Wilkes U's "Colonel Coalition" welcomes unsuspecting incoming students

On Saturday, Pennsylvania-based Wilkes University put its mascot, '"the Colonel," and 30 of its students on a bus heading to 5 towns in the state. At each destination, members of this surprise greeting committee -- the "Colonel Coalition" -- swarmed an unsuspecting high-school senior committed to attending the institution in the fall, waving yellow rally towels and signs saying "Welcome to Wilkes" and "Fall 2010." The bus trip was the brainstorm of Wilkes U and a Philadelphia marketing company that helped the university develop a marketing campaign in 2007 that involved putting up personalized billboards near the homes of 6 accepted applicants who were still undecided about Wilkes U. The school, which filmed the visits, plans to send videos of the trip to the 5 students and encourage them to share the clips online. The Chronicle of Higher Education (free access)