Item Details

title

SELLING THE LIBERAL ARTS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE VIEWBOOKS AFTER THE STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 2008

author

Tanner, Ray Celeste Silverthorne

abstract

Like any market, the higher education sector is affected by changes to the economy. While the market for college-educated workers increases, there is still pushback that students should spend their time and money getting vocational training. This push towards vocational training threatened the preservation of liberal arts colleges. The stock market crash of 2008 forced colleges, specifically liberal arts colleges, to evaluate how they market an education from their university and communicate their institutional values. One way that colleges market themselves is through viewbooks. A college viewbook, which can range from a several-page pamphlet to a bound volume, serves to promote the institution. They also provide valuable information like deadlines, financial information, and directions on how to apply. Viewbooks are rich texts to study as they communicate values, norms, and general information associated with almost every aspect of the college student experience.While each of the three viewbooks used different methods, each viewbook communicated its school’s commitment to the student. By making students, rather than buildings or professors, the subject of the images, the viewbooks highlight hands-on learning, collaboration, and dedication to student learning. Though each school framed financial aid and tuition costs differently, each did so in a way that was consistent with its established institutional identity. This thesis documents that in post-recession world liberal arts schools must justify their worth. These viewbooks illustrate three of these justification narratives.

subject

Colleges

Liberal Arts

Recession

Viewbooks

contributor

Llewellyn, John (committee chair)

Giles, Steven (committee member)

Hurley, Richard V (committee member)

date

2019-05-24T08:35:48Z (accessioned)

2021-05-23T08:30:12Z (available)

2019 (issued)

degree

Communication (discipline)

embargo

2021-05-23 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/93972 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis