The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 2007 Page: 12 of 32
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12
THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 2007
If
■
Elisa Fink to serve as Rice's
first-ever Marketing Director
by Lily Chun
THRESHER EDITORIAL STAFF
In accordance with the first
point in President David Lee-
bron's Vision for the Second
Century, the university has
added a new member to its
marketing team to increase the
visibility and enrollment of Rice.
Director of Marketing Elisa
Fink, who previously worked
at Dell, begins this fall with
marketing strategies aimed to
get Rice's name recognized on a
national and international level.
Her position was newly created
this year.
Fink said her job will be to
create a unified and integrated
voice among different depart-
ments. "The first step was to cre-
ate the Rice Identity Standards,
manuals that outline how to use
the key graphic identifiers of the
university: the Rice logo, athletic
logos, etc.," she said.
Fink said Rice currently
has a decentralized market-
ing set-up in which the mar-
keting occurs within each
individual department.
"People tend to create their
own identities, which is fine
except none of us has enough
money to spend out there in the
public for marketing to make the
public aware of the [individual]
identity alone," she said. "It helps
for us to work together unifying
and strengthening the voice of
Rice rather than having a lot of
independent voices speaking
different messages."
Lovett College junior Nathan
Bledsoe agreed that it was
important for Rice to create a
unified identity. Bledsoe wrote
a column in the Rice Thresher
last year suggesting Rice come
up with one logo to make the
Rice emblem a familiar symbol
to everyone.
Fink said the marketing ar-
rangements of Rice were com-
parable to those of Dell.
Marketing Director Elisa Fink
"Dell was very decentralized
in how it handled marketing as
well," she said. "One of my last
jobs at Dell was to move into the
brand marketing team, and it
was a newly created team at the
company. Its role was to integrate
all marketing across the globe.
But, of course, corporate mar-
keting and collegiate marketing
are different."
Some of the ideas Fink has
been working on include the Who
Knew? campaign (http://exptore.
rice.edu/explore/Who_Knew.asp)
in which she collaborates with
the university strategic market-
ing committee. Fink said the
campaign provides visitors with
facts and trivia they might have
not known about Rice. She said
the university's new tagline is
"Unconventional Wisdom."
"Who Knew? allows us to cap-
ture the stories that define our
unconventional wisdom so when
we're in the marketplace, we can
use these stories that often people
didn't know about," she said. "We
can excite and energize the Rice,
Houston, and global community
about Rice."
Fink said people can submit
facts and stories on the Web
site, but submissions must be
true. Fink and her marketing
team check each submission for
its veracity.
Additionally, Fink said she
has another advertising in-
strument, webpage templates,
under development
"We're working with different
departments on how their Web
sites are organized so that it's
more organized for people who
visit," she said. "In addition,
I'll work with people and work
the unconventional wisdom in
their campaign."
Even with all these advertising
tools at her disposal, Fink said
the effort to increase Rice's vis-
ibility will require a combination
of efforts.
"No one group is going to be
able to do it alone, so I'm hoping
to leverage what people are do-
ing globally to help get the story
of Rice out there," she said. "I'll
be meeting with the different
communicators on campus so we
can get the message about Rice
to a larger area than Houston
and Texas."
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Mudd 103
INTERIM
From page 1
admission, and they may be
exactly the same as those who
applied under interim [and
were rejected)," he said.
The removal of interim
decision may deter prospec-
tive minority students from
applying to Rice, since regu-
lar decision candidates who
attend Vision Weekend — a
minority recruitment weekend
held in February every year—
would visit Rice before receiv-
ing their admissions deci-
sions. Munoz stressed that
the elimination of interim
decision will not impede mi-
nority recruitment efforts
at Rice.
"We're going to have to be
very intentional and put our
best foot forward to compel mi-
nority students to have enough
interest to apply and come to
our open house programs like
Vision [Weekend]," Munoz
said. "Last year was one of the
largest participations we've
ever had, and we certainly
want to continue that."
Munoz said he thinks it
is especially important to be
hospitable towards underrep-
resented minority students.
"You have to put it in the
context of Rice's history [of
denying blacks admission],"
Munoz said. "There are people
who haven't forgotten."
To recruit minorities, Rice
officials are talking with the
Houston Independent School
District to identify and en-
courage potential applicants,
Munoz said.
Munoz said he does not
think the elimination of in-
terim decision will affect
how many students attend
Owl Weekend.
Munoz also said he does not
think the removal of interim
decision gives an unfair advan-
tage to wealthier students.
"We looked into that ques-
tion at Rice and found no cor-
relation," he said.
Jones College junior Lacey
Pyle, who was admitted via in-
terim decision, said she thinks
getting rid of interim decision
will discourage prospective
students from applying.
"I feel like the majority of
people who don't have their
mind automatically set on Rice
will do interim, so if people
don't really know where they
want to go, it's scary," Pyle
said. "If you're not sure you're
going to get into Rice [and
you apply early decision ] what
happens if you don't get in?
You're screwed."
STUDENT ASSOCIATION
Student Association President Laura Kelley worked with fellow SA
officials and university administrators over the summer to set in
motion key changes she has planned for her presidential term.
Summer activities:
■ All incoming students will receive free reusable coffee mugs
with the new SA logo at Sammy's Picnic Aug. 30. The mugs are
intended to discourage the use of disposable coffee cups, Kel-
ley, a Brown College senior, said. About 700 additional mugs wi'1
be on sale for $1 to upperclassmen, faculty and staff, and Kelley
said she is working with Housing and Dining to set up a mug-
washing service.
■ Kelley said she plans to implement multiple on-campus re-
cycling campaigns. She said the SA will strive for improved
maintenance and labeling on the residential college recycling
bins, and the SA will also sponsor a campus-wide Turn Off the
Lights drive and work with Rice Catering to eliminate Styrofoam
and set up recycling bins at that company's events.
■ The SA Web site, sa.rice.edu. was overhauled during the sum-
mer. Additionally, the SA has created a Facebook application
called Rice Info that provides quick links to various Rice
Web sites of interest to undergraduates. The application ap-
pears on users' Facebook home pages and will also display
SA announcements.
A unifying logo marks all new SA
efforts. The logo is part of a publicity
effort to make SA activity more vis-
ible and accessible to all students,
Kelley said.
Upcoming meetings and events:
■ Sammy's Picnic, a campus-wide
cookout for all undergraduates, will
take place Thursday, Aug. 30 at 5:30
at Founder's Court.
The SA's new logo
Incoming students who are interested in learning more about SA
programs or in becoming members of the Executive Committee
are invited to attend an information session Monday, Sept. 3
at 9 p.m. at Farnsworth Pavilion.
The first SA meeting of the year will take place Monday, Sept.
3 at 10 p.m. at Farnsworth Pavilion. The meeting agenda
includes a forum on undergraduate culture in the face of an
expanding university. Kelley said she plans to create a reso-
lution reflecting student opinion on the most valuable and
desirable aspects of Rice's undergraduate culture.
The second meeting will take place Monday, Sept. 10 at 10
p.m. at Farnsworth Pavilion. Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Carol Quillen and English Professor Jose Aranda will present
their pian for a Latin American and Hispanic Studies Program
to the SA and request student feedback.
The SA will hold a forum to discuss campus recycling efforts
and sustainability at its third meeting of the year, Monday,
Sept. 17 at 10 p.m. at Farnsworth Pavilion.
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Bursten, Julia. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 95, No. 1, Ed. 1 Friday, August 24, 2007, newspaper, August 24, 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443109/m1/12/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.