UM-Flint University Relations

The most powerful communication, marketing, and customer service tool within all of higher education is the university website. Before they set foot on campus, receive recruitment material in the mail, or talk to an admissions counselor, perspective students first visit the websites of the schools they are considering. Online, the university website is the university.

There’s a line from Basement Song by the Adam Ezra Group that’s echoing in my head: The conflict that will arise do I choose to concentrate on all the things I love or try to fix the things I hate? I love that lyric for the simple reason that  it’s a shared experience we all […]

It’s summertime and for the creative team that means working diligently on projects for the upcoming recruitment season for both undergraduate and graduate admissions. We have been working hard on designing a new look for our Graduate Admissions brochure series. This includes repackaging content and finding noteworthy talking points about each program. Using meaningful, thought-out […]

I did it again. In a meeting, I used an example from the 1980s to illustrate a point.  This time, it was the Talking Heads’ David Byrne who wore a really big suit in the video for the song, “Girlfriend is Better.” Blank stares from all the twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings in the room.  What is […]

One of the most important – and most difficult – tasks of any advertising, marketing, branding, or messaging effort is identifying and executing ways to communicate complex ideas as simply and immediately as possible. The tools and vehicles through which this is accomplished depend on the audience, and the best medium to reach that audience. […]

A logo designer can choose the perfect typeface and construct the perfect logo.  A marketer can evangelize and promote a product or service.  Yet all of these things are irrelevant until the consumer or end-user experiences the product or service.  It is the job of a marketing professional to sell, it’s a user experience professional’s job to make sure that the […]

Despite the nasty weather this past weekend, the University of Michigan-Flint campus was filled with community members participating in a variety of activities. Fundraising walks, health fairs, and a river clean-up were just some of the activities that brought the community to campus. Arthritis Walk had approximately 300 attendees and walked through campus to raise money for arthritis research. During […]

eduStyle.net is an excellent example of the spirit of collaboration and push for collective advancement that are hallmarks of today’s open source ethos on the web. According to eduStyle, its mission “is for higher ed web professionals to learn from and be inspired by the work of their peers.” Given their size, complexity, and array […]

The fundamental tenet of what has come to be known as “the Knowledge Economy” is that in today’s global marketplace, job-seekers across all industries need advanced skills, knowledge, and training to compete for available positions. In many respects, this idea is not new. Employers have always sought out the best and brightest. The difference is […]

The May 2010 Commencement Ceremony is now a memory.  It is always a tradition for members of the Commencement Committee to spend the day after thinking of all the “woulda, coulda, shoulda” stuff that we will do differently for the next ceremony.  We also spend a good portion of the day nursing very sore feet. […]