For several years, I have been giving talks about the creeping corporate influence on the university in which I have disciplined myself to be judicious. Then, on a spring day this year, I got an e-mail that was a sales pitch for "a core enrollment management strategy." Chummily addressing me as "Dear Catharine," it informed me that "'branding' may well be the most overused and misused word in marketing communications," but I would be wrong to "dismiss it as merely the latest ...