With the hard economic times headlining the news pages and broadcasts each day, campus CEOs are sending a variety of messages to their campuses, to alumni and to donors.
- President Ruth Simmons wrote a screen and a half about Brown University's steps to address budget difficulty, citing "the strength, integrity, and character of the Brown community."
- University of Virginia leader John T. Casteen III wrote a very long message, requiring 1,700 words (more than a full day's output for participants in National Novel Writing Month).
- Penn State University leader Graham Spanier sent a lengthy kind of Frequently Asked Questions list, with seven questions and answers.
Among the many others addressing these issues are Lafayette College president Daniel Weiss, Bowdoin College president Larry Mills and Duke University president Richard Brodhead.
Over at College Web Editor, Karine Joly wrote about Wesleyan University's Securing the Future site, which has included a video update from school president Michael S. Roth. President Roth is noteworthy for his own presidential blog, Roth on Wesleyan.
Meanwhile, the Association of American Universities' Public Affairs Network circulated a preliminary compilation of some members' presidential messages in mid-November:
To communicate to the public how our universities are coping with the economic crisis in such areas as financial aid, budget cuts, and capital projects...AAU would like to post on our website the letters and other communications that presidents and chancellors or other university officials have issued on this subject over the past several weeks...
Here are a few:
- Cornell University
- Harvard University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- University of Kansas
- University of Michigan
- University of California (statewide system) [48kb PDF]
- Washington University in St. Louis
- University of Pennsylvania
- Emory University
These kinds of messages will continue on for months (and, likely, for years) to come. It is a graduate thesis waiting to be written: how campus CEOs communicated with constituents in these difficult times. While there are basic elements that they all share, are there lessons to be learned from examining the differences among them? And how do we know if they are accomplishing something?
Finally, here is a seven-minute video from the Chronicle of Higher Education, where the presidents of four private US institutions (Ursinus College; College of St. Benedict; Birmingham Southern College; and Wittenberg University) discuss how the economy is affecting their campuses, what they're doing about it, and how they're communicating.
Let's hope the coming year is kinder to higher ed than appears likely as of now. I'll add one more posting in a few days, before taking a break for the holidays.
Photo of money by Andy Shaindlin
