With money so tight and tuition rising, with the worst retention rate in several years, with fear about future recruiting classes, I ask the administration to answer some questions for a concerned Capital community:
- Why did Capital University spend $874,605 on Ologie Consultants for “Branding and Marketing” between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010?
- How much money did we spend on these and other consultants before and since?
- Was the money well spent? How did we assess the consultants’ effectiveness? Perhaps we should survey our students to get some real data!
- Was new branding and marketing (colors and fonts and the “I will” campaign) necessary at all? Why?
- Did the new branding and marketing improve student recruitment or retention?
- Why didn’t we use internal resources (departments and offices) for new branding and marketing (e.g. Business, Marketing, Public Relations, and MBA faculty and students)? We have professionals at this University who understand these concepts, research them, write about them, present them at national meetings, teach them to our students. I ask that the administration respect our Capital community. Using internal resources would have been a unique opportunity for Faculty/Student projects, internships, and independent studies? Data show that students who are engaged return to the university (retention) and students who have ownership in a piece of the university give back to the university (endowment).
- Why is Capital University married to Ologie and their inflated fees? Personally, I believe that Ologie owes Capital University a big fat refund. I propose that future monies budgeted for consultants be reallocated to support our many students involved in important service and research projects.
by Dr. Michael Torello, professor of psychology
mtorello@capital.edu
