News & Views item - April 2006

 

 

American Council of Education Launches Campaign to Bolster the Image of US Higher Education. (April 14, 2006)

    "In a real sense, what this campaign is about is helping the American people understand that accessible, affordable, high-quality education is our key to our individual and national hopes and dreams," said William Kirwan, chancellor of the University of Maryland system.

 

Jodi Cohen, KRT/Chicago Tribune, reports that a campaign including efforts by nearly 400 US colleges and universities is to reach out to local communities and policy makers and explain the higher education sector's contributions to society. They hope to convince the public that higher education remains essential to the country's future, and that it should be a state and national funding priority and reverse the lagging government support of the past few years.

 

Terry Hartle, senior vice president for the American Council of Education said, "Our goal is simply to increase public understanding of the broad role that higher education has played in the past and must continue to play in the future."

The "Solutions for our Future" campaign will feature national newspaper and television ads, beginning [this week]. While he couldn't put a dollar amount on the entire campaign, Hartle said his association will spend US$4.5 million during the next three years and the value of the donated media time and space will be in the millions.

 

Cohn reports that "backers say the multi-year effort is aimed at showing how the nation's colleges and universities provide practical benefits for everyone, not only current enrollees and graduates. By highlighting those contributions, the project strives to convince people that they should view higher education as important a spending priority as health care, defense and K-12 education. However, even as employers increasingly require a college education, state spending on higher education has declined in recent years. Between 2001 and 2004, for example, state appropriations per student declined by 17 percent or about $1,000 per student, according to the American Council on Education."


 

 

The campaign's Web page gives the following information. Perhaps the ACE's  initiative may spur Australia's NTEU, AVCC, Go8 and FASTS to undertake a similar program?

Solutions for Our Future is a national initiative to establish a dialogue about the critical role colleges and universities play in serving the public, solving pressing societal needs, and preparing people for our country's future.

The initiative is managed by the American Council on Education (ACE), on behalf of a coalition encompassing the full range of public and private colleges and universities, along with community and business partners including TIAA-CREF, NCAA, and Campus Compact.

The American Council on Education is a 501C3 organization based in Washington, D.C., and is the coordinating organization for all of higher education.

Funding for Solutions comes from donations from colleges and universities, and in-kind donations from corporate sponsors including University Partners of Dallas, Texas, and GSD&M, of Austin, Texas.

Advertising talent for Solutions comes from GSD&M;  internet services from Convio, Inc.; strategic communications advice from ViaNovo; and public opinion polling assistance from The Winston Group in partnership with Hart Research Associates.