Edelman Trust Barometer and the Future of Universities

This week in Chicago the John Edelman of Edelman Worldwide presented with colleagues the annual Trust Barometer. The results are viewable at www.edelman.com and http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/. The work is a valuable annual addition to how influentials think about our common institutions. Naturally, you might say, business, media, government and other institutions have declined in their trustworthiness. While academics and experts have actually risen in individual standing; I am deeply concerned that the institution of higher education and universities and colleges will suffer from dramatic losses in trust in the future. I hope to persuade Richard to add questions to test my hypothesis.

One issue that is constantly facing them is the significant increases in tuition year by year over the past two decades. A number of private universities have increased tuition by 6% each year for over a decade. While it seem impossible a simple extrapolation of that growth rate would mean that my unborn grandchildren may pay (or a trust fund I could set up) $200,000 per year rather than under $50,000 now per year for tuition. I know that such statistics defy logic and usually result in population projections of humankind standing cheek to jowl. Of course, usually disease, war and other moderating factors prevent such straight line growth. I recently faced the reality of the trend when for the summer of 2009 tuition and support for our graduate students seemed to require a $17,000 fee. This is the equivalent of an $80,000 job. If you consider the economy (shouldn't we) it seems like an impossible number. So, we have more wisely decided to offer the students for 11 weeks at much lower rates. They still offer a wide range of advanced skills in database management, statistical analysis, strong writing skills, media measurement knowledge and tools. They clearly represent the future of marketing communications including public relations, advertising, direct database marketing, marketing analytics. A number of our students (50%) are from other nations. They can be immensely productive and useful for global thinking, knowledge and planning. I digress.

While the tuition issue is crucial; other issues that may rear their ugly head include: a. discovery that public colleagues are paying a finder as a percent of tuition to Chinese businesses to send them Chinese freshmen and women. This may upset taxpayers who think their children have a right to the frosh spots. (They may forget that their state taxpayer dollars only pay for about 15% of the costs of running their "state university". In the trade we sometimes refer to these schools as "pubvates" or public private schools since they are no longer substantially supported by the states. b. a public debate from the Presidential level that all students have a right to a college education when we face such shortages of educated and trained skilled labor that universities cannot possibly provide. c. an rapidly ageing university teacher population that will be difficult to replace given pathetically low salaries in all areas but high technology and business. A counter trend will be the need for many faculty to stay beyond the age of their expected retirement due to the recent disaster of the world economy. More to come on the future of universities.

Madison Central High School Class of 1965: Madison Central High School alumnus carries the Olympic torch for China

Madison Central High School Class of 1965: Madison Central High School alumnus carries the Olympic torch for China

Madison Central High School Class of 1965: The Saga of the Shorewood Students - Part One

Madison Central High School Class of 1965: The Saga of the Shorewood Students - Part One

The day of President Obama's inauguration and the departure of former President Bush, was a safe celebration. It was clearly a reward for the thousands and thousands of the new political activists and voters who found "hope" in the Obama message, style and substance. The visual message of the crowd must have been astounding to the new President and to the professionals in the military and law enforcement who made it a safe day. All the reviewers were articulate on his message, but one message that I noted was not discussed was his chastising of politics. With a Biblical reference President Obama called for the Congress (and I think Illinois in a subtle way) to give up childish ways. The most worrisome phrase in politics, I think, is to "play politics". Politics as a serious and generally successful process in the U.S. has been the "game" in Washington, the states, counties and cities rather than the facilitation process to deliver outstanding policy decisions. The President noted (to the former President and others) that the "ground has shifted" under the system and that new approaches and attitudes are needed. It is difficult to know that a new model might look like and whether it might be dangerous, but it is not difficult to believe that the substance of politics can be more professional, less personality driven and more authentic. Next, an analysis of the President's speech in terms of the "authentic enterprise" from www.awpagesociety.com study by the same name from class preparation this week.

My affiliation with ABC's WLS-TV in Chicago has been lively in 2008-2009. Who wouldn't want to get out of bed at 4 a.m. 15 or more times during the presidential campaign and the aftermath? Somewhere begin the creative messages of advertising, the lede of a press release, or the offer of a on-line or print direct promotional; the 3 minutes on-air gives the audience, the interviewer and interviewee a challenge to summarize and find the most poignant ideas to review. The challenge after the election was to provide insight to the corruption charges and impeachment process against the current governor of Illinois - Rod Blagojevich. We were also in a muddle of political game playing in Illinois over the appointment of Roland Burris to become the new junior Senator of Illinois to replace Barack Obama as he assumed the role of President. So, it was a relief to be asked to anticipate the inaugural events and to summarize the event the day after.
The day before: Asked by on-air reporter and talent Judy Hsu "What will we hear in today's speech?" and "what other inaugural themes is he pulling from?": I noted that the audience would hear a continuation of the successful campaign messages (why change?). It was likely to be inclusive, progressive and authentic. I suggested that we might listen for a subtle criticism of Illinois politics which continued to embarrass Obama after the election. Themes from the John F. Kennedy inaugural speech ("ask not") and the same for Franklin D. Roosevelt ("fear itself") were touted by the press as likely messages (and an expectation that Obama would meet the same or higher standards. Now, that's pressure! Obama did indirectly reference JFK by asking us to "pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off" and his request for us to serve. He also invoked fear as a concept to overcome. Asked "How long until 'honeymoon's over': The phrase is applied to CEO's, Mao and presidents. Of course the phrase and the time will depend on other events - in Obama's case the economy. More on the day of the inauguration.

Returning from China and from my home state Wisconsin prepared me to comment on the chaos of Illinois politics that continues here. My friends in China (to my embarrassment) wanted to better understand the concept of "pay for play" in our form of government and my life-long political friends in Wisconsin wanted to watch me squirm and defend my adopted state of Illinois. The folly of political activities in Illinois is not worth defending recently. The State needs a complete overhaul of it's priorities, leadership and processes.

The legislature including the Senate and House have created their own "natural disaster" that will leave the recent voters who were so excited by the election of Illinois' junior Senator Barack Obama to the Presidency with a bitter memory of selfish leadership. As the President-elect selected his cabinet and policy advisers in December; I expressed my concerns as a political pundit for ABC TV in Chicago (WLS) that the Illinois Democrats would embarrass the President-elect and detract from his extremely serious agenda on the domestic front and world stage.

With my second appearance this week on WLS-TV to discuss for a very few minutes the barriers to the appointment of Roland Burris to the Senate of the U.S. for Illinois; the issues are still in limbo. Burris, a good man, but not the most likely to be elected or even appointed to the Senate was willing to put himself in "harm's way" when the current sitting Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich acted mostly legally to appoint Burris to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the Senate. Burris has a record of seeking (mostly unsuccessfully) higher office in this state, but also has a seemingly unimpeachable record that gives him higher ground to stand on during most mud fights in ethically troubled Illinois politics and government.

As the story unfolds there is slightly more Congressional support developing to seat Roland Burris this week (including Diane Feinstein D-CA). The logical request to Sec. of State Jesse White to sign the documents necessary to certify the Governor's seemingly legal but thinly disguised effort to distract attention from his own impeachment threats is likely to occur this week.

This blog effort was just interupted by a call from ABC to return on Friday a.m. at 5:50 to follow up on likely actions on behalf of Burris and Illinois.

The most important issue that must be addressed by all citizens is the failure of the Illinois legislature to act on the "business of the state" for the benefit of the citizens. We have issues that must be resolved that the Democrat leadership and control of both houses and the executive branch of Illinois have not addressed. More on why this power combination is bad for Illinois next.

JIMC 2009

The launch event for the Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications was held this week at Northwestern. Guests included the IMC Committee of the Association of National Adverstisers (ANA). The event produced the 19th issue of the JIMC first published in 1991 at Northwestern in the Medill School and the IMC Department. The JIMC is the volunteer work of 30% of the class (about 25 graduate students) who attract "blind reviewed" article abstracts (we don't identify the author so we are only influenced by the quality of the ideas), edit them with the author, raise $20,000 for the printing, layout and distribution of 3500 issues to business leaders, alumni, faculty, new students and others. What an extraordinary effort by the graduate students (in their spare time). My objective in starting the JIMC was to demonstrate the thought leadership of the school and its students. Much like the law reviews produced by students and faculty at the leading law schools, this publication fits the mold of offering new and leading ideas to our fields.