Ad’s content off mark

Staff Editorial
Dec. 9, 2004, Page 8

It’s not the concept behind “The Collegiate Adventures of Tim and Tina Steele” that we at The Doane Owl have a problem with.
In fact, we applaud the admissions and marketing departments for trying something new to attract students to Doane.
We encourage them to continue to think of new ways of marketing the school and trying to attract students from places outside of both Nebraska and the Midwest.
Rather, it is the content of “The Collegiate Adventures of Tim and Tina Steele” that we disagree with.
We’re not advocating that Doane send out pamphlets with pictures of beer can sculptures in them.
Nor are we advocating that everything Doane sends out be of students laboring in classrooms.
Neither of those would be a true portrayal of Doane.
Over and over again, we’ve heard that Doane is a school of serious academics.
Students who come to Doane come here to study, excel in their chosen fields and learn to be leaders in a variety of ways, we are told.
God forbid that we should suggest that students might want to come to Doane to experience the parties in the Quads and at Tuxedo Park, or a night of drinking in a local bar with their friends, right?
Yet those who approved of this plan to attract students seem to be more concerned with portraying Doane as a fun place to be than the “Harvard of the plains” that President Brown has proclaimed it on several occasions.
Huh?
What happened to the buzzwords “leadership college”?
Where did the ads portraying Doane as an institution where practically nothing but serious learning goes on go?
Honestly, people, you need to decide what this college is and tell prospective students and their families that.
If you’re not protraying the school honestly, then you’re cheating both the prospective students and yourselves.
Let’s face it, students pick colleges based on the materials those colleges give them. They trust that the protrayal of the college in those materials is as accurate as possible.
Information sent to prospective students should reflect that while Doane is a fun place to go to school, students are expected to work hard and succeed.
Instead, the juxataposition of this concept with the postcards’ content is sending mixed messages to prospective Doane students.
Doane students and faculty need to be more involved in making sure Doane is portrayed properly to prospective students.
A good way to start would be by attending today’s meeting discussing “The Collegiate Adventures of Tim and Tina Steele”.
Attending this meeting will show that both Doane students and faculty care about how the school is represented and are willing to make sure that the Doane that is marketed to prospective students is as reflective of the real Doane as possible.
So come to the Curtis Room in Perry Campus Center at 4 today.
Be the leaders Doane says it creates. Show that you care about how Doane is marketed to prospective students.