Imagine a brave new world where tour guides no longer continuously face their groups

Earlier this week, the New York Times ran an article about the evolving world of college campus tours. If you thought they were still all rote repetition of historical trivia and guides walking backwards, you’re in for quite a shock.

Apparently there’s a grassroots movement to turn the tour guides around so they’re walking the same direction as their groups and to make the tours more conversational and less statistics- and dates-based. The campaign seems to be spearheaded by TargetX, a consulting firm that audits colleges’ tours and makes recommendations, and has adherents at the likes of the University of Texas at Austin and nearby American University.

The Times article highlighted one institution in particular, Hendrix College, a liberal arts school in Arkansas. Hendrix revamped their campus-visit programs three years ago and has since seen increases in the number of high schoolers visiting and applying to the school (granted, the number of students applying to college in general has also risen).

But what say you, should Blue & Gray explore some forward-facing pacing and ditch the dates?

Amanda Hess, City Paper’s Sexist, has started DC’s Manliest Workplace Competition, ranking DC businesses and institutions based on the number of men at the top of their org chart. Hess takes a company’s top ten positions and assigns points in descending order, so a man at the top positions earns ten points and a man at the one position earns one point. She then throws the final score (max score of 55) into a rubric:

The Manly Index
0-10: Non-manly
11-30: Mannish
31-50: Manly
50-55: Manliest

Yesterday, the Washington Times knocked out Washingtonian. That’s no surprise, but where do Georgetown’s publications stack up in “remembering the ladies,” as Abigail Adams would say? Using mastheads and fuzzy division, I’ve ranked Georgetown publications from least manly to manliest. When I wasn’t clear whether one position ranked over another, I relied on masthead order.

The Independent: 13
The Independent scores a barely mannish 13, despite Editor-in-Chief Greg Gangelhoff. If they ever hope to edge out Blue & Gray, they’re going to have to tell me whether “B Palmer” is a man or woman.

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