“Some of my friends and dearest loved ones are involved in university administration and communications. They have no time. They are often too busy running between meetings to breathe, let alone to think. Obviously, they are moral actors ultimately responsible for their decisions, but you could go so far as to say they are compelled to fire out sentences at too fast a rate for care. In such circumstances, it isn’t surprising that they find themselves bending a knee before the Idols of the Marketplace.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 9, 2021
Shocked, but sadly, not surprised.
When I worked at Harvard in the early nineties, marketing was the “M” word, whispered but never said aloud. “Selling” was something for lesser institutions that had put themselves squarely in the “commercial mainstream.”
Marketing was to be avoided at all costs lest it contaminate academic integrity.
Little has changed. Many faculty and administrators on the academic side of the house would still like to drive a stake through the heart of increasingly essential college and university marketing efforts.
Sigh. It was only a matter of time before a disgruntled academician grabbed the mic to berate “marketing and communications for corrupting universities.”
And here it is again, alive and well, thirty years later:
“The language of hype violates the language of truth.”
Plus ca change…
Read it here.