Arkansas Blog

Did somebody turn on the "musical chairs" tunes up there?

New Governor, AG, LG, US Atty, Hwy Com'er, etc.
Coming soon, New Dem party head, GOP party head, Athletic Director, Weekly tabloid, two maybe three Pres.Candidates, etc.

And now this?

Y'all slow down, my head is spinnin'.

Here's an idea - hire Kane to take McCord's place as a writer for the Times. Kane always struck me as a rational though rightward tilting editorialist. He can write too.

This would be an interesting spin on the upcoming newspaper war, eh?

Fair and balanced and all that. Plus, Kane wrote much of the DOG's sensible editorials.

Webb pulls out of the UCA deal (at 92k/yr!?) at the same time the D-G announces a free weekly? Coincidence?

A clear indication of this country's f***ed up priorities. The average journalist in the state makes a fraction of this salary (piddly). And the journalism teachers at UCA certainly don't make those wages. But a state school in a poor state can/will pay almost a hundred thousand so it can sell itself to the citizens who already own it?? Straightforward/simple press releases announcing school programs/news don't require the skills of a big bucks PR guy/gal.

I'm NOT a believer, however, in state-funded PR...except for the tourism stuff. I've always found it galling that our government workers take our money to sell their stuff to us. How about just doing the job you were hired to do and letting the results speak for themselves. Guess it's the 'radical' in me...ha.

Oh yeah...UCA announced it's raising tuition AGAIN (every year, as best I can tell)...grrr.

Colleges have PR departments for a very simple reason: if you don't let people know about your institution, they won't attend there. The number of college students in Arkansas is on the increase and it takes money and expertise to recruit new students. "Straight forward press releases" may play a part, but advertising is crucial.

JoeCollege...I disagree. All the 'advertising'/'PR' that state schools need should come from doing what they're hired to do: Deliver excellence in education. State schools should not operate like private businesses where growth, selling and profit are everything. They should be the polar opposites. After all, we fund them through taxes and tuitions to perform the job they're charged with...not to sell themselves as a self-sustaining entities that primarily strive to be bigger than the other state schools. Further, if this relentless quest for numbers (more students) is what's caused the staggering and unrelenting rises in tuition...I say stop it. Let's have smaller schools with smaller tuitions...and minimal, if any, PR departments.

Profit? Surely you jest!

Believe it or not, many (if not most) colleges in Arkansas are underfunded, and the pursuit of more students is driven by the need for tuition money to sustain the institutions. Pulaski Tech, for instance is funded by the state at 50% of its needs. When higher education is adequately funded, perhaps marketing would be less necessary. As it is, colleges can't afford not to toot their own horns.

Nobody asked me, but I stand with JoeCollege on this issue. Thanks to the marketing being conducted by Arkansas' institutions of higher learning (UCA being an excellent example) many very, very gifted students are no longer leaving the state to pursue their studies.

Ask them, and they'll you that prior to the marketing, they had never even considered colleges and universities in their home state. Arkansas gains greatly if she can curb the brain drain of decades gone by.