Are you a negligent college master?

Imagine getting a call by police informing you that students from your residential college have been arrested due to alcohol-fuelled violence or vandalism — a sickening feeling, no doubt.

When this nightmare is printed in the paper the following day it just compounds the pressure faced by the Master — bad press is not good for business and affiliated universities don’t appreciate it either.

We often read in the newspaper article that the college has “…high expectations of their students…” and that “…this behaviour doesn’t meet with the high expectations and policies of the college…”, but I’m growing sceptical of this line, as are many other parents I speak with.

It’s a well-documented fact that the repeat-offender colleges continue to battle the same problems despite what they change their policy to.

But perhaps the repeat-offender colleges aren’t as innocent as they would like everyone to believe. In fact there is strong evidence that suggests that the recurring problems are largely caused through naivete, lack of education, lack of supervision — and worst of all — disconnection.

Naivete can at the very least be sympathised with, the first few times it occurs. Lack of education can be addressed too. There are a growing number of businesses that offer awesome programs on alcohol education for teenagers. Your college is more than likely dealing with them now.

Lack of supervision? Is it fair that a college master be blamed for a lack of supervision at events organised by student resident associations? Judging by comments in the paper you’d think that they placed the blame firmly on the students, but I believe that Masters play a leading role in a college’s culture.

In Canberra recently, a group of drunken residential college thugs destroyed the premises of a well-known restaurant, causing up to $8,000 in damages.

The guilty college’s insurance company held up payment for repairs for over a year because they were “dissatisfied with security arrangements” that were organised by the student resident association.

Which makes one think, where was the scrutiny by college management over the security arrangements for the event? If the college gives their blessing to a student resident association to organise events in the college’s name, then college management must accept responsibility for ensuring the safety of the students was catered for.

That incident should have raised a red flag that, at the very least, caused them to rethink how the student association operates and how college management chooses to interact with them. Surely this lack of oversight can’t be termed a high standard. I think that most parents would be very concerned over the lack of scrutiny by college management.

But, perhaps the most harmful environment for a student to live in is an environment that’s run by a disconnected management team.

Disconnected management teams can be characterised as not thinking about how their actions and attitudes influence the students around them and how they influence college culture by what they don’t do as much as what they do do.

Policies, damned lies, and policies

Having worked with and in Government I’ve seen the policies that a particular Department professes to hold dear be trampled underfoot by the very people that wrote them.

Behaviour that goes against policy can very easily be overlooked and justified — especially when you have an established culture. Think about the ingrained mysoginistic behaviour in our Australian Defence Force Academy — it runs deep within its walls. Traditions are passed on, rituals enacted over and over again, sexism encouraged. This has as much to do with management, or the lack of, as it has to do with the new recruits.

If one thing is certain it’s that having a policy doesn’t equate to having a culture that lives or polices the policy. It’s just handy to say that you have a policy when scrutinised by the media — it gives the impression that you have an action plan — even though it seldom works and that somehow management is divorced from the shenanigans.

Residential colleges, damned lies, and residential colleges

Our company takes great pride in the work we do. When it comes to branding or rebranding education institutions we’re one of the world’s best — with the awards to prove it.

That’s why it sickens me to see that a residential college we rebranded some time ago has thrown all the strategic advice and strategic planning to the wind and gone back to their old habits — like a dog to its vomit.

The only ‘good’ thing that’s come of this is that it is a living example of what management shouldn’t do when rebranding their college.

Rebranding is about communicating the living essence of the change within. If management can’t change the culture within its walls, then rebranding will do little to convince people that you’ve changed. In fact, don’t waste your time or your money if that’s the case.

A rebrand has to be built on the commitment and foundation of internal change, or else it’s worthless.

When a residential college states that “…this behaviour doesn’t meet with the high standards or expectations of the college” then it’s imperative that they actually have high standards, that they live up to. Words are cheap.

If management doesn’t ensure its students are safe at a college funded and organised event, then they are culpable and negligent. Let’s not pretend they operate to a high standard, their actions speak louder than their marketing, policies and rhetoric.

The cat is out of the bag

In Canberra there are a few bars in town that are known by the community and police as being problematic, to say the least. One in particular has a very bad name among Canberran residents. This bar is always on the news or in the newspapers for alcohol induced violence and sex crimes. That’s why it beggars belief that this bar is a sponsor of the “high standards” college mentioned above.

Now you and I both know that when a sponsor injects cash they do so because they want a pound-of-flesh in return. In this case it’s advertising within the college environment, talk about a conflict of interest. Yet the high standards management is more than willing to accept the money from the most violent, binge drinking bar in Canberra in exchange for access to the kids whose parents were assured were in an environment that held their children to the highest standards.

It’s perfect really, the college takes the binge bar’s money and then encourages its residents to drink in this violent, mysoginisitic place, where women are seen as nothing more than prey. In exchange the college provides advertising space on the walls, college clothing and other college products — some of which is worn and winked at by management.

The students, having been saturated in this management approved advertising, go to the bar, get drunk and get into all sorts of trouble.

Then management uses lame one-liners and issues a policy document that states that “this kind of behaviour goes against the high standards of our college”, when clearly it doesn’t!

But there’s more!

If you go into this particular bar there is a glass cabinet in the bar’s wall that’s full of this college’s paraphernalia. Within the cabinet are pictures of residents exposing their breasts (not fully) but it leaves nothing to the imagination. There are stubby holders covered in the college’s logo with vulgar slogans all over it and other material. There’s even a lovely framed photo of the residents association celebrating the bar’s 25th birthday — one of many I might add.

It gets worse.

There in the middle of the cabinet is a bib with the Masters name on it. Wow!

The college’s policy and standards aren’t even worth the paper it’s written on.

Problem college

It’s not rocket science here. How can management be allowed to fold their arms and sit in judgement on the residents that get into these alcohol fuelled situations? The college is encouraging them to attend one of the worst bars in Canberra by providing the advertising space that encourages that behaviour.

Wasted money

This particular college has wasted their money on a rebrand — they are not committed to change. How do I know? Because when we first did their rebrand one of the strategic findings called for them to ditch the sponsorship of this bar.

If there is no commitment by management to change a culture and to accept and reflect on the problems that keep occurring then a visual rebrand will fix nothing.

A management team that is serious about change will start that change from within and make sure that it’s carried through.

A good rebrand communicates that powerful internal change. It’s the visual embodiment of management’s values, leadership and focus.

Time for an honest appraisal

How are you going as a college? Have you stopped to reflect on your values, your sponsors and your marketing material?

If you’re struggling but are serious about changing then you know who to call.

If you’re just a talker, we can’t help you. Only you can.