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I can already feel the excitement among the students, faculty and staff here at NC State. The new chancellor will be visiting for the next three days and spending time with more people on campus and around town.  His schedule is a whirlwind, but make sure to be at the Reynolds Coliseum tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. for a welcome reception and to hear what he has to say.

Thursday and Friday are consumed by Board of Trustee meetings, but Randy and his wife, Susan, will be back in the spotlight on Saturday during the Wake Forest men’s basketball game.  The Woodson’s will be introduced to the crowd during a television time out near the end of the first half  and Mr. and Mrs. Wuf will present them with Wolfpack jerseys.  Go Pack!

Back at Purdue, the university announced Woodson’s replacement.  Timothy Sands was named executive vice president for academic affairs and provost.

Sands, 52, has been at Purdue since 2002 when he was hired for a joint appointment in materials engineering and electrical and computer engineering.

The appointment of Sands must mean Woodson’s arrival is not too far away. Right!  Right.  We’ll know soon.

Passion Rules!

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I had the opportunity to speak to the team at DELTA, NC State’s Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications group, last week and answer questions about the university’s efforts to create a strategic communications plan.

DELTA has played an active role in the planning process and they clearly understand the changing climate of higher education today.  Be that as it may, I think more than a few were shocked when we talked about the money “for-profit” institutions are spending to market their degree programs and classes.

For the three-month period ending Nov. 30, 2009, University of Phoenix’s Apollo Group holding company spent $275 million on “selling and promotional” expenses according to a report in The Chronicle of Higher Education.  That’s not a typo.  That’s $275 million ($275,000,000) last quarter.

Holy cow.  University Communications won’t spend that much marketing NC State during the next 300 years given the current budget situation.  Let me say that in another way, it will take NC State almost 300 years to spend what the University of Phoenix spent last quarter (that’s just three months) marketing itself to potential students.

I hope that number scares you as much as it scares me and I’ve been afraid for a few years now.  My eyes were opened when the University of Florida football team played for a BCS National Championship — and won — back in 2006.

The stadium in Glendale, Arizona is named the University of Phoenix Stadium.  Makes sense, right.  University of Phoenix must be close by.  Well, Apollo Group Inc., is based in Phoenix, but the stadium is not part of a physical campus; at least not as we think of a campus.  It’s a marketing tool used to promote the University of Phoenix.  Apollo Group paid $154 million for the 20-year naming rights!

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Lots of people believe we shouldn’t care about the rankings, instead, we should focus on providing innovative solutions and uses in the social media sphere.  But I’m taking a much more basic approach and want to know where the paths cross.  Do rankings follow leadership or does leadership result in higher rankings?  An interesting conundrum if you will.  And there may not be an acceptable answer.

High rankings attract attention, attention attracts talent, talent attracts funding.  True leadership attracts talent, talent attracts funding, funding attracts attention.  Huh.

For now I think its fair to challenge NC State to be a leader in technology and social media.  Not just in the rankings and not just in the PR, but a leader in how we utilize all of this stuff and in the stuff we create.  I know Tim and our web guys think this should be the case because they all either responded to the blog or sent me an email expressing their opinions (thank you very much, BTW.)

I think that could be one of the key message points that we’re working on as part of the strategic communications planning process.  As TJ suggested; position the university as the system-wide leader in the field (we’ve got enough stuff already to make this claim with the open source code, mobile framework project, twitter, YouTube, our Facebook plans, DELTA, and the list of start ups, plus some of the projects we’ve been considering), and then as one of the Higher Ed leaders?

If it weren’t politically incorrect, I’d say just skip the system-wide stuff and claim national leadership.  The system can follow our lead can’t it?

So, the Key Message might read:

NC State is a leader in …

You tell me.  Just how would we phrase it? You’ve got one paragraph, or 140 characters.  Gotta be true to the technology ya know.  Interesting possibilities.

Passion Rules!

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Our office has been talking the last couple of days about our Top 40 ranking among North American universities when it comes to the use of social networking.  I think that’s a great accomplishment, but as usual; always asking for more.

Why can’t we be in the Top 10.  Why can’t we be number One.  Well, there are a number of reasons that make sense, but no harm in trying.

The talk has created a great discussion at the office.  Thought I’d share some of that today and ask everyone to comment.  What would it take for NC State to be among the Top 10 in social networking.  What would it take for us to be No. 1?  How can we implement a plan to make it so.  The following comments have been edited so please bare with me.

Matt S.:  we were just named #38, among social media innovators at U.S. universities. They singled out our Twitter feed: http://www.collegesurfing.com/content/web-20-colleges/.  Nothing to scream about, but pretty cool.

Joe H.:  That’s great, but why can’t we be No. 1?

Matt S.: It would be a challenge. (Let’s look at how the rankings were determined.)

The site that assembled the Top 50 list (College Surfing) was looking at overall social media presence: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

Our Twitter feed is doing remarkably well, and growing at a nice rate. We appear to have made the top 50 based almost solely on the Twitter feed, and I expect that to continue to be a strength.

Our Facebook presence is pretty weak, which means there is a lot of room for improvement. Right now there are dozens of various NC State Facebook pages, which is fine — but there is no central NC State page. Actually there are THREE “North Carolina State University” pages, each with varying numbers of fans/members. The largest of these pages has approximately 20,000 members — but is explicitly “not an official NCSU site.” We need to have a centralized presence there, but we don’t want to (annoy) 20,000 people by taking their site away. Perhaps we talk to the current operator …? Or perhaps we create a new page and get their cooperation in driving members there? [Read more →]

Back in town from a trip to Vancouver then to Gainesville where the wife and dogs came back with me.  Had two days of very interesting meetings at the University of British Columbia, a place of mind.  UBC is deep into a new branding project and they are doing so many things right it’s hard to list them all (but I’ll attempt that in a future blog.)

They are also sitting right on top of one of the largest events in the world, the Winter Olympics. And as I always say, when things like this happen, you’ve got to seize the moment.  UBC is doing just that with banners, signage, press, on-site media center, experts, etc.  They are also hosting a number of hockey events on campus.  Sure there are going to be challenges, but hundreds of millions of eyes will be on Vancouver for the next month and UBC will be quite visible.  What is the cliche, you can’t buy that kind of visibility!  Indeed.

And I’m still searching for circus dogs.  Not much luck there so if you know anyone who has performing dogs who don’t require a lot of space for their routine, please let me know.  I want to make them stars!

All for now.  So much to do after a few days away.

Passion Rules!

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I attended a Chancellor Liaison meeting last week where students were talking about ways to beautify campus and “sandwich boards” came up.  I was thinking Subway or Quiznos, but the sandwich boards people were talking about are those leaning sign boards you see on campus.  All around campus in fact.

That day there were 40 sandwich boards around campus.  Or should I say, 40 sandwich boards around campus on the way to and from the TSC.  That’s certainly not the way to beautify campus.

I was impressed that our students were concerned enough to bring this up with the Chancellor and even more impressed when I realized the wanted to do something about it.  Just what has yet to be decided, but I thought I’d weigh in. [Read more →]

My first post regarding the Alumni Association’s Evening of Stars was so long it was a little overwhelming.  I don’t want to overwhelm anyone — just entertain and inform — so I’ve broken the original post in half.  Part two follows.

And be on the lookout for tomorrow’s N&O feature on the new NC State Chancellor’s Residence.

78 of 100  — yes I’m goig to count it.  It has been very busy lately:-)

Butch Blanchard:

Life is an amazing journey!  I am honored to be included among the high achievers recognized here tonight.  Perhaps my selection is more based on variety, persistence, and longevity, than upon singular achievement, rather like the Long Leaf Pine.

The Forestry Foundation has afforded me the opportunity to work in the support of the College of Natural Resources for student scholarships and other needs, and with special alumni who bring positive changes. The Foundation entrusted me for 23 years with the development, nurture, and growth of the world-unique Hofmann Forest, which became an asset of all-time highest value. [Read more →]

On Friday night, in the midst of a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow, the NC State Alumni Association Evening of Stars recognized 18 individuals for their outstanding contributions to the university, the state and the nation.  The recipients may well be the rocks that form the foundation of this university, but in no way are they islands unto themselves.  In every case, the relationships they built through the university helped make them the men and women they are today.

Their pride for NC State is evidenced in their comments.  While I don’t have comments from every one of them, I’d encourage you to take some time and read what this august group had to say about NC State.  They will make you smile, they will make you cry.  They will make you proud to be associated with NC State University.

Passion Rules!

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I’m proud to present the comments made by the winners of the College Distinguished Alumni Awards, the Wolfpack Club’s Ronnie Shavlik Award and the Alumni Association Awards:

Dr. Calvin McNeill:

I am honored, humbled and still amazed standing before you this evening,  and truly thankful to CALS and NC State for this award. I profusely thank all of you who made this possible. I especially thank  Dean Wynne, Chancellor Woodward, Mr. Peter Daniel and Mr. Scott Troutman for seeing fit to recognize me as a recipient of the 2009 Distinguished Alumni Award.

Coming from rural NC- Raeford, which is located about 100 miles south of here- expectations were low. We were dirt poor, probably some of the last of the so-called share croppers.

I applied to only one college, and luckily got accepted. That was one of my best decisions, for NC State proved to be the nurturing environment I needed. I realized this further by actually spending a semester away from State at Howard University- only realizing NC State was the place for me.

I thank my family for its nurturing and encouragement; and also my NC State mentors, professors and role models. These individuals, the likes of Dr. Gerald Hawkins, the late Dr. Augustus Witherspoon, Dr. Tom Stafford, Dr. Banks Talley, my advisor Dr. Carl Lytle, and Dr. George Barthalmus. These individuals, some of whom have buildings named after them, dedicated their careers to developing students by astutely recognizing individual student needs, their strengths and encouraging them to succeed.

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We talked a lot, well, maybe a little, about social media during the Advancement Summit yesterday.  People are definitely interested and I think just about everyone is participating in this form of communications.

But man are there lots of questions.  How do you do it? What tools do you use?  How do you create, disseminate, control your messages?  How, What, Why seems to dominate the discussion.

Came across this list of things to do with social media on one of the sites I frequent; http://brandmindblog.com/.  Check it out.

1. Listen and educate internal stakeholders
   • Invest some time and energy in learning about social media.  Listen to the social web for sentiment about your company, and also learn from competitors and other categories.
2. Understand your audience and how they currently interact with social media
   • Using simple techniques and tools, learn which topics are important to your customers.  Find out how your customers are engaging with other companies.
3. Determine social marketing objectives
   • What do you hope to achieve with social media?  Are you interested in using it for customer service? To create a closed customer-feedback loop?  To provide product information?  To promote your products?  To build your brand?  Make sure that internal stakeholders agree on objectives and how to measure against them. [Read more →]

The University Advancement retreat today was very nice and worthwhile.  Had a chance to preach the Passion Rules! gospel and talk about change.  Because the Passion Rules! portion was somewhat off the cuff, I’m just posting the change stuff here.

Hope it’s useful

If there is one constant at the NC State, it’s change.

Students change. Faculty members change. Courses and graduation requirements change.

Coaches change.  Even senior leadership changes…perhaps more than we’d like, but even in the really good times, things change.

Look at me; I’m standing up here before you because change happens.

We can’t do a lot about change and most of us don’t like it. We dislike change so much that we may resist it and that just adds to the stress of day-to-day life.  Understanding how change affects our lives can help reduce that stress and make change work for us.

Betsy Flanagan talked about change as it relates to campaign planning and advancement.  Who would have dreamed two years ago that the Internet would help Barack Obama raise more than $500 million for his presidential campaign.  About half of his donations were made online and the average donation…less than $80 a pop!

Now that’s change.

Just two weeks ago, who would have dreamed that your cell phone would help raise millions to help the earthquake victims in Haiti.  And at just $5 or $10 a pop.

Now that’s change.

Chancellor Woodward talked about change at NC State from a personal perspective.

As the glue that helped hold this place together for the past six months, Woodward represents change.  Professional change and personal change.  If you don’t think the Chancellor went through a lifetime of personal change during that short period of time, think again.  He was just starting to enjoy retirement when everything changed.  All this man has done since July is deal with change. [Read more →]