My partner, Tom Hayes, just sent me this link to higher ed trends recently identified by SCUP. Among they key trends in higher ed, they identify:

1. Mental health of college students as an increasing concern

2. The relationship between campuses and communities is likely to grow stronger

3. Global applicants to U.S. colleges and universities continues to go down

4. The ability to offer online education in third-world countries continues to be constrained

5. 89% of students have a presence on Facebook

SCUP releases these trends once or twice a year and the report is definitely worth a looksie. You can get back issue that are up to four years old here.

Elizabeth Scarborough  

Greetings,

2008 has been a transformative year for SimpsonScarborough and I thank you sincerely for joining us on our journey.  

We began the year with an emotional goodbye to our founding partner and friend, Christopher Simpson. His greatest gift, among many, to the SimpsonScarborough family was the framework and vision for our company, but we will always remember how his eyes twinkled when he was pulling your leg, and his unparalleled ability to stretch a simple conversation into numerous email strings.

We were not alone in our belief that Christopher was a pioneer in the field of marketing and communications as evidenced by his book, Weathering the Storm, which earned the 2008 Council for Advancement and Support of Education's (CASE) Summit for Advancement Leaders Award and the 2008 CASE Alice L. Beeman Research Award, as well as the creation of the Christopher Simpson Communication Achievement Award by the College Communicators Association of Virginia and the District of Columbia (CCA).

As Christopher would want, SimpsonScarborough moved forward at lightening speed and grew stronger this year.   

2008 celebrations included:

• Partnering with a record number of new colleges and universities, renewed institutions and crisis clients (38 total), and growing our business 30% from 2007
• Experiencing, in one year, both the Spartan and Wolverine love, becoming Ambrosians, supporting the Rose Monsters and the Blue Hens off the field, and crossing the pond to work with Cambridge University
• Chairing my penultimate AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education and reaching a record number of attendees
• Seeing two books published by Vice President Tom Hayes and one by Senior Consultant Strategist Jerry Israel
• Presenting to and/or working with higher education associations including ACE, CASE, AASCU, NAGAP, NAPAHE, NASPA, CIC, AGB, AIMHO, GMAC, NASPA, ICHEM, CCAS, CCA; and Academic Impressions and AMA
• Adding new staff members Patt Nitikarn and Renee Kart, and recruiting Senior Consultant Dana Edwards
• Promoting Vice President Teresa Valerio Parrot, Project Director Meredith Simpson, and Project Manager Emily LaRue
• Serving as an approved Crisis PR firm for United Educators
• CASE presenting partner Tom Hayes with a crystal apple for the excellence of his presentations at CASE conferences across the world
• Moving, under the direction of Director of Business Operations Maura Porcelli, to our new home in DuPont Circle: 2122 P Street NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC  20037 (update your files!)
• Hosting the first ever SimpsonScarborough Wii Olympics

With your support, 2009 will be a banner year for SimpsonScarborough. We are pleased to have Jeff Papa, Ph.D., joining us in January as President, and I will fill the large shoes left by Christopher as the firm's CEO. Our success would not be possible without your support of SimpsonScarborough during such an amazing year. We will continue to provide colleges and universities with brand strategies that endure, media and crisis communications that advance institutions, and sound market research that serves as the framework for all marketing initiatives.

Happy holidays to you and those you hold nearest to your heart.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Scarborough
President and Partner, SimpsonScarborough

"I wake up at 2 a.m., and I think about it. This higher education is not working; it's costing us too much money," said Marostica, a Republican who represents Larimer County. "I simply felt like they could be run as enterprises, true enterprises. I want them all to be private schools."
Some of the state's money now devoted to the institutions could instead go to private scholarships, he said.
"It could be, by 2020, here's how we get them off the state dole," he said. 

My friend, Marc Camille, at Loyola just showed me this comic. The more you study it, the funnier it gets. Look at where household income is going.....straight to....Hades. And, look at where Wall Street is going....yes, that's a toilet. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the word "penury" (as in Penury State University) means "a cramping and oppressive lack of resources (as in money)." A synonym is "poverty." Actually, this is more like funny's cousin.....NOT FUNNY!

-Elizabeth Scarborough

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I was shocked to return to work on Monday after Thanksgiving and see that marketing was taking the fall for the tragic Wal-Mart situation on Black Friday in which a gentleman worker was trampled to death.

Advertising Age reported: 'that besides failing to provide adequate security, Wal-Mart "engaged in specific marketing and advertising techniques to specifically attract a large crowd and create an environment of frenzy and mayhem," according to published reports.' 

Umm... my definition of marketing is much different than my definition of advertising.  This was an advertising, pre-planning, crowd control issue.  I do agree with the coverage of the lawsuit that 'store ads offering deep discounts "created an atmosphere of competition and anxiety" that led to "crowd craze."' Again, this is different than marketing.

This was the type of situation I work with clients to prevent IN ADVANCE, and not just with marketing.  

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot

I am so glad our blog is up and running again because I really, really need some blog therapy.

Last month I took my 18-year-old cousin out to coffee to see how he was doing in his first semester of college.  I laughed when he commented he was surprised that "old" people like me were joining Facebook-- after all, I'm not old, right??  Well, I now empathize with his surprise.

Imagine my reaction when I opened my email last week and saw that my MOM was friending me.  My.  Mom.  Is. On.  Facebook.  I have a new perspective on what he must have felt when he opened my friend request.  In picturing the moment I imagine his eyes squeezed shut, his nose plugged, and butterflies in his tummy.

Watch out world... Rose Valerio might just be your next friend...

-- Teresa Valerio Parrot