Legal Commentary

The xkcd cartoon that got their attention.

The xkcd cartoon was particularly apt in skewering three useless but nevertheless common features on a college?s home page, said Mark Greenfield, director of Web services at the State University of New York at Buffalo and an associate consultant at the major higher-ed consulting firm Noel-Levitz. Specifically: the statement of philosophy, the letter from the president or provost, and the campus news feed.

Having those up there might seem like a good idea to the administrative committees that tend to dictate website content, Greenfield said, but they are rarely useful to the website?s most strategically important kind of visitor: the prospective student. Prospective students are more interested in information about majors or financial aid than administrative rhetoric or photos or ?pretty girls studying under trees? ? a trope so recurrent that it became a running joke at last year?s HighEdWeb Association conference, Greenfield said. ?[Prospective students] have been marketed to their entire lives, and they are not looking for that marketing hype,? he said. ?They?re looking for authenticity.?

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Full post as published by Althouse on August 04, 2010 (boomark / email).