To the Editor:
In his essay “Marketing and PR Are Corrupting Universities” (The Chronicle Review, July 9), Lee Vinsel describes how communications and marketing are “bullshit” to be banished from our colleges and universities.
Having held communications and marketing leadership roles with a half dozen colleges and universities in our careers, our response to the more than 2,000-word takedown of our profession is simple.
We agree completely.
Spin, fabrications, and deceptions — bullshit, in other words — have no place in higher education. Fidelity to finding and sharing the truth about institutions is the foundation of the best communications and marketing work.
Truth telling is our objective because through telling our authentic, distinctive truth we build confidence in our institutions. In higher education, that means confidence for outstanding students and faculty to join us. For alumni and friends to give to us. For political, community, and policy leaders to support us.
The only enduring way to generate confidence is to tell the truth. Our constituencies are too savvy to settle for anything less.
Dr. Vinsel’s essay is particularly timely, as higher ed is suffering from a crisis of confidence. A 2019 analysis by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce shows that the 40-year return on investment on a four-year degree earned at Virginia Commonwealth University is $892,000 in today’s dollars. The national average is $864,000.
With that the case, how can an April poll from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic foundation, find that nearly half of the parents surveyed do not want their children to go straight to a four-year college, even if financial barriers to enrollment were removed?
More than ever, we need to combat the growing narrative that tells of higher ed’s irrelevancy. For decades, colleges and universities have promoted the economic value of an undergraduate degree; we need to talk more about the values a degree instills.
According to the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, college graduates are more than twice as likely to volunteer in their communities than those without a degree. They also contribute nearly 3.5 times more money to charity and vote in presidential elections at rates more than 20 percent higher than those without a degree.
We also need to open our doors to all who want to earn a degree, then do all we can to support their efforts. Too often, higher education looks for the students in the same places — but talent is not restricted to people with particular income levels or backgrounds.
That’s why it’s so important to tell inclusive and diverse stories, as the University Innovation Alliance does, about enrolling and graduating students across the socioeconomic spectrum, first-generation students, and students of color.
For thousands of years, stories have been the foundation of how humans interact with each other and make sense of the world around us. And there are few industries that boast more compelling stories than higher education, which is why communications and marketing can help lead the industry into a future that is relevant and impactful.
That’s no bullshit.
Grant J. Heston
Vice President for University Relations
Virginia Commonwealth University and the VCU Health System
Richmond, Va.
Joe Hice
Founding Partner
Well Strategics Communication
Tampa, Fla.
