college websites as artifacts: self-conscious glimpses of

College Websites as Artifacts:

Self-Conscious Glimpses of Organizational Culture

Amanda Sigel

Shippensburg University

[email protected]

Prepared for the 2011 PAT-Net Conference

Norfolk, VA

mailto:[email protected]

College Websites as Artifacts 2

Abstract

According to Schein’s (1999) theory of organizational culture, artifacts that are produced by an

institution are readily observable but easily misconstrued.1 This paper briefly highlights recent

scholarship on organizational culture and then applies it to elements of higher education websites

– Eastern University, Messiah College, Regent University, and Shippensburg University. While

considering website content and design in general and graduate landing pages in particular may

not uncover deeply embedded assumptions, it may give a good idea of each institution’s

carefully crafted message to its perceived target audience. That message can be a window to

deeper values and distinctives. It is vital for institutions to recognize, manage, and articulate

their distinctives skillfully to survive in an increasingly competitive market. Taking a closer

look at particular websites for both private and public institutions will supply concrete,

comparative examples to inform future scholarship and practice.

1 All page citations and quotations are taken from the 1999 edition of The Corporate Culture Survival Guide. San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.


College Websites as Artifacts:

Self-Conscious Glimpses of Organizational Culture

As technology becomes more and more pervasive, internet media increases its ability to

draw and engage potential audiences. Online advertising is only about 15 years old, but it has

seen explosive growth in that time. While outlets like radio and newspaper blanket a geographic

area, internet advertising can be finely targeted as keystrokes are recorded and categorized by

social networking sites and search engines. Technology advances at an astonishingly rapid rate.

Building data about a user’s preferences is no longer cutting edge. Today’s programming allows

for adaptive navigation support where sites are able to determine the level of the user’s

knowledge of the subject and supply targeted navigation support accordingly (Brusilovsky,

2003).

While multiple web pages of detailed information on virtually any topic are only a click

away, the pool of traditional undergraduate students from families with incomes of $100,000 or

more, for many years the bread and butter of private colleges, has been declining. External

pressures include increased competition for prospective students and the need for new revenue

streams to augment decreasing endowments affected by the recent economic downturn. Internal

pressures specifically related to adding graduate programs can include horizontal departmental

subgroup friction as well as disagreement over who can legitimately sow the seeds of new

programs. For some, a program that is initiated by executive officers rather than faculty is a

money-making sham masquerading as a worthwhile academic endeavor. In time, if the new

endeavor proves successful, most naysayers will at least grudgingly support it (Dittmar, 2009).

In this environment, Messiah College recently launched its first three master’s level

graduate programs and projects that the fourth, an M.Ed. with tracks in Special Education or


Teaching English as a Second Language will enroll its first students in early to mid 2011. At this

time of expansion and new direction for Messiah, it will be helpful to consider organizational

culture as it relates to web content and design. Messiah’s first three graduate programs have

been launched successfully with each one meeting or exceeding enrollment targets. Since my

position hinges, at least in part, on the success of the M.Ed. program, I would like to assist my

employer by providing a comparison between Messiah and a few competitors. The data for

comparison will be selected elements of the institutions’ websites. The other universities that will

be considered, Eastern, Regent, and Shippensburg, were chosen because each of them has a

similar M.Ed. program. In addition, all of the institutions except Regent are in the same

geographic area. While Regent is in Virginia, online offerings allow them to serve students

around the world.

As mentioned above, interest in this topic stems from my role as support staff for the

development and implementation of Messiah’s M.Ed. program. I realize that this connection

could easily color my interpretations of website content and design. To bypass that hurdle, it is

my objective to limit evaluation to precisely defined areas and avoid the temptation to base

remarks on other experiences and information that I will not have access to with regard to

Eastern, Regent, or Shippensburg.

Organizational Culture: Building on Schein and Others

In this literature analysis, recent scholarship on organizational culture will be highlighted

on three levels: higher education, shared assumptions, and artifacts and symbols. The work of

Schein continues to be influential in research on organizational culture. Schein’s theory

identifies three levels of culture: assumptions, values, and artifacts, all of which are relevant to


the present study because they affect and build on one another. It would be difficult to isolate

artifacts from the bigger picture of shared values and unspoken assumptions.

Organizational Culture in Higher Education

Beginning with organizational culture in higher education, Dittmar (2009) studies the

dramatic change in culture at Waynesburg College/University over the course of 25 years. He

explores resistance to change and ways of overcoming, especially related to leadership, based on

Schein’s work. Leadership is a crucial factor in college athletics, and Schroeder’s work (2010)

explores culture in collegiate athletics centering on head coaches who have turned losing

programs into winning ones over a short timeframe. Schroeder also draws on Schein’s theories

about change and looks at primary as well as secondary change methods emphasizing a group’s

need for “psychological safety” to change (p. 66). Exploring another aspect of higher education,

Salvatore (2002) studies distance education culture and finds that community building and

identity establishment are key.

Schein’s theory is only one of many generally accepted perspectives in the area of

organizational culture. While Schein’s theory encourages probing from the superficial level of

artifact to the underlying level of values and finally the often subconscious level of assumption,

the focus of this paper is limited to the superficial layer . Other theorists, however, give hope

that useful comparisons can be made even at the uppermost observable level of culture. Geertz

(1979) says that humans are suspended in webs of significance of their own making. In this

metaphor, the webs are culture, and the analysis of culture is an interpretative exercise in search

of meaning rather than a scientific exercise in search of law . Van Maanen (1992) also views

cultures as subjective phenomena. In his interesting study of Disney theme park displacement


into different cultures, Van Maanen emphasizes the transitory, shifting nature of culture. His

look at the parks is a snapshot in an ever evolving shifting scene of meaning. Similarly, the

websites that are observed in this paper provide snapshots of their respective institutions.

Organizational Culture as Shared Assumptions

Langan-Fox and Tan (1997) identify four core issues underlying definitions of

organizational culture: stability and resistant to change, held consciously, derived from

organizational members, and inclusive of shared understandings. For Langan-Fox and Tan,

culture is stable, while Van Maanen (1992) believes that it is shifting. Pettigrew (1979) writes

that organizations need a common understanding of what reality is so that they can function

within that reality. He writes: “Culture is the system of such publicly and collectively accepted

meanings operating for a given group at a given time” (Pettigrew, 1979, p. 574).

Successful college coaches that Schroeder (2010) interviewed have much more control

over their followers than most leaders enjoy. They make a conscious effort to set and encourage

shared assumptions through varied teaching strategies and selective recruitment. The coaches

mete out rewards and punishments consistent with the team assumptions they set. It is possible

that the role and control of coaches in setting team assumptions is overstated in Schroeder’s

study since no players or assistant coaches were included in interviews.

When Dittmar (2009) studied Waynesburg University, he found strong evidence of

changed assumptions when faculty members who had been at the college prior to changes

advocated for incorporating newly adopted assumptions into the tenure and promotion process.

With his insider knowledge, Dittmar was able to directly address all three of Schein’s levels.

While Schroeder admitted that he was not sure whether he had been able to reach the deepest

level of assumptions in his research, it will certainly not be possible to reach that level with the


analysis of the websites highlighted in this article. The websites explored here are, however,

important artifacts that give hints of their respective organizational cultures.

Artifacts – Cultures’ Visible Signs

Artifacts are the surface signs of organizational cultures that run much deeper and,

according to Schein’s popular theory, also include commonly held values and core assumptions.

While artifacts are easily observed and elicit emotional reactions, Schein cautions that it is

difficult to know their meaning without personally experiencing and interacting with the culture.

While I understand Schein’s point, Van Maanen’s (1995) words resonate more deeply with me:

How organizational worlds are represented in print is not thought to be much of an issue.

Writing is seen as a secondary or mop-up activity in our professional pursuits. This is, I

think, a mistake and overlooks what might be learned if we were to take the textuality of

our organizational theories and facts more seriously… (p. 134)

Pettigrew lists the “offsprings” of culture: symbol, language, ideology, belief, ritual, and

myth (1979, p. 574). Cohen (1974) defines symbols as “objects, acts, relationships, or linguistic

formations that stand ambiguously for a multiplicity of meanings, evoke emotions, and impel

men to action" (p. 23). Emotional reactions to artifacts have strong implications for web design.

According to Lindgaard and Dudek (2002) reactions are pre-attentive and precede cognitive

responses. If a user has an initial negative emotional reaction to a website, he will click onto

another one in a matter of milliseconds without ever taking in any of the information the

undesirable site offers.

Considering Selected Website Examples

Knowledge and expertise in several fields can contribute to the design of appealing,

successful web pages. Taylor and colleagues (2005) explain that traditionally web design, as a

form of an IT system, has been regarded as a technical activity. Unlike internal IT systems,


though, an organization’s website is available to the general public and as a result must have “far

more emphasis on presentation and ease of use” (p. 331). Taylor et al. strive to incorporate

aesthetic as well as technical aspects into teaching web design at the undergraduate level. This

takes time and patience since many computer science majors are not naturally attuned to artistic

elements initially. In addition to computer science and visual arts, website design is also heavily

driven by marketing. Navigating to www.”wherever”.com is one early step people take as they

begin to compare higher education choices. Each institution’s home page creates an important

first impression.

Home Pages: Pictorial Oases in an Academic Paper


As a beginning point, the top screen shot of the home pages of Eastern University,

Messiah College, Regent University, and Shippensburg University are shown above.2 At first

glance, which site is most attractive to you? Color choice is significant in web design as it is in

the physical design of living spaces. Eastern’s burgundy and gray color scheme can be traced to

their team colors. “Messiah blue” was carefully identified as part of a 2002 visual identity

campaign and forms the background for the college logo at the top of the page. Blue and white

are also the colors for Messiah’s sports teams. Shippensburg’s website echoes their team colors

displaying bright shades of red and blue. Regent does not have an athletics program other than

intramurals so a deep red was probably chosen for its symbolic association with royalty.

2 All references to web sites can be accessed from: www.eastern.edu, www.messiah.edu, www.regent.edu, and

www.ship.edu.

http://www.eastern.edu/

http://www.messiah.edu/

http://www.regent.edu/

http://www.ship.edu/


Each college is represented by a distinctive logo. For Eastern University a new logo, just

launched in 2010 as part of a visual identity campaign, depicts a shield filled by an “E” divided

horizontally by a curved line. Below the “E,” but still within the shield, is the date 1925

intersected by a cross. Eastern’s site explains that the shield represents academic strength and

the theme of biblical protection while lending a sense of history to the university. The curving

line symbolizes a horizon which signifies both a forward-looking ethos of education and a

global-focus in the areas of outreach, impact, and programs.

Eastern was founded in 1925, and the website again emphasizes the need to cultivate a

historic flavor when it notes that the date “conveys the fact that Eastern has been involved with

higher education for the better part of a century.” The cross points to the institution’s dedication

to Christ-centered education. Messiah celebrated its centennial last year and keeps a link to

donate to the centennial campaign on the home page serving a dual purpose of fundraising and

reminding viewers of institutional longevity. Messiah College’s logo consists of a flame blazing

atop three columns that combine to resemble a single Doric column. The flame symbolizes

academic and spiritual knowledge, truth, and wisdom while the three columns are representative

of both the Christian trinity and the tri-part elements of Messiah’s mission statement.

When Regent University adopted their name in 1990, every effort was made to

incorporate “emblems relevant to our faith and historic surroundings.” A regent is one who

represents a king in his absence. In like fashion, Regent University and her graduates are meant

to represent their king, Jesus Christ. Regent has an intricate logo that was truncated for the

purposes of the web display. Rather than a crown atop a shield divided into four sections resting

on a symbolic ribbon, the university name appears only with the crown, representing Christ, at

the top of the website.


For Shippensburg University, a new logo was unveiled in 2008 as part of an institutional

identity campaign. According to Ship’s online “Graphics Standards Manual” the outcome of the

campaign was based on a concise statement of identity that resulted from extensive market

research and subsequent discussion:

Shippensburg University is a familiar,welcoming place with an entrepreneurial spirit

whose finger is on the pulse of an evolving regional economy. Ship seeks to educate and

prepare students for emerging industries and jobs that will strengthen our nation’s

economy.

The logo highlights the cut out shape of a clipper ship against a red sky skimming through bright

blue water. The clipper ship not only represented trade in its time but also cutting edge

technology. It was fast and agile which seems to align well with the Shippensburg’s stated

identity.

Each institution seeks to portray its perceived identity or projected image clearly and

concisely through carefully chosen phrases. For Eastern the message is: grow in faith, learn to

reason, help bring justice. Messiah advertises that it sharpens intellect, deepens Christian faith,

and inspires action. At Regent, the motto is “Christian leadership to change the world.”

Shippensburg emphasizes “-ship” words like leadership, mentorship, scholarship, partnership,

friendship, and internship.

In comparing the three Christian institutions, each of their synopses include a faith-based

element. The short messages of Eastern and Messiah are very similar incorporating academics

and justice (action) along with faith. Regent stands apart with its primary aim of developing

globally transformative leaders. These differences should be considered in light of the

populations that the institutions enroll. Eastern and Messiah, while offering Master’s degree

programs, serve predominantly undergraduate populations; the majority of students studying at


Regent are pursuing graduate or professional programs. The great majority of Shippensburg’s

students are undergraduates.

Another aspect of home pages that varies is the type and quantity of text that they

display. One observer who was asked which of these home pages she was attracted to most at

first glance chose Eastern’s page. When asked why, she responded that Eastern’s page looked

the least cluttered. On closer inspection, the fonts are slightly larger and there does seem to be

slightly more empty space on the front page of Eastern’s site compared to the other three. It is

important to note, though, that to capture the entire Eastern home page, three screen shots are

required while only two shots capture the entire page for the other institutions.

After following these websites for a few weeks, patterns emerge of which portions and

how often the content on the home page is changed. For Messiah, new photos are loaded onto

the nine image slide show on the home page at least once a week. Below the slide show, there is

space for a current Messiah event and a news item, changed out about every two weeks. This

spot offers headlines and pictures to entice visitors to click ahead for the rest of the story. The

home page for Eastern is mostly static although a three picture slide show scrolls when the site is

opened. The feature images change occasionally. The information on Eastern’s home page is

generic enough that the only noticeable change after a month of observation was the date in the

central sentence declaring that today’s date is a good day for a campus visit. Shippensburg has a

nine image slide show that has not changed in months. Items under the headings news, events,

and features change in a timely fashion.

Both Eastern and Messiah tout their U.S. News and World Report rankings prominently

on their home pages. While there are no rankings on Regent’s home page, there is an eye

catching slide show offering seven or eight slides large enough to incorporate descriptive text.


These slides change about every two weeks and highlight institutional events, news, and

initiatives. Recent topics include: relief for Pakistan, spiritual formation, Impact newsletter,

record enrollment, undergrad youtube contest, military friendly, and Hispanic Heritage Month.

In the next session, images in particular will be the focus.

Images: What is Deemed Important Enough to Show?

Images probably have a larger impact on our understanding and decision-making

processes than we realize. In Knight, Gunawardena, and Aydin’s 2009 study, images and icons

common to north American academic websites were presented to undergraduates from four

different cultures to evaluate how perceptions vary. With only pictures to guide them, the

majority of students from a single culture will make similar cultural-based choices. Students

from the Middle East would most like to study with a professor who is dressed formally in a suit

symbolizing professionalism to them while American undergraduates indicate that they would

prefer to study with a professor who is dressed more casually.

While in the Knight et al. study students were making choices based only on images, it is

often the case today that images on a website will be one of the first pieces of organizational

information to which potential students are exposed. In a 2007 study, Alessandri, Yang, and

Kinsey found evidence that rather than just using one image for a university’s visual branding, it

is effective to use several recurring images to address varying audiences. Ogbonna and Harris

(2006) found that it is easier for an organization to change its external image through minor or

drastic changes to its website than it is to change internal culture. Next, Eastern’s, Messiah’s,

Regent’s, and Shippensburg’s websites will be examined to learn how each one endeavors to

convey a positive image to their external audiences through images.


All of the sites show ethnic diversity in the images they display. On Eastern’s home

page, sample slide show images included shots of a professor assisting a student, three African-

American men with a brick façade in the background, and a student taking a moment from his

study of Latin to speak to another student. The choice of the Latin text seems almost sure to be

aimed at supporting and enhancing Eastern’s historical image. The smaller images on Eastern’s

home page include a few simple icons and happy people including alums, a Mom, students

(prospective and current), and a gray-haired, friendly-looking professor. A comparison of fifty

easily accessible images from each website yielded the following table:

Not surprisingly, there are no homesick students or students ready to transfer out on

websites. Undergraduates are pictured in classrooms listening intently to their professors. When

not in class, students are pictured in harmonious groups participating in activities like athletics or

worship. Both Eastern and Messiah display a graduation image of students dressed in caps and

gowns on their home pages giving viewers a clear depiction the culminating goal of the college

experience. Shippensburg seems more realistic in their images by showing students in class or in

labs, often without smiles. As with other aspects of websites, the intent is always in question.

Did Shippensburg decide to show realistic pictures of students or were these the best shots of the

ones from which they were choosing?

For Regent, student-run stage and television productions are one of the highlights of their

fifty photo slide show that is prominently linked to the home page. See Table 1 for a detailed

breakdown of the image content of the Regent slide show as well as fifty easily accessible

images from the other three sites. Whereas Messiah and Eastern are more apt to show students

in groups, Regent often pictures students singly. Again, this is probably indicative of Regent’s


greater focus on graduate programs and continuing education. Shippensburg’s shots of students

are a mix of single and group shots.

Table 1 yields intriguing results. The Messiah images cover a wider range of categories

than the other institutions. While three Christian institutions are represented, Messiah is the only

one that includes website images in the category of spirituality. Two of Regent’s strengths

emphasized in their slide show are a beautiful, architecturally uniform campus and high-caliber,

famous professors. The number of athletics images is almost identical at the three institutions

that offer athletics. Shippensburg’s shots focus on buildings and students while Eastern’s images

are more scarce with twenty visual thumbnail headings showing things like a shot of a hand

holding a folded newspaper to depict “News and Events”.3 While home page design and images

are significant, it is certainly also important to explore textual information that is readily

available on institution websites.

Table 1 – Images Sorted by Category for Selected Institutions

Category Number of images

Eastern Messiah Regent Ship

Administration/Staff 2

Architecture/flags 2 6 20 12

Athletics 7 8 7

Broadcasting/Theater/Concert 3 5

Cross-cultural experiences 2

Events 1 3

Miscellaneous 1 2 2 1

Professors (some famous) talking to

students

4 5 9 3

Service 5 1

Spirituality 4

Students in class 2 2 6 10

Studying outside, happy students 13 10 8 14

Visual thumbnail headings 20

Total 50 50 50 50

3 While images are limited on Eastern’s site, there is an appealing “192 Second Tour” admissions video that gives a

very positive, though slow to load, pictorial representation of the university.


What is the Mission?

The word mission has deeply religious overtones. The addition of the phrase “mission

statement” to the lexicon of the corporate world is a relatively recent phenomenon. When this

word was first applied to corporations, it may have been intended to elicit a greater sense of

purpose and dedication from workers who increasingly were absorbing risks and costs that only

decades before had been assumed by their employers. A mission statement is one way to

encourage integration, or at least unity of purpose, in a climate like higher education where

different departments tend to function as isolated silos. See the Attachment at the end of this

paper for the Eastern, Messiah, Regent, and Shippensburg mission statements that are accessible

from the “About” links on their respective home pages.

Since mission statements are by definition concise statements of purpose, they are useful

comparative elements of the website artifacts that have been chosen for this paper. The italicized

portion (chosen by researcher) of the lengthy Shippensburg mission statement seems to be the

part that most directly addresses mission. Of the institutions included, three are universities

while the other one is a college. The distinction between the two terms is that universities award

both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The three Christian institutions include that aspect as

part of their identity. Eastern is a Christian university, Messiah is a Christian college, and

Regent aims to be a center of Christian thought and action. Shippensburg is a regional state-

supported institution.

Service is mentioned in all of the mission statements. Eastern and Messiah seek to

prepare students for lives of service. For Regent and Shippensburg, service is something that

their institutions provide to their students or to the public. Another common emphasis is on

leadership, but while Eastern and Messiah want to prepare students for lives of leadership,


Regent proposes to equip Christian leaders through an excellent education. The implication is

that Eastern and Messiah want to help their students to think of themselves as leaders while

Regent assumes that their students have already begun identifying themselves as leaders when

they arrive on campus. Shippensburg’s statement does not mention leadership although it is one

of the key words that is featured on the home page slide show.

It is interesting to note how the mission statements are presented. On Eastern’s page, the

brief mission paragraph ends by stating that the mission is only fulfilled when the university

manages effectively and justly the resources with which it has been entrusted. Immediately after,

the university lists ten bulleted responsibilities of students to ensure that the mission is

accomplished. The balance of responsibilities between institution and students is weighted

heavily on the side of the students.

Rather than listing only its mission, Messiah chooses to publish a combined identity and

mission page. Unfortunately there is a problem with the layout of the page causing a large

awkward chunk of white space at the top. Consequently if anyone is looking for the mission of

the college on the page and neglects to scroll down, they will miss it. While Messiah combines

identity with mission, Regent appears to be more forward-oriented as they list the university’s

vision immediately before the mission. It would be helpful for Shippensburg to edit their

mission statement so that inside and outside audiences have a clear idea of university’s common

purpose.

Certain words and ideas are unique to each mission statement. Eastern names three

constituencies of students: undergraduate, theology, and graduate. This is the only institution of

those selected that mentions scholarship in its mission. There are subtle homages paid to

Christianity and capitalism respectively in the words stewardship and productive.


Messiah aims to educate men and women toward maturity in three areas. All of the

institutions enroll female students, but it is noteworthy that it is deemed important enough to

specify both genders here rather than substituting a general term that is inclusive of both.

Messiah is also dedicated to “an embracing evangelical spirit rooted in the Anabaptist, Pietist,

and Wesleyan traditions.” Many might be surprised or even dubious about the pairing of the

word embracing with evangelical. The traditions that are listed must be significant to an

audience other than the general public since they are a part of Christian heritage but not widely

known today.

The Bible is an important Christian symbol. Of the Christian institutions, only Regent

refers to the Bible in its mission statement. There is one picture of a student reading a Bible in

Regent’s fifty picture slide show also. The other two sites do not have prominent pictures of

students with Bibles.

Regent claims to provide education in pivotal professions. By looking over Regent’s site

and program offerings, pivotal professions may include: leadership, management, law, military,

broadcasting, government, education, and information systems. In addition to those programs,

there are also programs offered in more general liberal arts areas like psychology, English, math

and religious studies. Regent’s statement also includes a global emphasis that is absent from the

other two institutions. While Messiah often includes a picture of a student serving cross

culturally on its home page slide show, recognition of a global context for education is not

explicitly included in Messiah’s or Eastern’s mission statement.

Shippensburg’s full mission statement hits on many points but seems most focused on

students’ personal development and vocational preparation. The goal of producing competent

citizens is certainly an important aspect of the “lives of service” that Eastern and Messiah hope


their graduates will exemplify. All of these institutions offer both undergraduate and graduate

programs so students have the option to remain at the institution after a bachelor’s degree is

earned to purse graduate work. Another element of websites that can be compared is graduate

landing pages.

Graduate Landing Pages

As mentioned earlier, Messiah College has recently begun offering master’s programs.

As the college expands, it will be informative to observe how Messiah’s graduate program

landing page compares with Eastern’s, Regent’s, and Shippensburg. All three have directly

competitive, established programs. Eastern’s page features a large image of the top of a building

against a backdrop of sunlit white clouds on a deep blue sky. The text on the picture reads,

“Engage with Eastern University in Your Way. Your Schedule. Your Choice. Your Future.”

The image suggests that the sky is the limit at Eastern.

Eastern’s site offers three large buttons beneath the featured image for moving forward:

inquire, apply, or join this community. There are also short video clips offering reasons why

Eastern is the right choice. Stated reasons include small classes, a combination of experience

and theory, and preparation for a secular field from a Christian perspective. Other topics of

personal video testimonials are using education in the real world, the benefits of a diverse

learning community, reassurance that potential students can return to school many years later,

and reassurance that studying business at a Christian college is a good idea. Little to no

identifying information is given about the speakers so in some cases it is difficult to put their

comments into programmatic context.

Messiah has not yet built a base of program completers with their graduate programs so

no video testimonials or blogs appear. There are two generic featured photo spots at the top of


Messiah’s page that each scroll through three images of happy people. Diversity is shown in the

pictures but not mentioned in the text of this page. Messiah’s slogan reads, “Pursue your goals.

Live your life. Messiah College graduate programs make it possible.”

This page is lengthy since it would require two screen shots to capture the whole thing.

Length would not be an issue if content warranted it, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The

right column of the main part of the page lists distinctives repeated from Messiah’s home page.

It could be argued, though, that many people will be coming directly from a search to the

graduate landing page.

There are some bulleted points near the bottom proclaiming the programs are affordable,

flexible, and “designed in the tradition of Messiah’s academic quality.” That phrase is

ambiguous and, while intended to build on a reputation for challenging academics, could cause

confusion. The graduate page says that Messiah programs’ mark of high quality is the faculty.

Unfortunately, one of the three existing graduate programs does not list any information about

their faculty on their program pages. This discrepancy should be reconciled.

Eastern’s graduate programs fall under the purview of the Campolo College of Graduate

and Professional Studies. Messiah’s programs are currently housed in the schools where their

undergraduate counterparts are located. Regent has seven graduate schools and one

undergraduate school located on a seventy acre campus. Each of the Regent schools offers

online degrees. There are also online options at Eastern and Messiah but not at Shippensburg.

At Shippensburg, there is a School of Graduate Studies with its own Dean.

The four images that Regent has chosen for the banner atop its graduate landing page are

of Greek honor society flags flying from balconies that flank a formal indoor courtyard, a large

Georgian style academic building, students gathering below an American flag, and a close up of


two grinning, ethnically diverse adult students. The page is clean and uncluttered listing links to

the seven schools inviting guests to click on a particular school for more specific information.

Rather than simply listing the benefits of an advanced degree from Regent, this site describes

successful graduate students. Regent says that their most successful students are those who have

learned to balance priorities, have a clear sense of purpose, and are committed to the

requirements of a rigorous academic program.

In addition to listing schools and describing qualities of successful students, Regent adds

the story of one Ed.D. candidate. Sharon Byrdsong, National Middle School Principal of the

Year for 2006, attests to Regent’s atmosphere of excellence, high expectations, and willingness

to help students reach their full potential. Byrdsong has led a low performing urban school

through a transformation that resulted in greatly improved student test scores and attitudes

toward learning. Byrdsong credits her Regent education with giving her the leadership and

practical skills that she needs to continue to succeed.

Shippensburg’s graduate landing page is not accessible from the home page. Viewers

can click on Academics and then find a link to the Graduate Studies among others on the right

side of the page. The Graduate Programs page is accessible from at least two spots on the home

page. While this page is has useful content listing all programs with links to more information, it

is set up with information in mind rather than aesthetics. The more attractive Graduate Studies

page has a picture of and message from the Dean as well as an image of a graduate student. The

–ship words figure prominently on this page that also offers connections to graduate admissions

and an email link for questions. This is the most interactive page of the four giving visitors a

number of options to click and do something immediately – schedule an appointment, ask a

question, view classes and register or sign up for text message alerts. In addition to home pages,


images, mission statements, and graduate landing pages, another significant organizational

element is the voice of leadership.

What does the CEO have to say?

While there is insufficient space to address the topic in detail, the role of leadership

should not be overlooked. Pettigrew in his 1979 study of organizational culture says that a

leader’s greatest influence may well be in his words. Pondy (1975) refers to leadership as a

“language game” where the most effective individuals are the ones who bring order by

explaining common experience in narratives that are understandable to followers. Martin (2009)

says that organizations have Official Narratives that must be upbeat to inspire confidence in both

inside and outside audiences.

In light of the importance of organizational narratives and the executive heads who have

power to mold those narratives through written communication and speaking opportunities, the

message of Eastern’s president will be considered first. David Black is the president of Eastern

University and has been in that position since 1997. Similar to Eastern’s graduate landing page

testimonials that lacked background information, there is no biographical information about Dr.

Black that is easily accessed on the university’s site.

Black writes a personal letter that contains many references to words that are especially

meaningful to evangelical Christians. Words that are used include inspire (appears twice in the

first paragraph), red letters, Gospels, Biblical, Holy Spirit, and deep faith. He explains that what

separates Eastern from other Christian colleges is its integration of faith, reason, and justice.

Others only integrate faith and reason. Black gives a concrete example to illustrate of the

Stevenson brothers who entered Eastern as honors students. After graduating, one brother

became a professor at University of Pennsylvania and researches African-American male anger


while the other brother is a Harvard lawyer whose practice has grown into the Equal Justice

Alternative.

While at Eastern, the Holy Spirit transformed the brothers’ faith, abilities, and passion

into careers that demand “exceptional minds and hearts.” Dr. Black says that stories like this are

common at Eastern, and he hopes that the reader’s inspiring story can be added to the list.

Through this transformative narrative, it should be noted that the major work of Eastern is said to

be transforming abilities into careers. While sending young adults to Christian college is

important to some parents and grandparents, moving smoothly into a career after graduation is

also a major concern. This statement is along the same lines as the video clip of the student on

the graduate landing page who said that she wanted to prepare for a secular career in a faith-

based environment.

There is no message from Messiah’s president, Dr. Kim Phipps, linked to the home page.

There is a great deal of information about the president on web pages for the office of the

president, but unfortunately there is no comparable letter written as an introductory piece to an

outside audience. I did have the opportunity to bring this to Pres. Phipps attention recently. Her

response was that a letter of welcome had simply not been considered. Both Phipps and

Regent’s president, Dr. Carlos Campo make their vitae available online. Both are six pages long.

Dr. Carlos Campo became Regent’s president in August 2010 and his recent inauguration

may explain why his letter so closely follows the Regent script from other areas of the website.

Echoing the mission statement, Campo says that in just over three decades Regent has become a

leading academic center for Christian thought and action. He lists distinguished faculty and

guest lecturers like John Ashcroft and Steve Forbes. Alumni have done well too including a


governor, a senator, and the middle school principal whose story appears on the graduate landing

page.

Dr. William Ruud is in his fifth year of service as Shippensburg’s President. Dr. Ruud

highlights recent university accomplishments including the University’s ranking in national

publications, progress on the academic master plan, accreditation updates, an athletic program

award, renovation/construction projects, and the cultural contributions of the Luhrs Performing

Arts Center. In conclusion, Ruud characterizes Shippensburg’s focus as student-oriented and

adds an invitation to visit the campus. So each of the messages that were available could be

characterized succinctly – Eastern: transformational, Regent: emerging, Shippensburg:

accomplishment-driven. Now that five distinct, easily accessible elements have been compared,

it is time to draw some conclusions and look to future research.

So What?4

In Schein’s organizational culture model, artifacts are listed below deeper held

assumptions and values. Hatch proposed a model in 1993 that upset that hierarchy and listed

symbols, artifacts, values, and assumptions on the same level. This perspective more clearly

recognizes the interplay between the elements. The content that organizations post on their

websites can affect values even while values are shaping future web content.

If you are not shopping for a college, a close look at elements of institutions’ websites

may seem pointless. As I mentioned before, one practical, specific application will be to present

portions of this paper to the president, the director of the M.Ed. program, and the webmaster at

4 Limitations of this paper include a literature analysis focused solely on organizational culture in higher education.

While that area is relevant, research on visual identity and branding would also be applicable. Secondly, a sample of

n=4 is manageable but very small. While web text and images can be studied in more detail, a view that divorces

web content from the complete organizational context is myopic.


Messiah College. As they guide implementation of three new master’s programs in the next

year, these observations could prove helpful.

The template that Messiah uses now for its website was put into place over the past two

years, and there is an even newer template that the college will be transitioning to in the next few

years. The task of moving all of the pages of web content from one format to another is

daunting, and each time departments on campus are asked to revamp their web material on top of

other initiatives and routine responsibilities, it becomes increasingly difficult to convince them of

the importance of prioritizing and accomplishing the work involved. Examples of competitor’s

quality websites could help to drive home the need to stay current.

Websites are enormous investments as evidenced by expensive branding campaigns and

copyrighted templates. While some will undoubtedly question paying such close attention to

introductory, informational text, Van Maanen’s (1995) idea of presence is applicable. Presence

is the literary tactic by which an author tries to get across his most salient points. In longer texts,

practices like “repetition, enumeration, figuration and provision of concrete details” are used to

increase presence (p. 138). These websites use those same tactics to emphasize the parts of their

stories that they deem most valuable or perhaps most palatable.

Eastern University has just undergone a visual identity “makeover” and promises a

transformational Christian education that integrates pursuing social justice along with faith and

reason. In addition to communicating strengths, there is a noticeable effort on Eastern’s pages

to enhance the perceived historicity and legitimacy of the institution. After considering

observations of competing sites, Eastern may want to allocate resources to post weekly updates

to their home page to encourage and sustain the attention of cyber visitors. To aid in establishing


legitimacy, it would also be advisable for Eastern to provide more background information about

the president and students who are featured in video clips and articles.

Messiah is striving to blend the old with the new. The banner at the top of the home page

reads “see anew” superimposed over some distinctly new stained glass. Many younger people

may not even identify the pattern as evocative of stained glass but the association will be

recognized by older generations even if only subconsciously. The balance of old and new is also

evident in the static black and white image that appears beside the colorful home page slide

show. It is a balancing act for institutions to try to appeal to both young potential students and

older parents and donors.

Messiah should consider including an introductory message from the president on the

website. Another weakness is that Messiah is a college while the other institutions are

universities. Messiah appears to address this when they specify in their mission statement that

they are a college of the “liberal and applied arts and sciences.” Another place to consider

revision is the graduate landing page. A more parsimonious approach may be better received.

While both Messiah and Eastern’s sites have small technical problems with particular

pages, no errors were detected on Regent’s or Shippensburg’s pages. Potential undergraduate

audiences are less tolerant of technical errors than older viewers so it is important to stay vigilant

and correct errors as soon as they are found. Regent’s website is directed to a more mature

audience. Although there are several indications that Regent is trying to attract more traditional

undergraduate students, presently the average age of their undergraduates is 29. One reason for

the higher than expected age is that Regent is a popular choice for military personnel.

Shippensburg’s site, which was retooled within the last two years, is keeping pace with

the other three. Since Ship is a public rather than private enterprise, spending money on


advertising and publicity may be frowned upon. Public dollars should be used for the public

good however factors like financial aid distribution and cuts in government funding force public

universities into increasingly tighter competition with their private university counterparts. I

would recommend that Ship’s web team works toward displaying a wider variety of images of

campus events and student experiences. Students working in various capacities should be

scattered across the website to remind viewers of the focus on professional preparation. Since

Shippensburg has created an attractive, interactive graduate landing page, changing one if the

home page links to lead to it should be considered.

While all of the sites strive to communicate distinctives to their target audiences, there is

no substitute for personal experience. Each home page urges viewers to come check out the next

open house so that they can move beyond the surface level and experience the culture in 3-D.

Websites are first impressions. They can be a good indicator of what is to come but sometimes

when you dig deeper, it turns out that your first impression was misleading.

Future research in organizational culture informed by college web design could combine

both quantitative and qualitative components. Quantitative studies of word use on these websites

and others could lead to increased understanding. Three of the websites proclaim that their

institutions are Christian and then seem to retreat into generalities so as not to offend particular

factions. By visiting the institutions and interviewing various stakeholders, much clearer

pictures of culture would emerge. Longitudinal studies of how particular websites have evolved

over time and adapted to internal and external changes would also be informative.

Websites are here to stay. The more successful an institution is at communicating its

particular culture through them, the more applicants it will attract. If applicants are a good fit for

the institution, they become happy undergrads who do not detract from retention statistics.


Keeping up with technology can be harrowing, but the days of constant growth in higher

education are over. Whereas in the past, many times survival of higher education institutions

was assumed, present conditions dictate intentionality and business savvy.


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Attachment

The Mission

Eastern University is a Christian university dedicated through teaching and learning,

scholarship, service, spiritual formation, student development and stewardship to the

preparation of undergraduate, theological and graduate students for thoughtful and

productive lives of Christian faith, leadership and service.

Identity and Mission

Messiah College is a Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences. The

College is committed to an embracing evangelical spirit rooted in the Anabaptist, Pietist

and Wesleyan traditions of the Christian Church. Our mission is to educate men and

women toward maturity of intellect, character and Christian faith in preparation for lives

of service, leadership and reconciliation in church and society.

Mission (Regent)

Our mission is to serve as a leading center of Christian thought and action providing an

excellent education from a Biblical perspective and global context in pivotal professions

to equip Christian leaders to change the world.

Mission of the University

Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania is a regional state-supported institution. It is

part of the State System of Higher Education of Pennsylvania, which is made up of 14

universities located in various geographic regions throughout the Commonwealth.

Founded in 1871, Shippensburg University serves the educational, social, and cultural

needs of students primarily from south central Pennsylvania. The university enrolls

students from throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Mid-Atlantic region,

the United States, and various foreign countries as well.

Shippensburg is a comprehensive university offering bachelor's and master's degree

programs in the colleges of arts and sciences, business, and education and human

services. The curricula are organized to enable students both to develop their intellectual

abilities and to obtain professional training in a variety of fields. The foundation of the

undergraduate curriculum is a required core of courses in the arts and sciences. These

courses prepare students to think logically, read critically, write clearly, and verbalize


ideas in a succinct and articulate manner; they also broaden students' knowledge of the

world, past and present.

The university's primary commitment is to student learning and personal development

through effective and innovative teaching and a wide variety of high-quality out-of-class

experiences. The ultimate goal is to have students develop to their utmost the intellectual,

personal, and social capabilities they need to perform as competent citizens prepared to

embark on a career immediately upon graduation or after advanced study. The personal

attention given each student at Shippensburg is reflective of the strong sense of

community that exists on campus and the centrality of students within it. The university

encourages and supports activities which give students many opportunities to apply the

theories and methods learned in the classroom to real or practical situations, such as

faculty-student research and student internships. Student life programs and activities

complement the academic mission and further assist students in their personal, social, and

ethical development.

Committed to public service and community-centered in its relationships to the region,

the university works closely and collaboratively with other organizations at institutional,

programmatic and individual levels to develop common goals, share resources and invest

cooperatively in the future of the region.

Italics added

college websites as artifacts: self-conscious glimpses of

Documents