Advertising Awards

IT used to be that choosing a college was an easy process. In my experience, all it takes is an old sailor telling you "you should go to St. Mary's, they like to sail and there are lots of women there" when you're 12 yrs old. That's all it took! The advice of one old dude, early in the morning, shortly after explaining "you know, if you sniff that airplane glue, you'll get high." Old sailors and dentists LOVE telling kids how to get high, or at least they do if you have long hair.

My point is that times change, and advertising is more important than ever. Prestige TV used to be stuff like M.A.S.H., and now Prestige TV is like...whatever is coming out each week on Disney+ I guess???

But for awhile it was Mad Men, the show about advertising in the 1960s. Prestige TV at one point reflected the greatest interests of Americans: Italian-American crime, Baltimore Crime, White Baltimore Crime in Season 2, Meth, and Advertising! 

Season 4, Episode 6 premiered with the prestigious CLIO Awards, an award show for advertising. Funnily enough, the same night Mad Men would win an Emmy! On the TV show Donny Draper gets super drunk (ofc that's every episode), and then after he gets the award he gets even more drunk, this time with power! Also Pete Campbell has to grovel to get the Ken to return to the ad agency, and any scene with Pete Campbell groveling is peak Prestige TV.

SMCM recently got a taste of that sweet, sweet CLIO action, at the 36th Annual Educational Advertising Awards. It makes sense that higher ed advertising really got into the swing of things in the 1980s as the cost of a college education began to swell.

SMCM brought home the gold for their Giving Tuesday 2020 campaign (which a lot of people sat out on, myself included, via current students asking us not to donate over issues related to racism at the college) and for the dedication ceremony of the new Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland. You can watch the virtual dedication below:

I haven't watched it yet via it's an hour long, but it DOES seem pretty well done. 

The Board of Trustees seems pretty pleased with the results too!

"In acknowledging the recent awards at the May Board of Trustees meeting, Institutional Advancement Committee Chair Gail Harmon said, “This type of third-party validation says that our College’s marketing and branding are on the right track.”

Aren't we all just seeking out a lil prestigious third-party validation in this crazy, mixed up world? I love that they do awards for giveaway shirts as well

"The team also earned a Gold award in the 2020 Collegiate Advertising Awards for the design of a giveaway apparel item for newly admitted students designed by alumna Keely Houk ’17."

They buried the goddam lede!!! Am I wrong in thinking that "giveaway apparel" is like primo marketing, or is that a Web 2.0 mindset? I was always jealous of the amazing designs UMD had for their promo gear. But what do I know!

You can learn more about this Awards program with the contact info below. It looks like they are based in Georgia, which recently made it a lot harder to people to vote!

It's also not too expensive to enter it seems, I might submit the blog for judging next year.

 

And to go out not with a bang, but a whimper

After three years as president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Dr. Joseph Urgo has decided, for personal and professional reasons, to move on in his career.  He has requested that the Board of Trustees not renew his contract.  “I leave with mixed emotions because I have enjoyed my time so much at St. Mary’s College,” said Dr. Urgo.  “Leading St. Mary’s College for the past three years has been a tremendous privilege and a great pleasure.   The College’s legislative charge of high academic standards and financial accessibility, while challenging, is an inspirational mission.  In parting, I wish my friends and the good people of St. Mary’s the very best. ”

 During Dr. Urgo’s three years in office, the College endowment grew by nearly 30%  and the College received two $1M gifts earmarked for need-based financial aid, and an additional $1M gift for academic programs.  The College received additional state support through legislation that will fund a two-year tuition freeze and secured a performance-based funding project aimed at raising College retention and graduation rates. In all, the legislation amounts to a 14% increase in state funding for the College and the first legislated increase to the block grant since that method of funding was established in 1992.

Throughout his tenure as president, Urgo has supported broad access to education in the liberal arts and sciences, speaking and writing often on St. Mary’s public mission.   Joe and Lesley Urgo have been strong advocates for the natural beauty of the campus and under Lesley’s volunteer efforts, established the College Arboretum.

The Board is grateful for Dr. Urgo’s commitment to St. Mary’s College of Maryland and his advocacy for liberal arts education.  The Board wishes Dr. Urgo well in his future endeavors

Alex Walls Speech

Alex Walls gave a speech at the Board of Trustees meeting last Friday.

I don't remember when I first met Alex. I know it was during SGA in the Fall of 2009, but I don't recall the exact circumstances. But within those first few meetings (I know this sounds cliched but it's true) I knew that he would go on to do big things at St. Mary's.

I looked through the archives and pulled out some things I wrote about him over the years on this blog, via memories~

• "Alex Walls is standing against a wall, I think he is tired of sitting"
• "Alex Walls now has heat in his bathroom, I totally care"
• "Alex Walls annoys me"
• "Why is everyone laughing at Alex Walls :["
• "Alex Walls said 'piggybacking' take a shot"
• "Alex Walls just killed a bug"
• "Gonna abstain from voting on this legislation to annoy Alex Walls"
• "I bet Alex Walls will be SGA president one day (EDITORS NOTE: ugh so close on this prediction)"
•  "Becky White just walked in and Alex Walls said "Late as usual""
• "Alex Walls is eating a banana and it's funny because bananas looks like penises"

See you back on the board one day dude

(video stolen from Dorothy Fisher, idk who she is but I think we follow each other on tumblr)

Board of Trustees Meeting Today @ 3PM

Show up to the Board of Trustees meeting today @ 3PM. Show up and have your voice be heard/your presence felt.

Check out the facebook event
https://www.facebook.com/events/109761315896076/

PANIC: New Budget Cuts

There has been a lot of discussion the past week or two regarding the lack of "new student college deposits."

Vocabulary
New Student College Deposit - n - a $500 deposit that students pay to the school, showing their intent to attend St. Mary's. A student who makes this deposit generally attends the school, but some may "melt" and never attend.

The Issue
These deposits are a really good indicator of how many students are actually going to show up in August. This year the school got a lot of applications (in part due to the new Common Application, which makes applying to SMCM as easy as "checking a box") and the college accepted a good number of students. The issue is that not enough students have "accepted" St. Mary's as their choice, resulting in a lower than expected number of "new student college deposits."

Apparently this shortfall comes in the form of about 150~ less deposits than previous years (including last year, which already had a shortfall). The school was looking for around 124~ more in-state and 24~ more out of state students to submit these "new students college deposits," indicating their intent to attend SMCM.

The fallout
This represents, according to indicators, a budget shortfall of approximately $3.5Million.

(Math? 150~ x $23,000 = $3,500,000~)

This is, obviously, a lot of money. And it is going to have a big impact on several areas of campus (more on that later~) and departments and positions. Faculty and Staff had meetings this week where they were briefed with this new information, which has obviously upset many. The new budget (one where $3.5Million has been cut) is being taken to the Board of Trustees this Friday.

How did this happen?
Apparently (according to Anonymous [still don't know who that dude is but they seem to have a lot of opinions]) Urgo has blamed the lack of enrollment on "failures of facilities and faculty curriculum, but it has nothing to do with changes to admissions in the past two years." Could this be the ghost of Rich Edgar, haunting admissions and causing this to happen? Could this be the result of sacking Rich Edgar and Lisa Crowe last year?

"Failures of facilities and faculty curriculum" seems like a tough sell (hello, let's also take a moment to recognize that this quote may not necessarily be accurate nor correct). When students apply to a college, how much do they look into the specifics of the faculty and curriculum? I feel that there is only so much that a prospective student can know without actually sitting in on a classroom, which very few do (or maybe a lot do this, IDK). Does "the failures of facilities" refer to the various mold incidents over the past years (really decades...)? The "Mold Ship" got SMCM a ton of press #allpressisgoodpress.

What about admissions then? According to students working at the admissions office some "early admission" (I did this!) prospective students received their letters of admission until later than usual. Additionally, these students have stated that "counselors have been encouraged to go to private institutions rather than public."

But why? Could it be at the request of Maureen Silva, new (2010) Vice President for Advancement (AKA fundraising) for the college? It's no secret that more rich people go to private high schools, and rich people are probably more likely to give money to the college. Could this shift be part of this issue?

Theory: More public high school students view SMCM as a reach school, whereas more private high school students view SMCM as a safety school. This could explain the lack of students accepting their admission into SMCM. But this is just a theory, one based in stereotypes and assumptions.

Impact
So what does this impact? A lot of things. Less money means smaller budgets. According to the same Anonymous from above (who appears to be "in the know") and other "sources"the following may be cut

• No new staff positions
• No visiting professors
• No sabbaticals 
• Boyden Gallery will be closed 
• No cost of living adjustments for staff
• Staff job cuts
• Other cuts that will be made throughout the summer

 And a staff that once again feels like they have very little input.

Solution
Is there a solution? Maybe "don't fix what ain't broke" #southernsayings. 

The faculty is obviously upset. They want to delay the voting so that there can be faculty input.

Something clearly went wrong here.

You should be
Mad? Scared? Angry? Disappointed. This is all really disappointing and I hope it does not lead to further big changes. I really just want an explanation.

Note:
This is long. I did not proofread. Some of this information may be inaccurate. Comment with thoughts, corrections, etc. <3 br="">

College President Chosen!

According to this facebook wall to wall, a new President has been chosen. The Board of Trustees met this morning at 11AM, so it's definitely possible that they indeed picked someone. In addition, Laura and Dave are on the Point News staff, and therefore pretty knowledgeable about the goings ons of campus.

This is pretty good news if it's true. I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm 80% sure this is factual and such, but I could always be wrong. PANIC?

EDIT: According to the Point News it's official. Radical. I think some of them were there, glad to hear that the Point News is able to wake up early enough for these meetings when I'm not.

As expected, he's from some other college. I hope it's a cool one. Actually I'm just assuming/writing that it's a he, it could totally be a girl obviously.

Point News Write-up Below. Someone should have taken photos!

"At the beginning of the Board of Trustees meeting on Saturday, Feb. 20, Board Chairman James P. Muldoon announced that "We have extended an offer" to the selected presidential candidate. By the middle of the meeting, the Board received news that that the candidate had, in fact, accepted. The candidate appears to be coming from another college. Muldoon said that on Monday, the candidate would notify his or her campus of the decision, and then would come forward to the St. Mary's Community.

"This is a great week for St. Mary's College," Muldoon said."

Board of Trusttes #1

This is a new segment on SMCMLOLBLOG, where I will be profiling and rating the members of our Board of Trustees. First up is James P. Muldoon!

Holy shitdicks, I am pretty sure he is Willie Nelson or something. What a cutie!



Looks like he is a fan of contributing money to political campaigns. Ew he chose Hilary over Obama, what a lameo. I am pretty sure this is him. He likes to give Steny Hoyer money, and he is also on the Board of Trustees. I hope they are BFFs and play golf together!

Muldoon is often referred to as a "Business man", but I think he is the CEO of Metcor specifically. It's some nerdy computer training company or something. It might be a general consulting firm for corporations. More lameness.

He's also on the Board of Directors for WashingtonFirstBank, where it states that Metcor is
"Mr. Muldoon, is the CEO of METCOR, Washington, D.C., which identifies, develops and captures federal business for high technology firms. Mr. Muldoon is also the Chairman of the Board of Learning Systems International, a wholly owned subsidiary of METCOR, a training materials development, documentation and training delivery company. In addition, Mr. Muldoon is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. Mary's College of Maryland and since 1998 Mr. Muldoon has been Chairman of the U.S. Coast Guard's National Boating Safety Advisory Council. Mr. Muldoon was the President of the United States Sailing Association from 1997 to 2000, and serves as a member of numerous project and governance boards related to other charitable and community organizations."

Oh shit he was President of the United States Sailing Association. A redeeming quality!

Ok I am giving Muldoon a "B" for having a job that does not seem horribly evil, and looking very cute.

Demonstration Against Tuition Increases

There's a facebook event that went up a few days ago with students planning to demonstrate at the next Board of Trustees meeting over tuition increases. I'm really excited that people are aware of this, and it shows that Jeremy Pevner has done a really good job of informing the student body of important issues.

I like that the event organizers want it to be a somewhat restrained, peaceful, and quiet demonstration. Aaron French responded that he wants to open up the discussion to the possibility of a more boisterous demonstration, but I feel that in this sort of situation it isn't as necessary, and could be detrimental. The Board of Trustees is not our enemy, so I think a more respectful demonstration is the appropriate form of action.

That said, it's also important to note that increasing tuition is a result, to a fair extent, of decreasing budgets, and not just increasing expenditures. I wrote this on the wall and I hope that I am not talking out of my ass, because then I would look really stupid.

The event is set for Saturday December 6th at 10AM in the Campus Center parking lot.