Stein news: January 2008
by Jenny Brower, Stein |Wednesday, January 30th, 2008Belmont University assists in a nation’s decision
The Commission on Presidential Debates has chosen our friends at Belmont University, along with the University of Mississippi, Washington University, and Hofstra University, as presidential debate sites for 2008. Congratulations to you all on this amazing honor and opportunity.
Davidson College and a higher calling: a project filled with trust
In March 2007, Davidson College became the first liberal arts college in the country to replace loans with grants in all of its financial aid packages. This fall, we at Stein were retained by the college to partner in the mission of finding a suitable name for this historic action, somewhat like the branding terms used by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with its Carolina Covenant or the State of Georgia with its Hope Scholarship.
Collectively, we may have been searching merely for a marketing term, a branding device, but in the end, the college’s challenge to us transcended into much more. Our focus groups and web research on their behalf gave us tremendous insight into the values of the high school student and the American family in their selection criteria as they approach college choice. It also confirmed the great respect that Davidson’s alumni feel for their alma mater not only for their superb education but also for the values they received during their college years. The response to our on-site questions, off-site focus groups, and online surveys from high school students, Davidson students, parents, alumni, and high school counselors was enthusiastic and filled with imaginative suggestions.
Through both qualitative and quantitative research, we plotted and tested nearly a dozen branding terms, and The Davidson Trust rose to the top. How appropriate, as the term trust builds on a core value of the college, the college’s Honor Code, and that a Davidson education should be available and affordable to all qualified students regardless of means. This was indeed a project of a higher calling — a project filled with trust.
We welcome our new projects
We are pleased to announce new projects at the following institutions:
Cornell University (NY)
Davidson College (NC)
Hampton Roads Academy (VA)
LaGrange College (GA)
Sewanee: University of the South (TN)
Ursuline College (OH)
Stein’s latest addition
We’re excited to welcome our latest account executive, Kathryn Spruill. Before joining the Stein consulting team, Kathryn began her career in college admissions in 2002 when she rose through the ranks of student tour guides to a coveted internship in Tulane’s admission office. After graduating with a double major in Spanish and international development, she joined the admission staff full time. Hurricane Katrina brought her biggest challenge as she helped prospective students and parents overcome their fears and misconceptions about the post-Katrina city and university.
Kathryn also received her MBA at Tulane’s Freeman School of Business. The crowning achievement of her studies is the pending development of a splash park in New Orleans. She, along with three peers, completed a comprehensive study regarding the feasibility of building the park as well as its potential in generating additional revenues for City Park.
Aside from her post at Stein, Kathryn stays busy solving sudoku puzzles, working to improve her tennis skills on the Nintendo Wii, and training for the ING half marathon to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Seeking qualified candidates for sales position
Stein is seeking qualified candidates for a sales/consulting position. If you are interested in learning more about the position, please contact Jenny Brower at 404.494.4393 or jbrower@steincommunications.com.
Please join Stein consultant J.D. Fite and Admissions Director Jim Tucker from St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School as they share tips on how to get the best results from the Agency-Client relationship at the 
Like many universities across the nation, when it came time to revamp their admissions web site, Lipscomb University in Nashville chose to add more interactive features for prospective students. The 
It is particularly noteworthy to us when our clients and friends are elevated to high places. As a regular exhibitor and supporter (since 1968) of the National Association of College Admission Counselors (
That Old Game of Pac-Man: For the last dozen years, like the rest of America, I have been witness to the corporate game of Pac-Man. Wallace chugged along and ate Graphic Industries (Stein’s previous owner); Moore ate Wallace; then RR Donnelley ate both (as well as many others). Through it all, Stein kept being Stein by going about its business of steadily assisting colleges, universities, and schools in portraying their own visions to their publics, no matter who the big boss was or who claimed ownership. Ironically for me, RR Donnelley, who won the Pac-Man game and is thus my current employer, today claims to be “the largest communications company in the world.” In the name of my own livelihood, I’ve bitten the bullet — perhaps now is the time for me to get used to big.
Commitment to External Affairs: RR Donnelley is committed to working with businesses owned by minorities, women, and disabled veterans as major suppliers. We have heard much lately about the hardships of small businesses and startups. RRD appears to be doing something about them and those who run them, especially those who may not have had all the advantages afforded others.
Commitment to Employee Safety and Health: I am on an RRD exercise program. Every day I log on to a web site called President’s Challenge. On an honor system, I report my daily exercise, whether it be walking, tennis, golf, or bicycle riding. It could be only 15 minutes, but in RRD’s mind, it is time well spent. The corporate incentive for this not-too-rigorous exercise program is a reduction in my health insurance payments. Also included are free quarterly phone consultations with a health professional. Other health incentive programs focus on waist reduction and heart disease. Insightful — my company realizes that there is a correlation between employee productivity and employee health.
Commitment to Environmental Sustainability: Thirty years ago if you walked through a printing company you may have come out coughing and unable to hear a darn thing. There has been much progress, with the RRD companies leading the way. They are cleaning the air we breathe and managing the waste produced by this industry. Donnelley buys paper only from those manufacturers who draw their raw material from responsibly managed forests. Perhaps RRD says it better: “Sustainability not only makes a difference, it differentiates RR Donnelley.” Al Gore would be proud.
Commitment to the Community: An RR Donnelley foundation contributes dollars to worthwhile community projects where RRD facilities are located. Reading and literacy have been very high priorities, as well as fundraising for the United Way. RRD seems to care not only about its employees’ working environments but also about their quality of life outside the workplace.
We at Stein were recently elated to hear of the election of Mike Maxey as the 11th president of 
Congratulations to Stein’s 
We are on a roll! RR Donnelley recently honored Stein Executive Vice President 
When I approach October, it’s mental and habit — it’s the coming of the 
As someone who visited high schools in my first ten years of professional life, I used to comment that the best way to get to know an urban area or a city is through traveling to its schools. I traveled extensively early on throughout New England and the Middle Atlantic states and later throughout the Southeast. NACAC, through its national meetings gave me the opportunity to visit other places. After my first meeting in Washington, the next was in Minneapolis. In the Twin Cities I found a whole new world. I looked forward to returning again and again in 1982 and 1996. If you go to NACAC continually, you find yourself crisscrossing the United States, east coast, west coast, with an occasional visit to the south. From Minneapolis we went to New York where I can remember seeing a smiling Johnny Carson passing through the lobby. We then went to Chicago. Chicago was memorable because of the times. The 1968 Democratic Convention was fresh in our minds, and an association dealing with access to higher education was not immune from protest from the outside. I can remember watching Colonel Day, the burley but very gentlemanly Director of Admission at West Point, physically removing a profane outside participant from the lectern. The Chicago of 1994 was so different. Jogging near the lake in the art museum area in the breeze and sunshine was so calm and pure pleasure. 
San Antonio in 1972 is so memorable, because I had no concept of the Riverwalk before I went — what a great convention in a great city. It was highlighted by Russ Gossage, Director of Admissions at Trinity University, hosting the whole convention to a barbecue in his backyard. San Antonio in 1983 was no surprise — we knew what to expect, but San Antonio in 2001 was held in the wake of 9-11, which was on all of our minds. I had just moved to Atlanta in 1975 when that city hosted the convention and I felt that my new hometown did a marvelous job. Each meeting for me has its own set of personal memories. It was in New York in 1989 where Stein’s Rob Glass and I did our famous Siskel and Ebert-like presentation of college recruitment publications in front of a packed house at 8:30 in the morning. My oldest son, Scott, who later became the subject of a NACAC Journal article, “Travels With Scott,” joined me to see The Phantom of the Opera — a father-son event that I have always remembered fondly. San Francisco is San Francisco. I have been blessed twice in 1971 and 1997. I always attempted to see something in areas in NACAC cities that I normally don’t travel to. During the first San Francisco convention, a group of us rented a car and traveled down by Monterey to see Stanford. It was a wonderful drive. Now it is rather humorous, but in the San Francisco meeting of 1997, our exhibit and display box was shipped from Atlanta with the wrong display — it contained a display from another division of the company. We had fun with a table, some samples, a white tablecloth, and loads of competitor onlookers with grins. 
Seattle was a good one to see the beauty of the northwest and eat loads of salmon. I took the MTA in Boston to go to the Kennedy Library. Boston makes me think of baseball. During all NACAC national conventions, we fans are always either caught up in the World Series or the Divisional Playoffs. Oftentimes this situation has been tough for a Braves season ticket holder like me, but, then again, it has always been tough to be a Braves fan at World Series time. I saw the Cardinals in St. Louis. As a southerner, Louisville did me proud. Salt Lake City gave me the opportunity to examine my ancestry. In Tampa I lost weight by walking from the hotel to the convention center in the humidity. Orlando was pure Disney and fun. Long Beach was living on the Queen Mary. We were all impressed by the cleanliness and friendliness of Indianapolis. Los Angeles was Los Angeles. To this day, having started my career in Ohio, I am a loyal
Still the magical meeting continues to be Washington 1966. It was the start of a wonderful life and fine professional journey. I owe the folks at NACAC a vote of thanks for crisscrossing me over the country for the last forty years, and for the hard work of all the local-arrangement volunteers who have made all of my Octobers worthwhile. But worthwhile is what NACAC is all about. I always remember it is only about a kid’s choice of a college — a serious life-changing decision in the middle of an impressionable youthful time. And here is a professional association filled with wonderful people who have an awesome duty to protect, value, and ensure that the process is kept within the best interest of that young person. NACAC professionals and all the nationwide volunteers who make these national meetings what they are have my gratitude. They have made my Octobers. Pittsburgh was great in 1993 and will be again in 2006. Damn right, it’s my fortieth!
