By some
definitions, higher education is truly crazed. Places of self-defeating
insanity. For example, an educational leader I know loved to tell others that
“the definition of insanity is doing the same thing that has failed over and
over again and expecting different results.” He, like most every other higher
education administrator really may have believed that so he, and they, repeated
it every time it seemed to fit. But, when things demanded solution, he actually
did the same things that failed over and over again. For example, he believed
that increased admission numbers would solve all the problems when they did not
every year. Every year he would set higher and higher admission numbers even if the recruitment team could not reach the goals. He did not see that as insanity but as using tried and true
administrative and academic approaches to solve problems – even if the
solutions were ones that had failed or resulted in long-term disaster.
Considering
that oft quoted definition, the situation universities, colleges and career
colleges find themselves in now and how they are going about trying to work
their way to solutions, it can be concluded that higher education is insane.
The
problems are really not all new. Costs are exceeding revenue. Demands are
outpacing the ability to fund them Tuition, fees and expenses have surpassed available
resources for many families. Internal costs continue to rise faster than
revenue can be raised to meet them. Capital deferments and outstanding debt
grows. Budgets are being tightened. Competition for traditional, non- and
neo-traditional students has never been greater. Technology needed to stay
current increase in cost and amount. The only really new part of the problem is
that student loans are starting to dry up at a pace that will increase
inability to afford the costs to attend and graduate.
The
solutions are also not new. They haven’t worked in the past really but well
let’s use them again. The major way that universities, colleges and career
schools seek to solve the problems is
tried and untrue – increase enrollment by increasing new student numbers and
build new buildings to attract new students. Yet, more students yield and
increase in the demands for services, sections and often tutorial assistance.
All require additional expenditures which are usually not provided so the new
enrollees turn into attrition numbers. Or even if the services, additional
sections and people are provided, students leave anyhow so even more students
must be recruited to take their place and add more to the overall population.
But,
this Lucy at the Conveyer Belt approach to a solution simply shows how insane
academia is as the solution itself sooner or later breaks down and takes quite
a lot with it including people and success. Lucy is given the job to box candies
as they come down on the conveyer belt. She does this fairly well but then the owners want to increase the number of boxed candies. The belt speeds up to
push her to speed up but that causes more and more candy to fall off the belt.
The owners do not see the insanity behind their decision and just keep
demanding more and more boxed candies until all the candy is falling off the
belt and Lucy just gives up. Every piece of candy that falls of the track is not just a
lost sale but lost investment in the creating of the candy. The lost candy not
only mean that the day’s production has been hurt. It also means the long term
ability to meet projections and the buyers’ needs are not met which can cause a
longer term negative effect on sales and client retention.
This is
similar to what happens with college admissions when given a higher enrollment
goal almost always with the same staff and time.
When
admission offices are pushed to speed up the conveyor belt of enrollment goals,
the people in them respond with a combination of enthusiasm and dread just like
sales people in any business. And make no mistake, recruitment and admissions
are sales. The enthusiasm is from the belief that “we can now show them what we
can do. Hit our numbers and be rewarded for doing so.” The dread comes from the
reality that the competition is strong, the market saturated, the product not
that different from any competitor and “I am going to have to work even harder
and longer if I am to succeed most often with not much more resources.” As well
as a recognition that population for most schools is really an embodiment of
one of Zeno’s paradoxes that will just yield them even more work and increased
demand.
For colleges and universities, the tortoise is student population which is controlled not just by admissions but equally, no more so, by retention. Retention is a constant, steady and eventually winning strategy that is the only real way for admissions to ever catch up to demand. And to carry the analogy one fabled step forward, it is the tortoise, not the hare that finally will win the race. That is the race for population, graduation and mission success.
Moreover, when the school has the admissions people speed up the line, they can only do so at most schools by digging deeper into the available pool of recruits. They take students that should not be admitted to make their numbers. But like Lucy at the conveyor belt, many of the cakes will simply fall off the belt and crash to the floor. Too many of these students will do the same. They will come along the college’s conveyor belt and get pushed off or drop off on their own.
That the school may hit its admission objectives but it will not make its enrollment goal. It finally will lose more students and revenue from the students it should not have taken to begin with. Students who do not fit the school, who should not have been admitted in the first place drop out. Sure maybe a few can actually succeed and we point to them to say we are doing the right thing. Providing access to students who may not have been normally admitted but were and succeeded. But what about the large percentage that simply do not make it?
By letting them in and then having them flunk out or drop out we have done them a grave disservice. We have made them believe they could do it and then proved they could not. We have crushed their sense of value. And we took their money! We took their savings and financial aid to attend the college so we could make our numbers objective even if we dashed the students’ objective of succeeding in college. We have been unethical and immoral and knew we were doing this. We knew many would drop out or get pushed it and we did it just to reach into their pockets so we could get in more money. What does this say about the state of higher education?
If we realize that we also lost money because it costs us to recruit and process every one of the students we accept and then leave, we may not be making all that much money off them after all. And what we made is just pushing off some decisions that will have to be made because they are not staying. All we have done actually is create a funnel that leaks out students rather than a square of retention that holds in all the students and their revenue too.
It would be far better to understand that admissions only really succeeds if we can break the churn and burn approach and focus on recruiting students who will stay. Speeding up admissions has failed over and over. yet we call on admissions to get more students who drop out leaving the school, in a precarious position. that is the definition of insanity.
If this article made sense to you, you may want to contact N.Raisman & Associates
to improve academic customer service and hospitality to
increase student satisfaction, retention and your bottom line
UMass
Dartmouth invited Dr. Neal Raisman to campus to present on "Service
Excellence in Higher Ed" as a catalyst event used to kick off a service
excellence program. Dr. Neal Raisman presents a very powerful but
simple message about the impact that customer service can have on
retention and the overall success of the university. Participants
embraced his philosophy as was noted with heads nods and hallway
conversations after the session. Not only did he have data to back up
what he was saying, but Dr. Raisman spoke of specific examples based on
his own personal experience working at a college as Dean and
President. Our Leadership Team welcomed the "8 Rules of Customer
Service", showing their eagerness to go to the next step in rolling
Raisman's message out. We could not have been more pleased with his
eye-opening presentation. Sheila Whitaker UMass-Dartmouth
If you want more information on NRaisman & Associates or to learn more about what you can do to improve academic customer service excellence on campus, get in touch with us or get a copy of our best selling book The Power of Retention: More Customer Service for Higher Education.
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