Higher Education Marketing Memos: Neither Centralized Nor Siloed – Just More Centered Storytelling by Amy Hartwig

Conjuntion Junction – Enhance Your Function

Consider the word “or” and how much it can limit what you have.

In higher ed, it sometimes seems like we are surrounded by “or.” Is it better to focus on STEM or humanities? Should our students be working towards a career or an education? Do we value student life or academics?

Call me crazy, but I’m a much bigger fan of “and.” (That makes it most fortunate that I work at my university’s College of Arts AND Sciences!)

“And” makes us better. “And” gives us more!

At my university, I think “and” has solved the issue of centralization or silos when it comes to communications.

Centralized vs. Siloed

In our previous model, communicators from across campus would come together in a weekly meeting hosted by our University Relations Office—also known as “they who hold the keys to the main social media accounts and the website homepage” or UREL.

We would discuss projects and stories. Every so often a unit’s story would be picked up and shared with UREL’s larger audience.

I recognized that covering students, staff, faculty, and alumni for more than 20 programs and the college itself means a lot of content. But each time UREL shared one of my stories, it felt like a huge victory. I was so proud to have the spotlight on my people! The vast majority of stories did not receive that spotlight, and I simply considered them to just be CAS news. I shared the stories through our channels and made them a part of the college’s comprehensive narrative.

So, for the most part our news was “or”: either university news or unit news.

Presidential Debate, University Consensus

But then we became a campus of “and”—a bringing together of disparate units, still independent but also working collectively and cooperatively. And our first test came with a national stage.

In the spring of 2016, our city was chosen as a site for one of the Democratic Presidential debates, and our university became the host for all of the related media outlets including CNN. In addition to the actual debate site, there was a media spin room in our rec center, a studio in our library, and a debate viewing party in our ballroom. In short, there were too many things to do and too many places to be for the small staff of UREL. Communicators from across campus were called in as reinforcements.

This could have been the worst-case scenario of centralization, in which we simply became the worker bees trying to carry out the university’s orders. Instead, it was a phenomenal and empowering experience for everyone involved. We were able to act as conduits to our faculty experts. We represented what made each of our units unique while championing the university as a whole. We were helping to tell the complete university story and in turn we felt like the very definition of a team.

More Centered Higher Ed Communications

Shortly after that, the regular writers from each unit were granted author access to the main news site. We were encouraged to add the majority of our stories and to stop thinking about our news as belonging only to our unit. It was an amazing feeling to have the university share my passion for the work being done in the College of Arts & Sciences. It’s still a thrill to see them on the homepage, but it’s a much more common occurrence.

In return, our news site and social media accounts are telling a more timely, accurate, and robust story about our campus.

Our weekly meetings are a little longer, as each of our stories is added to a central idea board for updates and effort sharing. But I think we each walk away with a reinforced feeling of both inclusion and autonomy. In my mind it’s the perfect mix, and the perfect representation of what collaboration on a university campus can look like.

Meet the Author: Amy Hartwig

Amy Hartwig is the Communications Specialist for the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Michigan-Flint.
She is also a graduate of Higher Ed Experts’ professional certificate program on social media and web writing for higher education.