It's the lull before the storm. Back-to-school. The airwaves are jammed with ads for school supplies, just as the gates to campus are jammed with minivans and SUVs, many pulling trailers laden with all the "essentials" any student in residence might need. Most schools would no more consider buying airtime than trying to organize a campus open house this week.

Like most of academia, it seems, I'm addicted to conferences. And it would appear that everyone wants to attend those conferences in the two-month window between May, when most students leave our campuses for greener pastures of summer employment, and June, when our own kids get out of school for summer vacations.

Ken Steele's thoughts from the 2008 CASE Institute for Integrated Marketing and Branding, held in Seattle Washington May 19-22 2008.

Ken Steele reflects on ideas aired at the 2008 Ontario University Registrar's Association conference, held February 25-6 in Niagara Falls Ontario. (OURA 2008 website)

Ken Steele applies lessons learned from Chip & Dan Heath's bestselling book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (New York: Random House, 2007), to higher education.

Last year, we researched thousands of news stories affecting Canadian PSE, and published 2,500 items in Academica's Top Ten.  What were the news stories that defined 2007?

Ken Steele's reflections on Jeff Rybak's new book, What's Wrong with University and how to make it work for you anyway.  (ECW Press, 2007).

Ken Steele reviews the book, Ivory Tower Blues: A University System in Crisis, by James E. Côté and Anton L. Allahar (University of Toronto Press, 2007).

A field report by Ken Steele, summarizing the best "nuggets" gleaned from presentations at the annual conference in San Diego.