Aug 30, 2006
Cornell Student Blogs Crashing and Burning
Remeber those Cornell admissions-sponsored blogs I wrote about a few days ago? The Cornell Student Blogs are crashing and burning in public opinion, and there are a fair share of people who are more than happy to start roasting marshmallows and dance around the corpse. Strong language, but I’m seeing some strong reactions to these blogs, too.
Our friend Ryan Kellett at Middleburry tipped me off to the displeasure of the Cornell community with these six offending blogs. I hadn’t seen anything come up at my present Cornell-blog-weapon-of-choice, the Unofficial Cornell Blog (of Elliotback?). I figured the Cornell blogosphere would be dominated by moving-in-getting-settled posts for at least another few days; not so. Part of this must have been the op-ed which ran in the Cornell Daily Sun today, which really toasted the administration for their blogging implementation.
I think this is a well-worded critique which should be read quite carefully, not just by Cornell admissions.
Flogging Blogs
Editorial Cornell Daily Sun Aug 30 2006If the University is looking to better represent the undergraduate experience to prospective Cornellians, there may be a more effective way of accomplishing that goal. On Monday, Cornell added six student blogs to its website, each intended to give outsiders a glimpse into life on The Hill through weekly anecdotes. Lisa Cameron-Norfleet, program manager for developer relations at the Office of Web Communications, told The Sun that the blogging project was meant to spice up Cornell’s website.
Indeed, a blog would be a great way to spice up the website — if the students selected were likely to write anything spicy.
Instead, what we will see on the website will probably be bland, near-advertisements for the University. The criticism here is not of the writing ability of the students chosen or that we expect a lack of sincerity; rather, it is that the applicant pool was limited only to students who already promote the Big Red on a regular basis. Only those who serve as campus tour guides, members of the Cornell Tradition or Undergraduate Admissions employees were eligible for the job.
Tour guides go through a three-round competitive screening process to see who can spread the most Cornell cheer. And Undergraduate Admissions employees are redundant, since they act as liaisons to the very people these blogs are intended to attract. [...]
That op-ed wasn’t all, though. Christian Montoya wrote on his 9apart blog a very heated critique complementing this op-ed, which I again pretty much entirely agree with. This snippet focuses on the fact that all six bloggers already appear in promotional roles for the school.
I heard about the project via my fianceé who is a Cornell Tradition member, but she was never able to figure out why she was invited and I was not. I really wish I had known, because I applied for nothing. Obviously Cornell wasn’t looking for a broad perspective; they were looking for students who are already mouthpieces for Cornell.
Christian picked out one line from the Op-Ed which I am going to repeat, since I agree that it tells the whole story: “… in trying to maintain a positive face for the student body, they’ve chosen a group that does not truly represent the breadth of that body.”
This seeming failure to launch brings us back to what I keep saying and trying to stress to some of my institutional readers–authenticity is more important for good PR than anything else.
Late arrivals: The aforemention Cornell Blog finally said something about this whole sordid affair.
The short of it is that the Cornell University Student Blogging Project is just a watered down PR machine written by a gang of unfocused novice bloggers.
Blah.
“authenticity is more important for good PR than anything else”
Amen.
Authenticity is still really scary for a lot of Admission and PR folks. We don’t use blogs at my school precisely because we know they would have to be *real.* We go out and look at our students MySpace and LiveJournal writings and imagine them with the college logo blazoned across the top. More often than not, we come away scared. I did that today and found two things frightening: 1) The MySpace user group for our school features two main images: pigs screwing and some guy in a closed motorcycle helmet smoking 2) Clicking to the first MySpace journal page off of that group and I find that the biggest graphic in the whole layout is a picture of a guy slurping on his resin-brown bong.
RUN AWAY!!!
Sure, there’s lots of good stuff too, and even the bad stuff is RELEVANT and AUTHENTIC, but I don’t think many institutions are ready to invite real-life, open discussion of the good and bad in campus culture to their official namespace. And, honestly, the reason is not to fool or deny prospective students at all–it’s parental, donor, administrator, and media opinions that drive these decisions (sad but true).
So the best bet for learning about colleges via blogging will probably remain third-party and personal sites. Officially sanctioned blogs are most likely going to read like viewbooks in first person and without the glossy photos.
Morgan, thank you so much for your insight. I’m just going to add a comment here to what, acknowledge that I check comments? I’m not sure. I sent you a long e-mail comment response, because it was as long as some of my longer POSTS, let alone comments. So: thank you for the inspiration. Expect to see it tomorrow or perhaps later tonight.
Sam, I would love to see your response to Morgan’s comment if that’s OK… I totally agree with what Morgan has said “it’s parental, donor, administrator, and media opinions that drive these decisions”
Hey, I realized I was really nonspecific with my use of the word “it” in my last comment, such was my urgency to post it. Extra-sad since I broke my AJAX comments somehow, something like that. I woke up this morning and they were very angry with me and have been on and off all day. I am planning to try a big update tonight anyways so we’ll see… what happens with that.
What I MEANT to say, Joe, was that my email will be made into a POST tonight or tomorrow morning! So you, and everyone else, will of course get to see it. Let me just edit it for clarity a little bit. Patience!
Sneak site update preview? Comment subscription. Ooooh, ahhh.
Sounds good Sam, look forward to it as always
[...] Let’s see what prospective students think. Sam Jackson: This seeming failure to launch brings us back to what I keep saying and trying to stress to some of my institutional readers–authenticity is more important for good PR than anything else. [...]
I’m one of those cornell bloggers you’d like to roast over a fire. Honestly though bring yourself over to my blog (don’t let your inflated ego weigh you down) read the disclaimer that I wrote first – it’s the second to most recent entry – then read as much as you’d like and tell me the propaganda and lack of authenticity I’m spurting out.
Alex,
Thanks for reading.
I don’t expect you to have read all the comments on the Cornell posts on my site, but I’ve elaborated in them my feelings on the issue in conversations with some of your fellow bloggers and excerpts from emails with your peers. I wrote Caroline something on her blog and had a little e-mail comment chat with Jenna. The Jenna dialogue covers much of it all… that’s available here: http://www.samjackson.org/college/2006/08/31/donor-dollars-trump-interests-prospective-students-student-blogging-arena/#comment-78
I still read your blog, by the way. I just wish you’d use a few more line breaks to make it easier for me TO read. I still read it, though, rest assured.
What I am trying to convey is that it is not so much that I feel it is neither a “propaganda” feel nor a lack of authenticity prima facie which hamstrings the usefulness of the blog project; I’m just disappointed with some of the choices I have seen you bloggers make in terms of what you choose to write about. But, blogs are blogs, and yours is yours–write about whatever you like. I just sometimes wish they could be a little less superficial seeming and in being more reflective reveal more about real life at Cornell.
Quoting from my other comment…
Don’t make things black and white. You can offer more insight into life at Cornell than you do now without tarnishing the school’s name. Don’t think so poorly of your audience that we can’t understand or don’t want to read about something besides superficial fluff.
But, really, my last question: Did you actually read this entry you just replied to? I didnt’ say anything particularly negative about any of you bloggers in this post. It was just a collection of sentiments on the internet / from daily sun / etc demonstrating the backlash the blogs were receiving in some quarters. Now, other posts of mine have a little bit more bite to them… or were you addressing those at the same time? Because really, I do give you guys credit for trying, and I’m still reading, hoping things will improve. One of your fellow bloggers, after we spoke, agreed that there were some ways to improve their blog and thanked me for my input, especially since as a prospective student I’m part of your target audience. I’m sorry if I come off as unduly harsh, but your blog isn’t perfect (neither is mine) and I still think you should be thinking more about your audience.
Thanks again for stopping by.
[...] Now, moving on to the content again… here is the comment Morgan made, excerpted from my recent post”Cornell Student Blogs Crashing and Burning.” The comment is on student blogging generally and why, despite my begging, the world won’t see too many truly honest student blogs blessed and promoted by colleges anytime soon. “authenticity is more important for good PR than anything else” [...]
i like the whole college experiance good and bad you always make it through
college isnt such a bad thing you just need to focus on the good things in life