ABSTRACT

The relationship between marketing and college and university administration has been a tenuous one. Admittedly, as student enrollments swelled through the 1960s and 1970s the challenge was one of accommodation as opposed to recruitment, but times have changed. Today, dwindling traditional enrollments have drawn attention to university outreach programs as an attractive, and necessary, diversification. However, the outreach market is sophisticated and demanding thus requiring marketing skills for which colleges and universities have not been noted. For example, Sevier (1989) observed that:

Numerous studies have shown that marketing, particularly among college administrators, is often confused with public relations, advertising, or other promotional activities. These, however, are actually tools of marketing, avenues through which the marketing plan is executed. (p. 394)