwhelming majority of respondents said that they had never received any training on how to effectively run a teleconference, video conference or web-based meeting.

Us: Do you think telemeetings are a lost cause then?

Andy: Not at all.  Telemeetings are a great tool. But like any tool, they’ve got to be used skillfully. We’ve been teaching—and practicing—meeting skills at The Goodman Center for a while now, and we’re planning to offer a new class in the Fall on telemeetings.  Also, our report cites some online tips and tools from a range of sources across the Internet.

As parents deal with the realities of the economic downturn, they’re taking on a greater role in the college decision-making process.

Lipman Hearne explores how the economic downturn is affecting parents’ level of involvement in one of the largest investments they’ll ever make – their child’s college education. “The Rules Have Changed: How the Parent-Student Team Picks the Perfect College” provides three ways colleges can more effectively communicate with parents and their children. The report draws from our experience with hundreds of colleges and universities, interviews with parents and admissions professionals, and data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey. Download the free report.