Ten with Ken (Audio)

Ken Steele is Canada's foremost higher ed strategist, speaker and facilitator, and for more than a decade he has presented hundreds of keynotes, campus presentations and workshops across North America.

In this brief video, he describes how a combination of rich media, mini-keynotes, audience interaction, group discussion, and real-time polls keeps some of the toughest audiences engaged: college and university professors, front-line staff, senior administrators and governing boards.

For more information about Ken's campus presentations, please visit http://eduvation.ca/services/campus-pd-presentations/

For virtual keynotes, delivered remotely at much lower cost, visit http://eduvation.ca/services/virtual-keynotes/

For committee workshops, see http://eduvation.ca/services/workshops/

Ken Steele is Canada's foremost higher ed strategist, speaker and facilitator, and for more than a decade he has presented hundreds of keynotes, campus presentations and workshops across North America.

In this brief video, he describes the goals of campus presentations, workshops and PD sessions, to create widespread shared understanding of emerging trends and best practices, and to open eyes and minds to potential innovations in higher education.

For more information about Ken's campus presentations, please visit http://eduvation.ca/services/campus-pd-presentations/

For virtual keynotes, delivered remotely at much lower cost, visit http://eduvation.ca/services/virtual-keynotes/

For committee workshops, see http://eduvation.ca/services/workshops/

Ken Steele's 10th annual higher ed "year in review" continues with part 3, a look at the fall – and rise – of for-profit fortunes in 2016.

In the previous two episodes, we looked at the proliferation of free college tuition policies across North America, the rise of anti-intellectualism and protectionism, and some of the implications for international education. (If you missed them, check out part 1 at https://youtu.be/CZ6nuznRV_I , and part 2 at https://youtu.be/AWuE7EhoejI ).

6) FOR-PROFITS

For decades now, massive for-profit schools like the University of Phoenix and Kaplan University have been rewriting the rules of higher education, and transforming the landscape. Last year was their annus horribilis, but also likely marks a turning point to much better times ahead.

For 8 years, the Obama administration aggressively prosecuted for-profit colleges and universities for deceptive marketing, fraudulent enrolments, and high rates of student loan defaults. Collectively, they were receiving more than $20 billion in student loans and $4 billion in Pell Grants, so the Government Accountability Office investigated thoroughly. The GAO's undercover agents caught recruiters on hidden camera, encouraging students to lie on their loan applications. Major online universities like Phoenix were apparently targeting homeless shelters, and encouraging students with little chance of academic success to apply for substantial financial aid. There was a Senate hearing into For-Profit School recruitment practices, and new, tougher regulations.

Between 2011 and 2015, for-profit universities saw declines of 30% or more in enrolment. Over 5 years, the University of Phoenix alone lost a quarter-million students, and laid off about a thousand employees. Its parent company, Apollo Group, retreated from Canada, closing Meritus University in Fredericton after just a couple of years, in order to concentrate on defending the home front.

Obama's so-called "gainful employment" legislation, finalized in 2014, aimed to keep student loan payments below 8% of a graduate's total earnings, and would revoke financial aid eligibility for institutions that graduated students with unmanageable debt levels. Corinthian Colleges faced legal challenges by state and federal agencies, and finally declared it was closing more than 100 campuses in April 2015, including Everest College and CDI Institutes in Canada. In August 2016, ITT Technical Institute lost its accreditation, and it declared bankruptcy within a month, closing 130 campuses and laying off 8,000 employees. In September 2016, Washington revoked the accreditation of ACICS, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, after 105 years. ACICS accredited hundreds of for-profit and distance-ed colleges and universities. And just last week, in the final days of the Obama administration, it was announced that more than 800 programs failed the Department of Education's "gainful employment" standards, and therefore risked losing student aid eligibility – 98% of them at for-profit institutions.

But it seems pretty likely that 2016 marks the nadir of fortune for America's for-profit colleges and universities. President-elect Trump hasn't articulated his higher education policies, but it seems obvious that the founder of Trump University will have sympathies with other for-profits. After five years using the "university" label without accreditation, the courts forced a name change, but Trump University was closing by that time anyway. The president-elect has made it clear that he is a strong supporter of school choice and charter schools, promising to repurpose about a third of the federal education budget. It seems likely that the Trump administration will deregulate the for-profit sector, or at least relax enforcement of existing regulations. Analysts predict that he may grant a reprieve to ACICS. In the past, Trump has declared that he would completely eliminate the federal Department of Education – possibly eliminating the National Center for Education Statistics and the Pell Grant program as well. Anything his administration does to reduce or relax the federal government's power over financial aid accreditation will remove the "teeth" from federal legislation like Title Nine, which protects gender equity in athletics and on campus. And Trump has indicated strong support for competency-based degrees, which will likely continue to gain momentum during his term.

Trump's nominee for Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, is a reformer of elementary and secondary schools, a strong believer in charter schools, school choice, and voucher systems. She is likely to promote privatization, performance-based government funding, and legislation to further reduce the power of faculty and staff unions. She has been a supporter of religious schools and free speech on campus, and an opponent of political correctness, affirmative action, and same-sex marriage.

Decades of growth in for-profit higher ed were largely undone under two terms of Obama's administration. Whether you think that's a good thing or not, the Trump administration is poised to reverse much of the regulation and enforcement that has held back the multinational expansion of for-profit colleges and universities. In Canada and around the world, we need to prepare ourselves for a resurgence of corporate players in higher education. A major shift in the landscape lies ahead.

Excerpts:

Dan Rather Reports – https://youtu.be/Pa1DxUWMsEU

Frontline 2010 – https://youtu.be/08_AuakqdXs

Frontline 2016 - https://youtu.be/Cew6EutvAjE

Fox 5 Atlanta - https://youtu.be/2vhFcKIhm4Y

GAO - https://youtu.be/9PbevtrhEKM

MSNBC - https://youtu.be/JUaMFVDV9PQ

NBC - https://youtu.be/S1XUwbtMxfE

Corinthian hearings - https://youtu.be/tkKmjyuoKyY

Betsy Devos highlights - https://youtu.be/Mc2n9uacQq4

Trump's school choice proposal - http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/donald-trump-school-choice-proposal-227915

Next time, we'll look back at campus challenges and controversies of 2016, in our annual review of higher ed headaches!

(Stay tuned until after the closing credits for some bloopers!)

Ken Steele's 10th annual higher ed "year in review" continues with part 2, a look back at populism, protectionism and post-truth in 2016. (Check out part 1 at https://youtu.be/CZ6nuznRV_I ).

There were some significant, and even terrifying, political events last year:

3) POST-TRUTH

Oxford Dictionaries have declared "post-truth" the word of 2016. It was used 200 times more than any year previous, mostly because of the US election and UK referendum. Thanks to social media, deliberate misinformation and the layoff of journalists and editors, many people no longer know what to believe. Russian hackers and trolls waged cyberwarfare last year to influence elections and destabilize NATO. Propaganda and "fake news" has proliferated. George Orwell's dystopian vision (from his novel 1984) was set just a few decades too early.

Britain, we heard last year, has "had enough of experts." https://youtu.be/GGgiGtJk7MA

Widespread support for Brexit, Donald Trump, Rob Ford and "Boaty McBoatface" exemplifies the anti-intellectualism that is rampant. Universities will be popular targets in this "post-truth" era. President-elect Trump has said emphatically how he "loves the poorly-educated": https://youtu.be/Vpdt7omPoa0

4) NATIONALISM

Across Europe and the US, populist movements have spread anxiety about immigration and led to tougher border enforcement, racist hate crimes, and plenty of xenophobic rhetoric. (From "poisoned skittles" to "extreme vetting.") Trump campaigned for president on a platform of literally building a wall: https://youtu.be/ZGSAhNZnisk

It is estimated that Brexit will cost UK universities £3.7 billion, and 34,000 jobs. It also led to a 36% decline in international student interest.

A survey conducted prior to the US election found that 60% of international students would be less inclined to study in the US under a Trump presidency. On election night, 200,000 Americans tried to access the Citizenship & Immigration Canada website simultaneously, crashing it for 10 hours. The next day, American Google searches and web hits to Canadian colleges and universities tripled or quintupled!

The US brand for international student recruitment has shifted, and Canada, Australia and New Zealand may be well positioned to gain market share over the coming years.

5) SAUDI

In international education, several other major shifts in 2016 focused on Saudi Arabia. Plummeting oil prices have impacted the Kingdom's budget, and inevitably the King Abdullah Scholarship program, which has sent more than 200,000 students abroad. Enrolments in US language schools showed the first drop, but overall Saudi students in the US have declined 20%. Universities not ranked in the world's top 200 can expect Saudi enrolments to drop to virtually zero. And in Ontario, we saw significant controversy last year over gender segregated college campuses operated in Saudi Arabia by Niagara and Algonquin College, sparked by the premier's declaration that they are "unacceptable." In the end the controversy dissipated, but the lasting effect came from financial troubles. Algonquin College announced that, after losing about $1.5 million on its Saudi campus, it was pulling out.

Next time, in part 3, we'll look at the pivot in the fortunes of for-profit higher education, triggered by the US election. The policy positions of president-elect Trump and his proposed Education Secretary will pave the way for some interesting years ahead!

Stay tuned until after the closing credits for some bloopers!

Ken Steele's 10th annual higher ed "year in review" looks back at 2016 and sums up the major news and trends shaping the postsecondary landscape in just 6 words.

In part 1, he reviews the many tragedies of 2016, from the loss of famous celebrities and great thinkers to Zika and Brangelina. 2016 was a year that left many feeling adrift, and the surge towards populism gave us Brexit, Trump, and Boaty McBoatface.

Plenty of trends we identified in previous years continued in 2016, from gender equity and sexual assault protocols to political correctness, indigenous content and "peak campus". But in this episode, we look at a major disaster and an emerging trend that defined the year that was:

1) FIRE!

The biggest news story in Canada was unquestionably the Fort MacMurray wildfire, which swept through 1.5 million acres in northern Alberta. It caused the emergency evacuation of all 88,000 residents in town, destroyed 2,400 homes, and caused about $9 billion in damage. Keyano College was fortunate, in that its campuses escaped structural damage, but smoke remediation still cost about $15 million. Canada is still feeling the economic and labour market impacts of the disaster.

2) FREE!

Momentum towards free tuition programs has been building across North America for several years. In 2014, the "Tennessee Promise" offered students 2 years of community college for zero tuition. In 2015, President Obama proposed a $60 billion "American College Promise" program, and Minnesota and Oregon approved plans of their own. In 2016, Kentucky followed suit, and Bernie Sanders pushed for free university tuition as well.

Obama - https://youtu.be/nFWhzdQcwnk Sanders - https://youtu.be/c4I2dbTxpqU

In Canada, Quebec CÉGEPs have been offering free tuition for 50 years now, but in 2016 Ontario and New Brunswick launched new programs. The Canadian Federation of Students published a report calling for "education justice," and calculating that it would cost the federal government $10.2 billion. CFS staged a day of protest in early November.

Charlatan - https://youtu.be/5PUQ3L8zBQI

Next time, in part 2, we'll look at the global shift towards populism, protectionism, and a post-truth distrust of intellectuals. The trends pose major challenges, and some opportunities, to higher education.

Stay tuned until after the closing credits for some bloopers!

This week, Ken completes his 3-part review of higher ed branding in 2015 with a look at "New Names & Nicknames," from DMZ to uVic! (Part 1 was "Cautionary Tales & Cautious Rebrandings" https://youtu.be/m2LF3rGiMLc . Part 2 was "Bold New Brands of 2015" https://youtu.be/pxmRfUfzZ5o .)

Without a doubt, institutions are loathe to lose decades of brand equity and recognition by changing their names. Generally it occurs only when the institution's mandate has changed significantly, such as when a college gains university status, or an institute becomes a polytechnic. (Most recently it was SIAST becoming Saskatchewan Polytechnic.)

For years we've also seen a pretty widespread trend toward dropping adjectives like "regional" and "community" from college names, and minimizing or eliminating the use of the word "college" itself.

Last spring, Saskatchewan's Southeast Regional College launched a bright new brand identity without the word "Regional."

The AUCC rechristened itself "Universities Canada" last year, launching a "dynamic" new visual identity using a diamond rather than a square, to symbolize convergence, such as at a crossroads, a town square, or a university quad. https://youtu.be/cYeXSlzYIsw

Last year we also saw Fanshawe College announce the Don Smith School of Building Technology, UBC name the Peter A. Allard School of Law, and Wilfrid Laurier University rename the Laziridis School of Business & Economics.

Higher ed more often shortens names than changing them completely, such as when Ryerson University's Digital Media Zone adopted the official name "DMZ" last spring.

Ryerson University itself launched a refreshed visual identity last summer, featuring fresh new colours, a slightly modernized typeface, and a bit of "out of the box" symbolism. The positioning strategy emphasizes 5 key differentiators from other Toronto institutions, and we look at two quick brand videos to see it in action. In keeping with our "nicknames" topic, Ryerson also revealed two abbreviated logos for use in informal situations, and social media. Q&A with Sheldon Levy: https://youtu.be/i3Y7Ln2slyc Mind & Action: https://youtu.be/INllQ597-1U

Last February, the University of Victoria finally embraced the nickname, "uVic," by which they have been affectionately known for years. The dynamic new brand includes refreshed colours, a new wordmark, and new graphic elements including a wavy "connective thread" and some playful birds, martlets, drawn from the coat of arms. https://youtu.be/gsARvoBJCoU

One of the challenges to adopting a shorter name for marketing purposes is opposition from internal and external stakeholders. I think perhaps uVic learned from the example set by Western University back in 2012. Critics thought the name geographically inaccurate, although frankly there are dozens of "Northwesterns" and "Southwesterns" in the eastern US. The new identity solved many technical issues, and introduced an elegant system of sub-brands that is the nicest I have seen anywhere.

So we've seen colleges and universities use several strategies to pave the way for a new name or brand. UCFV adopted an acronym, Malaspina a memorable icon, CBU stripped away all semblance of a logo, and uVic made it clear that the old logo will continue in widespread use.

The real work of rebranding an academic community isn't creative work at all; the most challenging aspects are consultation, research, consensus building, and easing the campus into a new identity. Too many top-tier ad agencies have underestimated this challenge, or badly mishandled it. It's the aspect of higher ed brand strategy that I think is most exciting, and it's the reason I developed my proprietary Brand Chemistry™ model. www.BrandChemistry.ca

And this week's #ICYMI: a new recruitment theme from Dalhousie University, "Find what drives you." Nicely addresses concerns about an intellectually-challenging student experience. https://youtu.be/2ysWuPN62og

Coming up next time: a surprise episode! Watch for it later in March, or subscribe to our free email newsletter now for exclusive early access. http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/

Last week, Ken shared some classic cautionary tales of higher ed brand misfires, and we looked at some particularly cautious new brands from Canadian colleges and universities, perhaps in response. (Last week: https://youtu.be/m2LF3rGiMLc ) This week, we look at the flipside: provocative brands and campaigns that deliberately court controversy.

Aggressive Competition:

We start with some examples of pretty aggressive "poaching" campaigns for student recruitment in other institutions' backyards:

York University led the way with their "question every angle" campaign, and notably a subway station domination strategy at the doorstep of the University of Toronto.

Memorial University of Newfoundland has bought up bus shelters along routes to major undergraduate university campuses across Canada, to promote their Grad Studies "on the edge."

The University of Saskatchewan has advertised on Calgary transit, dissing Edmonton as a study destination.

And St Mary's University has bought billboards across the street from Cape Breton University, encouraging students to go to Halifax for the right education.

Going Negative:

Even more controversial campaigns in recent years have mocked major competitors:

Lakehead University took on Yale and then-president George Bush in their 2006 recruitment campaign, "Yale Shmale."

Algoma University mocked the fictional "Colossal U" in their 2008 recruitment campaign. But spending your marketing budget establishing name recognition for an imaginary competitor seems too clever by half.

Sex Sells:

Much simpler are the higher ed campaigns that appeal directly to the teenage libido:

Education New Zealand urged Asian students to "Get further away from your parents" in a short-lived 2007 campaign with pretty racy ads.

Algoma University's 2009 campaign, "Plan your escape," likewise encouraged Toronto students to get 681 kms away from their parents.

Ohio's Oberlin College got explicit with their 2011 microsite, "WhyTheF*ckShouldIChooseOberlin.com", and got 1.5 million pageviews in their first few months as a reward.

In 2015, though, the Université de Moncton outclassed them all with a sexy ad that garnered $300,000 in media headlines, and moreover boosted out-of-province student enrolment by 66%! https://youtu.be/hSwSIALZZqE

Just Plain Bold:

But a brand campaign can be bold without being controversial, or explicit. In 2015, Calgary's Bow Valley College launched a great new slogan, "Success Rises," and a social justice fundraiser to boot, "1,000 Women Rising." It's memorable, emotional, and nicely done. https://youtu.be/bjAwQsfykC0 https://youtu.be/qLFYfxUDJcw

But of course, good ideas attract imitators quickly, and BVC's "Rise" was picked up less than a year later by the massive University of Phoenix, which has just launched its new brand platform, "We Rise." https://youtu.be/N98RB1LK12o

A Bold Athletic Brand:

Finally in this episode, Ken shares a gritty, powerful new brand and campaign for Stingers Athletics at Montreal's Concordia University. You don't want to miss it, just #ICYMI! https://youtu.be/n_vQv05ZpZs

Next week, we'll wrap up our review of 2015 with a look back at some new names and nicknames in Canadian higher ed branding.

Brand Consulting:

Don't forget that Ken Steele is available to conduct higher ed brand audits, competitive audits, and campus Brand Chemistry™ workshops and presentations. Check out www.BrandChemistry.ca for more information.

For the next few episodes, Ken Steele returns to the Brand Chemistry™ Lab to analyze recent trends in higher ed brand identities and marketing campaigns. This week, we look at some notable brand mis-steps that have become cautionary tales for campus marketers, and the inevitable result: some very cautious, gradual rebrandings that don't risk passionate opposition from traditional-minded stakeholders like students, faculty, and alumni.

Particularly for smaller, remote institutions experiencing the early effects of declining demographics, it's critical to develop the visibility a strong brand can support. In recent years, many higher ed institutions have hired top-notch ad agencies to develop their visual identities and marketing campaigns, but there are definite risks to that approach. Branding an academic community is significantly more political a process than branding a consumer product like beer or fast food. Presidents don't have the authority of corporate CEOs, faculty aren't as compliant as typical employees, and students are a complete wild card. Not only does the process demand patience and plenty of consultation, but it also demands a marketer's "A" game; a campus full of brilliant critical thinkers will quickly find any fault possible.

Cautionary Tales:

In Fredericton New Brunswick, St Thomas University's student union discovered what happens when a design for your orientation week program is actually plagiarized from a broadway musical.

The University of Dayton, in Ohio, launched a new brand for its Flyers athletics, which was promptly criticized by students for appearing to promote venereal disease instead.

The University of California system attempted to launch a new, modern icon to unite the ten campuses in the UC system. But stakeholders objected to the ugly graphic, which suggested nothing so much as a flushing toilet.

And the University of Waterloo undertook an extensive strategic rebranding process in 2008, only to be sideswiped at the last moment when the proposed logo was leaked online.

Cautious Rebrandings:

In part because of these prominent brand debacles, many college and university rebrandings in recent years have been extraordinarily cautious and traditional.

Brandon University, in Manitoba, launched a new visual identity based on their traditional coat of arms in late 2014. Although it dropped the Greek motto, and streamlined the crest to focus on the shield, it retained the colour scheme and didn't stir up opposition. The new look, sans serif typeface, and bold chevron create a much more contemporary and professional identity, without alienating traditionalists.

The Université du Québec en Outaouais redesigned its visual identity last year. Although the new UQO acronym is a starting departure in colour and typeface from the previous logo, both were pretty cold and corporate, and the change is unlikely to generate much passion one way or the other. The new marketing campaign, "Être plus près, aller plus loin" (be closer, go further) is a pretty common tagline for a regional institution speaking to local students.

The University of Ottawa launched a new brand identity in late 2014 that also followed a university marketing convention, in urging students to "Defy the Conventional." But the new campaign, featuring bright neon colours and cartoon-like illustrations, is a notably creative variation on the theme. https://youtu.be/fhEcDhTDt3I

Finally, a different sort of caution is evident in the gradual "unbranding" of Cape Breton University. In late 2014, CBU announced a new brand that used only a "temporary wordmark" set in the most boring typeface possible, and the single bold word "Happen." The brand concept looks intriguing, although the creative executions haven't really appeared yet. In fact, CBU deliberately went a full year without a logo, perhaps to help minimize opposition from those who might have been fierce defenders of the previous visual identity. The new logo for CBU is expected imminently, but this "slow-motion" rebranding process is yet another way to cope with passionate stakeholders attached to the status quo.

Next week, we'll look at some examples of intentionally provocative brands and campaigns, deliberately courting controversy. It happens more often than you might think, and the results can be striking.

Just #ICYMI, check out Mount St Vincent University's new recruitment campaign, featuring 15-second ads using thousands of dominos as a metaphor for the student's path. https://youtu.be/yQ0oVRMXcBo

Ken Steele is available to consult on institutional brand strategy, deliver presentations or facilitate workshops about institutional differentiation and recruitment marketing. For more information http://eduvation.ca/brand/

For early access to upcoming episodes, subscribe to Ken's free email newsletter at http://eduvation.ca/subscribe/

Last week, Ken Steele looked back at some major PR headaches sparked by students and faculty, from white student unions to a blogging board member. https://youtu.be/qn0ylCsR9Jw

But some of the biggest media relations migraines of all start at the top, with board chairs and presidents.

At Western University, president Amit Chakma's double pay made headlines in 2015, but he had done nothing wrong in accepting a contract with administrative leave. The bigger issue was that the board committee normally responsible for negotiating such contracts was bypassed, and the board chair, Chirag Shah, seemed responsible. A task force made 22 recommendations for governance reform at Western, and Shah stepped off the board at the end of his term last November.

The year's biggest PR headache, though, was the abrupt resignation of UBC president Arvind Gupta, only a year into his term. The board hired a passionate reformer with a bold agenda. Gupta didn't have the usual university administration experience, but instead had founded Mitacs, a fairly small nonprofit. From the beginning, Gupta made it clear he wanted to make UBC more relevant to the needs of society, and he knew that driving change would make some people uneasy.

The abrupt departure of a president, after significant executive changes and barely concealed friction with the board chair, would have been bad enough for the media relations people tasked with managing the situation. But then, business professor Jennifer Berdahl wrote a blog suggesting that Gupta lost a "masculinity contest."

The blog itself might have gone unnoticed amid a storm of speculation, if not that board chair Montalbano took exception. He felt "hurt" that accusations of racism and sexism were being hurled by a professor he knew personally. And so, one fateful day, he called her to discuss the blog directly. Montalbano claimed he was extraordinarily careful, throughout the call, to confirm that Berdahl felt comfortable discussing the blog, and that she did not feel her academic freedom was being threatened or compromised.

But a few days later, Berdahl either changed her mind or found her voice, and a new blog railed against Montalbano's attempt to intimidate her and suppress her right to academic free speech. She went to the media, and claimed he threatened to discuss the "trouble she was causing" with her dean. Ultimately a fact-finding investigation agreed with Berdahl, and Montalbano stepped down from the UBC board in August.

Global News interview with Arvind Gupta: http://globalnews.ca/news/2484938/watch-one-on-one-with-former-ubc-president-arvind-gupta/

Global News interview with John Montalbano: http://globalnews.ca/video/2173090/extended-ubc-board-chair-john-montalbano

CBC interview with Jennifer Berdahl: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2673915157

Some of the biggest dysfunctions on college and university campuses occur when outsiders attempt to push an agenda without truly appreciating the subtleties of academic politics. It's vitally important to recognize that universities aren't so much hierarchies, as loose democracies.

Even after someone is fired, the media migraine can continue. Last year, former president Ralph Weeks sued Medicine Hat College for wrongful dismissal in 2013, and Ilene Busch-Vishniac sued the University of Saskatchewan too.

Scandals and controversies can explode in the media like a reputational bomb. There's no point attempting to bury an inconvenient truth on campus, because it will always surface, and when it comes to light the damage will be even worse. It's always preferable to identify potentially explosive issues early, be proactive in treating them, and transparent in reporting them to the campus community. Best to find the bomb and defuse it, than have it go off unexpectedly and take everyone by surprise.

BTW, Ken Steele is available to facilitate workshops or present at conferences and on campuses about PR headaches and how to manage media relations in a crisis. More information at http://eduvation.ca/pr-headaches-how-to-treat-them/

#ICYMI, this week we feature an excerpt from UNB Fredericton's "dog's eye view of campus" featuring Lucy. https://youtu.be/aaxJwxOKrQk

For exclusive preview access, a week early, to future episodes of "Ten with Ken", be sure to subscribe to Eduvation's "in the loop" email newsletter, at http://www.eduvation.ca/subscribe/

This week, Ken Steele looks back at some of the biggest PR headaches afflicting Canadian colleges and universities in the past year, looking for common causes and some lessons we can learn about crisis communications.

Academia may well be the most challenging environment in which to manage messaging, with opinionated faculty, unrestrained students, and concerned parents, alumni, and taxpayers in the community.

Without a doubt, many PR headaches are caused by the students, intentionally or not. In previous episodes we've looked at sexist behavior in social media and during orientation, but Dalhousie's School of Dentistry struggled with the biggest PR headache of 2015, when 13 male students posted sexist, misogynistic remarks to a supposedly private Facebook group. Protests, suspensions, a task force – in all, it cost the school about $650,000. And the underlying culture of sexism should have been addressed years earlier.

CBC's "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" parody commercial – https://youtu.be/RtffrcWeMf0 Last year the University of Toronto had to ramp up campus security in the wake of a series of online threats posted by an anonymous user named "Kill Feminists." The University of Ottawa coped with the fallout of the alleged sex assault by male hockey players, and a $6 million class action lawsuit. Several universities tore down posters for "White Students Unions." 2 Montréal CÉGEPs had to cope with more than a dozen students leaving Canada to join Jihad.

But of course, students aren't the only creative, intelligent and outspoken people on your campus. Last year we saw plenty of PR headaches caused by faculty members, too. In the UK there was Nobel-prize-winning biochemist Tim Hunt, and his ill-advised attempt at humour about the distraction of women scientists in the lab. (His botched apology made things far worse, and cost him his job.) In Ontario it was St Lawrence College business professor Rick Coupland, who was fired for violent homophobic comments last summer.

At Carleton University, biology professor Root Gorelick has caused a stir with his blog, commenting on his experiences as a member of the university board of governors. He sees himself as elected by faculty, with an obligation to his constituents, but the rest of the board and the administration are concerned about the ways in which his blogs do not always agree with the official minutes. He is accused of attacking the personal integrity of fellow board members. Carleton has put in place a new code of conduct for board members, making it clear that governors must not criticize decisions once they have been made. Several campus groups are concerned that Gorelick may be removed for his refusal to sign this "gag order."

It seems pretty clear that when students or faculty behave badly, the institution needs to condemn their actions swiftly and unambiguously, suspend the perpetrators, start a thorough investigation, and possibly a restorative justice process. The institution may have to address the problem, through enhanced campus security, harassment policies, or codes of conduct. Sometimes swift action will lead to accusations of overreaction, such as at Ottawa and Dalhousie, where potentially innocent students are considered guilty by association. But these responses seemed to be the most popular approach in 2015.

Next time we'll look at some of the most serious higher ed headaches of all. And as the metaphor might suggest, they often start at the top, with presidents and board chairs.

Meanwhile you might like to check out our review of the biggest higher ed headaches of 2014 - https://youtu.be/TJaZsXv68s4

Ken Steele is available to facilitate workshops or present at conferences and on campuses about PR headaches and how to manage media relations in a crisis. More information at http://eduvation.ca/pr-headaches-how-to-treat-them/

#ICYMI, check out ASAP Science's a capella parody of Taylor Swift's hit song, which they called "Science Style" - https://youtu.be/sWwd5vks9n8

For exclusive preview access, a week early, to future episodes of "Ten with Ken", be sure to subscribe to Eduvation's "in the loop" email newsletter, at http://www.eduvation.ca/subscribe/