UMM’s brought in some outside consultants to assist us in our “branding”. I find the term quite shudder inducing, but what little I’ve seen from these far off lands suggests that the people they’ve brought in are saying some useful things. One bit I liked from their recent report:
UMM’s “quirkiness” [is] appreciated (e.g. Zombie Dance, drag show, etc.) [by the students], but
students felt this was not presented prominently enough
One of the things I’ve always loved about UMM is that it is quirky. Maybe not quite as a “out there” as Reed was, but there are people being individuals and pushing some boundaries in important and valuable ways. We seem shy about sharing that, though, usually in the guise of not wanting to scare off potential students. So instead of emphasizing the cool and strange things that our students are doing, we have tended to focus on a kind of ethnically diverse whitebread image (if that makes any sense).
Our web site, for example, has usually featured these predictably bland photos that wouldn’t typically remind an alum of anything they remember from their time in Morris. A few years ago Jess Larson and others in Studio Art got those replaced by a lot of cool photos that UMM art students took. The student photos were much more visually interesting, and I think actually said something about what UMM was at that time. It didn’t last long, though, and at the next major revision of the web site all those images got replaced by bland professionalism once again. Sigh.
I think there’s a ton of still imagery, video, and audio that we could use on our web site to promote what a neat place UMM is, but we don’t. Below, for example, are four really nice shots from UMM’s Flickr group. Only a handful of people know about or use that group, and it’s probably 75% my stuff, but there are quite a few excellent (and interesting) images there that I think would be really cool on our web site.
 Daniel J. Moore |
 Michael Anderson |
 Cory Q from Monkey River Town |
 bam.bam. |
Thanks to all those folks for sharing their photos on Flickr!
Is that consultant report viewable by students anywhere? I haven’t heard anything, and would love to see what it says.
An e-mail was sent to the FACPA list today by Christine Mahoney (Director of Communications) telling us where we could find it on the web. I know it’s password protected (for reasons I’m not sure I buy into, but that’s another matter), but I would certainly hope that it’s accessible to students since you have played a key role in the data gathering and discussions. I recommend you contact her and see what the access rules are. Also, it would be cool if you’d let us know how that turns out, as I do hope that the student body can see the outcome of this process.
This entry reminds me of our attempt to use student art as background images on the student computing lab screens when I managed that department at the UI. Even though we worked with a couple of interested graphics arts professors, they were unable to generate any student interest in the idea. To say the least I was disappointed, but I still think it is an excellent idea which helps highlight the culture of the school and talent of the students. Here’s to hoping the quirkiness at UMM continues to come through.
First: thanks for using my picture!
Second: I get questions about going to Morris on a regular basis (always by parents). I start by pointing out that it isn’t for everyone. One must appreicate the bucolic asthetic and the space it brings. I then talk about the academic rigor the institution offers. Then I lapse into the stories of how we ‘kept busy becuse there wasn’t anything else to do’. This last one would qualify as the ‘quirky’ element.
The reason I bring this up is to wonder just exactly who is gleaning information off the website? Is it parents? Is it prospective students? Do alumni stories like mine encourage students, put parents at ease, or neither, or both?
Having worked in higer ed admissions I know how twitchy that crowd can be. Easch student you miss is $30+K that your institution isn’t getting. Hard to take a gamble with ‘that could be fun/funny’ with those odds.
I hope UMM play up its unique character. I found it to be an enduring and endearing trait (and said so in the survey).
DD: That’s really too bad that you didn’t get much student interest on that project – I really like the idea. Luckily we tend to have very involved students, but we (like most schools in my experience) don’t always use them to full effect.
Cory: You’re very welcome! I thought it was a nice example of a connection to an alum, and an example of how we could maintain those kinds of connections.
I think your question about the website is spot on, and you get wildly different answers depending on who you ask. I suspect that at some level it’s “10 blind men and an elephant”, but with the elephant (usage patterns) changing quite rapidly as you’re attempting to pin things down. Personally I tend to favor designing a web space aimed primarily at the students because ultimately they’re the ones that come (or don’t) and become part of the community. I realize, however, that parents often pay the bills and can be influential in the decision making. With competition for the best students being quite fierce, there’s a tendency to play it safe, but I’m not personally convinced that always wins.
I think that KUMM is a good example of a tricky issue. I think there are a lot of potential students that could be really turned on by the idea of KUMM; fully student run stations like ours are quite rare and it could be a significant draw. But the (wonderful, IMHO) call letters and perceptions of general attitudes towards “college radio” mean that very little is said about the station in our official promotional materials. Yet if we had a professionally run MPR affiliate you can bet that would be on the front of all sorts of things (and most teenagers wouldn’t give a damn).
As far as how you answer those kinds of questions, my recommendation is just to be honest. (And I have a hard time imagining you being anything different.) I think most people can smell marketing slime, and what they really want from alums is an honest appraisal of the place. I obviously don’t speak for our admissions folks on this (and they might well disagree), but I think I’d rather say it like it is in the hopes of getting the people that really fit, even if we deter a few that fit less well.