Subtitled, "Considerations beyond the institution’s competitive market position," this article from University Business magazine looks at a number of important considerations to be made when planning to raise or lower tuition, and in communicating such changes to students and their families. It includes links to useful resources, data sources, and calculators.

Whatever the institution’s sticker price, messages about affordability need to be sent early and often to prospective students and their parents. Even at low-cost institutions, some portion of the prospect pool will find the charge above their means, so this advice applies to both public and private institutions. And although every institution will soon offer a net price calculator, most calculators will require families to provide an extensive amount of information to get the estimate.

Consequently, it is not clear how many families will actually be willing to go through the process for every institution they are considering. Offering simple messages (e.g., an income profile of the class showing that students from all backgrounds attend or scholarship programs with clear eligibility criteria and award amounts) to encourage families to complete the aid application process will still be important.

Here's your SCUP Link to "The 'Black Art' of Campus Branding"

What's a good brand? Why? How about an example or two? This interview by Jeff Wendt, of Today's Campus, with Rob Moore, managing partner of Lipman & Hearne, is brief, but it does answer some of those questions. We think that Northern Arizona University's slogan is excellent: 

Q: Is there a noteworthy example at Northern Arizona University?

A. Alumni there felt strongly that they received a great education. But their employers and peers did not share their high regard. An alternate narrative was necessary. The brand campaign led with the message "Mountain Air Makes You Smarter." Each alum now had a new and effective response to the question 'Why did you go to Northern Arizona?' Enrollment has soared.

  Don't miss out on joining nearly 1,500 of your colleagues and peers at higher education's premier planning event of 2010, SCUP–45. The Society for College and University Planning's 45th annual, international conference and idea marketplace is July 10–14 in Minneapolis!

Here's your SCUP Link to "Keep Students Hooked on Your School"

This is just a really good background piece (Karen West, Today's Campus) on the current status, and many of the current issues, regarding student retention - as the US gears up to graduate many more students by 2020. Rather than our usual quotation of a significant piece of the writing, we felt that a list of headers in the document would be more useful to you. Here they are:

• Everything has changes but the results
• College demographics worth noting
• Hopeful signs upstream
• Dummy down or smarten up?
• Retention Solution - Private College
• Carroll's Ten Retention Factors
• Retention Solutions - Public University
• Retention Solutions - Community College
• Retention measurement: complicated, confusing and essential
• Enter the government and a moving target
• Community colleges are a special case

Don't miss out on joining nearly 1,500 of your colleagues and peers at higher education's premier planning event of 2010, SCUP–45. The Society for College and University Planning's 45th annual, international conference and idea marketplace is July 10–14 in Minneapolis!

Here's your SCUP Link to the this resource: Record Summer Enrollments for 2010

The enrollment boom continues: What does it mean that public schools are experiencing record summer matriculation this year? Is it that they can't find summer jobs? Is it saving money by taking classes local to home in the summer and transferring credits back? Is it the new Pell Grants. Is it older workers getting retrained? Full article here in USA Today. What does it mean for planners?

All across the country, at flagship universities, state colleges and community colleges, administrators are reporting that their summer session enrollments are up, as the same pressures that put students in the classroom September through May keep them in their seats all summer.

"Having a poor job market is something we correlate positively with," said Richard Russo, director of summer sessions at the University of California at Berkeley. High unemployment drives nontraditional students to enroll in college at all times of the year, but a tough economy makes it more difficult for traditional-age students to find jobs and internships, or gives them greater awareness of the need to complete a degree as quickly and inexpensively as possible. "There's more pressure; students are being pushed into the summer."