Nice to see Coach and his assistants helping the new students move in to the dorms today. Might even convince a couple of local Dads to buy tickets.
Move in day
- Thread starter HuffyCane
- Start date
So this is one of the great traditions TU has had dating back to when Lawless came on campus as President. And with Lawless, if your dept. wasn't directly involved in student services on move-in day (i.e. Financial Aid, Bursar, academic advising and registration, housing, etc.) you were expected to volunteer a couple of hours to help new students move in. I don't remember if Rader insisted his players help get students moved in but Burns did and Kragthorpe canceled practices/workouts for that day and required players to help. I know Self and his staff helped move-ins but I want to say Steve Robinson's crew was the first that helped with this. I can't say for sure if Wojcik or Haith and their staffs helped (I want to say Wojcik was a no...I was a hall director and don't remember seeing him at any of the RHs for move-in).
This is a simple way to engage new students and parents at move-in. And TU is small enough that meeting someone on move-in day and it's pretty likely you will bump into them again...and be remembered. BTW, this is open to alumni in the area as well
This is a simple way to engage new students and parents at move-in. And TU is small enough that meeting someone on move-in day and it's pretty likely you will bump into them again...and be remembered. BTW, this is open to alumni in the area as well
This is the kind of engagement with new students that always brings benefits. I don’t recall seeing so many positive articles from TU on incoming classes over the last few years, but this is certainly good news.
Previous leadership did not place a lot of emphasis on what our peers were achieving. You can point to a lot of internal justifications for that, including budget, but what it really boils/boiled down to is/was two types of people in certain positions: 1) those doing as little as possible because they saw they weren't being paid as much as similar positions at other schools (whose salaries are out of control) while feeling socially secure within the organization and/or 2) they lacked the knowledge skills or abilities necessary to properly build or administrate programs equal to our peers. In some cases with 2), both they knew it and we knew it, but we didn't want to pay what it would cost to actually hire someone to do the work or reach the goal. That's changing. And Im so relieved.
BLA calls it a tradition, but Lawless was really the last President we had that benchmarked based on peer goals/achievements. We started doing this move-in promotion and other customer friendly stuff to build momentum with recruiting more students because every other school in the country was doing it and doing it better. Its part of our core university function, not a tradition. Even Stead wasn't that interested in competing, he didn't care what other schools did, he wanted us to do what he wanted to do. If every school does it, if for no other reason than to entice next year's students through posting on IG and Snap, its not a tradition. Calling it a tradition means you dont have to fund it or be accountable for its success I guess. Its us losing in the market place to others because we aren't getting up off our butt. We are woefully way behind because that program, like a lot of other things on campus, never really developed after getting started. And we never adjusted costs and efficiencies to build in payment for that programing so it would develop over time. We are behind and will be doing what we can to catch up -- quick.
Its good to see Konkol a part of it but it could and should be so much more.
It still comes down to what I think TU has seriously lacked for decades... Marketing. We do not market to current students, we do not market to the casual fan base, and we do not market to potential students. Until recently, and we are already seeing what just a little push and marketing can do to bring in new money, new students. These students will graduate and in 20 years they will be the ones paying for new scoreboards, new stadiums, new libraries.
Exactly. But you need coherent and co-ordinated first and second tier management to have a coherent and co-ordinated communications/marketing strategy for competent people to carry out. Its getting worked out.
And FWIW, that "little push" you mention has focused on doing what our peers have done for decades, but better where we know we can do better. Getting the biggest bang for our buck in terms of messaging style, method, and who receives that message so the TU exceptionalism really shines through. It would appear from afar to have exceeded expectations and explanation.
Well said....Positive # 1....We replaced an AD who considered a call from a potential doner an interruption
of his compliance duties....Positive # 2....We have a new basketball coach who wants TU to truly become
"Tulsa's team", and is working hard to make it so....Positive # 3.....Our new president recognizes the real
important difference that competitive sports teams makes to a University, and is acting accordingly....
Positive # 4.....Positives 2 & 3 have reawakened our AD, who had been frustrated by a lack of funding
and poor emphasis on marketing of T.U.'s sports programs.....
It does seem we now have the best coordinated "efforting" (a computer age adapted word I have never
cared for, but somehow seems appropriate here) to market our sports teams, and to enhance the game-
day experience of our fans.....A 'good' game day atmosphere is hard to explain, but the importance of the
game, the excitement and anticipation you feel are just different, and are important parts of the game day experience.....
Hopefully we are headed there again!!
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I had a nice chat with Coach Konkol on Wednesday as the volunteers were unloading my son's things at Hardesty. He makes a good first impression.
They need to raffle off a pickup truck during the 4th Qtr TV time out again. That’s really the only thing that has moved the needle over the years.
I bought $50.00 raffle ticket years ago from older gentleman at Coach Graham football show. I didn't win vehicle. I believe the salesman was Catbert. He was very persistent. He bleed Blue and Gold!
