Audience: Community College

Higher education news outlet University Business published a new op-ed written by Shankar Prasad, Carnegie’s chief strategy officer. The piece proposes five questions for college presidents to consider as they navigate the current political environment and the resulting challenges to higher education. 

This all makes an increasingly complex environment fraught with risk for executives and board members — political hazards, competing needs, strategic opportunities, and outright personal exhaustion. As turnover in the upper ranks menaces institutional stability, it’s a prime moment for leaders to pause and refocus.

Evaluating their own effectiveness, resilience, and consistency with institutional goals can be an invaluable reset in this hectic spring season. Here are some best practices for executives and board members to avoid pitfalls in this political and regulatory environment.

Your higher education institution is creating great organic LinkedIn content, but is it reaching the right audience? Despite investing time and resources into crafting compelling posts—including faculty research, student success stories, and program highlights—limited organic reach means even the best content may not get the visibility it deserves.

It was little more than a decade ago when institutions were arguing about whether a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) was needed. Today, the role is essential at nearly every institution, given the complexity of recruiting and fundraising. Today’s best practice is to assemble a highly data-driven and strategic marketing operation that performs critical functions for enrollment, strategic communications, and fundraising to deliver true return on investment in all areas. Marketing is a key performance engine, not a service organization.

We are excited to announce Personalized Digital Experiences as part of our Digital Marketing services—helping institutions turn interest into action through interactive, high-conversion tools. This solution delivers dynamic, student-driven experiences that generate more leads, capture valuable data, and drive deeper engagement across your digital channels.

Higher education institutions are no strangers to controversy, but the range of crises we have to plan for has evolved. Instead of handling internal challenges like recruiting students or balancing the budget, colleges and universities are finding themselves in the crosshairs of politically motivated scrutiny, investigations, and funding threats.

We are excited to integrate Organic Social Media into our Digital Marketing services to bring strategic and engaging unpaid social strategies to our partners. These new services bring strategic, data-informed, and expert-led organic social strategies to our partners—helping strengthen your brand, boost engagement, and stay relevant across platforms.

If you’re a member of the Slate community, you already know Slate is one of your most powerful tools. But when your Slate expert leaves—or your team is stretched too thin—daily operations, communications, application workflows, and more can quickly fall behind. And for many institutions, hiring new full-time staff simply isn’t feasible. That’s where Carnegie’s Embedded Slate Captain offering comes in. Our Embedded Slate Captain gives your institution flexible, high-impact Slate support from an experienced professional who functions as part of your team—without the long-term commitment or cost of a full-time hire.

In today’s competitive higher education landscape, your website is one of your most powerful recruitment tools. But if visitors aren’t converting—whether that means filling out an inquiry form, starting an application, or scheduling a campus visit—your marketing efforts may not be reaching their full potential.

With the end of the fiscal year coming up, now’s the time for community colleges to make the most of any remaining Perkins V funds. In higher ed, so many of us are being asked to do more with less, so it’s critical that schools make the most of every funding opportunity available to them.
Perkins funding is all about improving access to CTE programs, promoting equity, and making sure what you’re offering lines up with real-world workforce demands. Now is a great time to find creative ways to make full use of the money to prep for future programs set yourself up for more success in the future.