about engaging one's public then and now

[marketing of college to undergraduate applicants]
 
Souls for Sale, http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/11/15/barnds
November 15, 2010 By W. Kent Barnds
 
...We can all appreciate a nostalgic longing for the good ole days when students got serious about their college search in the fall of their senior year, submitted applications over the winter holidays, waited patiently for a decision around April 1 and made their final decision by May. I imagine the values of those days might cause us to throw overboard direct mail programs, fast application programs, market research, data-driven decision-making, demonstrated interest, long waiting list, merit-based scholarships and maybe even enrollment management altogether — particularly if marketing is part of the enrollment management portfolio. Eliminating those evils would elicit cheers from some quarters, and I can hear the cheers now.
     However, I wonder if we should expand the list to include independent counselors, college search coaching, early decision programs, whole-person admission messaging, single choice early action, counselor fly-ins with dinner, wine, golf and a tickets to a great game, flashy high school profiles listing all of the right schools, walls of fame in high school guidance offices, and lists of scholarships earned by students. Should we stop discussing "holistic admission," since there are 602,000 Google references, and cease taking pictures on campus in the fall while the leaves are changing, too? Let's be honest about what's going on. All of the things I described involve some element of commercialization, marketing and positioning, whether by the student, the high school, the college or the college counselor.
     While we can spend countless hours talking about match — selecting the right students for the college and the right student choosing the right college — the search and selection process has long been commercialized and has involved marketing, packaging, market strategies and competition for students and against one another. This reliance on marketing, packaging, market strategies and competition has not really changed. It's always been a part of our work. If souls are being sold today, there is a large inventory from the past...