Chief Marketing Officers at universities? What next?

My neighbor "J" has for years criticized the "education business" as he calls it for a big reason that it behaves like a business but doesn't want to actually follow the rules of business.  This WSJ report will add more to his argument:



Marketing the institution is not really new, of course.  Even our small little university sends its administrative personnel to far flung states like Alaska or Hawaii to recruit students, and the president and provost even led delegations to China to recruit students from there.  Last year, a student told me that she went to China in one such recruitment trip, with all expenses paid for by the university.  I am not sure if the university paid for the trip with taxpayer dollars or privately raised money, though odds are high that the trip was publicly financed.

It was only a matter of time, therefore, that universities went that one additional step and hired Chief Marketing Officers.  As per Parkinson's Law, this office will quickly morph into a monstrous division with quite a few employees, and ... oh well, if only I did not cherish some outdated Platonic version of the academy--I could have financially gained as well from all the marketing.

As Professor Harry Frankfurt poignantly noted, bullshit is what happens when we have to market anything, even if that is higher education!



The line between a university and a diploma mill is getting increasingly blurry :(