Chris Novak
As a communications and development professional, I was stunned to learn that Sweet Briar flunked their feasibility study, after raising $110 million less than 10 years ago with a dynamic president and board. This speaks not so much to alumnae capacity, as it does about recent administrations
Without a savvy president (or at least a development director) no one seemed to know that even restricted funding of scholarships can be the fastest way to take the pressure operating budget and lessen the trap of discounted tuition. Without a savvy admission director, working with a strong alumni network, no one seemed to know the techniques that increase yield, or the easy to tap
pipeline of high-paying students from abroad.
It's a failure of analysis, a failure of imagination,
and, as evidenced by how this closing has been handled, a shocking failure of basic communications strategy that in effect insults great women of Sweet Briar.
New, fresh, leadership should have a chance to take the $10 mill alumnae have put on the table as "the means to implement a long-term plan that might potentially allow the college to endure".
Chris Novak, Harvard MBA in comments to original article:
As a communications and development professional, I was stunned to learn that Sweet Briar flunked their feasibility study, after raising $110 million less than 10 years ago with a dynamic president and board. This speaks not so much to alumnae capacity, as it does about recent administrations
Without a savvy president (or at least a development director) no one seemed to know that even restricted funding of scholarships can be the fastest way to take the pressure operating budget and lessen the trap of discounted tuition. Without a savvy admission director, working with a strong alumni network, no one seemed to know the techniques that increase yield, or the easy to tap
pipeline of high-paying students from abroad.
It's a failure of analysis, a failure of imagination,
and, as evidenced by how this closing has been handled, a shocking failure of basic communications strategy that in effect insults great women of Sweet Briar.
New, fresh, leadership should have a chance to take the $10 mill alumnae have put on the table as "the means to implement a long-term plan that might potentially allow the college to endure".
Chris Novak, Harvard MBA in comments to original article:
http://www.richmond.com/opinion/their-opinion/guest-columnists/article_6684faad-1a48-59ff-ac0e-23e023a4b3fd.html
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