Licensing Dollars Boost Higher Education's Bottom Line
Licensing Dollars Boost Higher Education's Bottom Line
The challenge for today's colleges and universities is to reconcile their clear need to remain competitive while controlling their costs, which have been spiraling ever higher in recent years. Achieving academic effectiveness in more efficient ways is a matter of major concern at New York's Pace University, which led to the introduction of a tuition guarantee that locks in first-year rates over the course of five years.
When Stephen Landry became chief information officer of Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., in 1996, the university had a pokey 56-kilobit telephone modem connection to the internet. One of Landry's first actions as CIO was to upgrade the connection to a T1 line, and he's been trying to stay ahead of technology ever since.
In 2004, Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., received an amazing gift. George Cornell--who is a university alumnus and philanthropist, a relative of the founder of Cornell University, and the son of one of the first employees at IBM--left the liberal arts college $93 million in his will when he passed away the prior year. The gift nearly doubled the college's $113 million endowment.
Taylor Behl was a pretty, sympathetic, and emotionally trusting 17-year-old freshman who came to the city of Richmond in late summer to begin studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. How can these things be certain? The photos she posted of herself and the writings in her online weblogs at LiveJournal.com and Myspace tell the story.
By age 63, I had become a successful, wealthy entrepreneur many times over. Incensed that the son of an employee had been denied admission to medical school despite having adequate credentials, I decided to open my own institution.
Just as today's leader must have a handful of essential qualities and characteristics, the members of the effective marketing team must possess these qualities. The first, of course, is the desire, like the leader, to orbit a worthy vision.
With decreasing funding and increasing demand from students and faculty for the latest technology, smart spending of technology budgets is crucial at colleges and universities today. But IT decision makers are working hard to keep costs down and savings up while helping to further the missions of their schools.
It tantalizes the best millennial students with colorful and personalized brochures, screaming the student's name and interests.
Here's the good news: According to Chicago-area firm Teenage Research Unlimited, young people spent upwards of a whopping $169 billion in 2004. Those dollars can translate into significant business around colleges and can impact the way a school attracts Generation Y prospects.
The bad news: Figuring out how to build a retail portfolio makes for a real undertaking.
In terms of expansion planning, University of St. Francis had done everything right. The Catholic institution in Joliet, Ill., got input from city officials and residents. School officials even had the Cathedral Area Preservation Association's (CAPA) support, which was key with the campus falling within that city section.
This fall a couple dozen students across the United States took up blogging for their alma maters. In occasional or weekly posts they offer slices of campus life that the Admissions office can share with prospective students and their parents. Because these are blogs and not recruiting brochures, the writers have a chance, it seems, to tell it like it is.
Technology took center stage October 18-21 in Orlando for the annual Educause conference. More than 200 technology companies and other exhibitors were on hand to showcase their latest products and services for higher education. The full list of vendors and their products can be found at www.educause.edu/e05/CorporateParticipation/5108.
Open source is like solar energy. I'm absolutely, 100 percent in favor of it where and when it's viable. You should be, too. In cases where it isn't a good bet, I swallow my pride, compromise my values, and keep paying my electric bills.