Audience: Online

Five years ago, higher education leaders everywhere were navigating the personal implications of a newly-minted global pandemic while also working overtime to support their teams, constituents, and communities through a fundamental destabilization of not only the higher ed sector but every aspect of our daily lives. We all emerged from that year never wanting to hear the word “unprecedented” again. But what higher education is facing at this moment is, once more, unprecedented, representing a significant degree of challenge to foundational assumptions about our sector.

Higher education should play a more central role in addressing the complex partisan divides in our country, but doing so will require us to examine our own actions and institutional strategies. Academia has long operated in an insular bubble. Now, more than ever, we must engage locally, bridging the gap between our institutions and the communities they serve, all while strengthening our commitment to educating students about and for democracy.

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.