I'm glad to get a peek behind the branding push, so thanks. I understand the need for branding and that it's not something that can be left to be done later, but from what I understand from my own experience and the perspectives of people in my life who are affiliated with these institutions, is that undergrad education, that is, the primary product being sold, often suffers from a lack of attention.

For example, often universities will employ professors who are outstanding in their respective fields, but teach few (if any) classes simply to sell people on the idea that they might learn from one such person. Also, universities will hire professors who might be excellent researchers or contributors to a given field, but in fact have little to no teaching experience or interest in teaching.

My school has quite a few alumni who contribute very generously and in fact the current sports facility was constructed with alumni donations. However, my class was never able to use said sports facility for the entire time we were at school, as construction finished some months after our graduation. Also, my school is not known for attracting athletic types. What it is known for, is actors, TV presenters, comedians, writers, producers and other entertainment types. Why not spend the money on new equipment for the award-winning radio station, or the library, or another venue for the theater tech and musical theater majors, or hell, buying paper so that the writing students don't have to shell out for the pages and pages that they're required to print on a weekly basis? Perhaps you've seen Mac from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia wearing that Emerson Football shirt, which is a little dig at the sports situation at Emerson, as is our Quidditch team.