Communications and Marketing, fall 2021

The Division of Communications and Marketing provides foundational support to Binghamton University’s communications at all levels, whether COVID-related or not.

This quarter, the opening of the campus for the fall semester required a great deal of messaging to students, as well as faculty and staff, about vaccinations.

Students residing on campus were required to be vaccinated before moving in, and all students were mandated to be vaccinated once the FDA approval of a vaccine was announced. That announcement did not come until after Move-in Weekend, but following the approval, the campus sent frequent reminders via email and text, as well as messages to parents, reminding them of the requirement for students to upload their vaccination proof to the secure student health portal by Sept. 28, or be deregistered from classes. Additional support for COVID-related initiatives was provided through a major reorganization of the quarantine/isolation content and pages in the student portal, working in conjunction with ITS and the Office of Financial Aid and Student Records.

The division also moved several searches forward to hire a communications manager to support the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; a videographer to support Road Map Strategic Priority 1 and its need to boost the reputation of faculty at Binghamton; and also a digital content strategist to work within the division with its web team. A search for a communications manager for the College of Community and Public Affairs is also just underway.

Statements from President Harvey Stenger

• Aug. 24: A welcome to fall message from President Harvey Stenger
• Sept. 7: A message from President Harvey Stenger about COVID-19

Creative Services activities

The Office of Creative Services continues to operate at a high level in support of University initiatives, including admissions at both the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as to produce high-quality magazines for each of the University’s schools. Redesign of the Binghamton University Magazine continues, and a recent update to the template for the Saturday morning BingUNews distribution is expected to increase readership.

Major design and web projects that have been completed this quarter include:

• Slate development (status checker)
• Reorganization of the Decker website
• Update to the ITC and Harpur multimedia displays
• Development and support of undergraduate/graduate recruitment emails
• Development and support for ongoing undergraduate/graduate landing pages and ongoing online advertisements
• Maintenance of the health of binghamton.edu (reviewing/updating, checking for broken links, meta data, spelling, grammar, OU account training, account creation, account deletion) and handling requests from campus partners
• Harpur’s Perspective magazine
• CCPA’s Confluence magazine
• Undergraduate Admissions recruitment materials (NYS, out-of-state, international, transfer)
• Binghamton University’s 75th anniversary
• promotional material (logos, pole banners, graphics)
• Homecoming promotional materials
• Binghamton Forum Gala promotional materials
• Summer 2021 donor newsletter

Undergraduate Admissions enrollment marketing efforts

The Buzz

The Buzz is a series of weekly emails containing important requirements, reminders, Orientation and course registration details, and other information to prepare new students for their arrival and their first few weeks on campus. The Buzz also covers some lighter topics that showcase the myriad ways to get involved.

We send the first issue a few days after the May 1 enrollment deposit deadline and it runs weekly until classes begin.

We met weekly with representatives from the divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to ensure Orientation messages were consistent across the various offices.

Separate Buzz streams were sent to incoming Binghamton Advantage Program and international students.

Recruitment materials

In June and July, Communications and Marketing wrote and designed the publications admissions counselors take with them during travel season. This year, the main pieces were redesigned. We also added a new brochure about first-year special programs (FRI, Source, Innovation Scholars, PwC and University Scholars).

We have also updated and added to our email communication streams that are sent daily to prospective students, parents and high-school counselors. This year our parent communication stream is more robust. We are also translating many international communications into Chinese.

Chinese website

Accessing binghamon.edu from China continues to be problematic for prospective Chinese students. Even with a VPN there can be a delay in loading pages. To combat this problem, Communications and Marketing is working with a Chinese vendor (Sinorbis) to launch an admissions site in Chinese. We are in the review stages and hopeful that it will be launched in the coming weeks. It will be translated into Mandarin, allowing parents of Chinese students to be able to play a larger role in the application process.

Interactive Admissions homepage

Communications and Marketing is in the process of building an interactive homepage for admissions that serves up audience-based content (New York state, out of state, international, transfers).

Lobby piece

In addition to the traditional recruitment pieces admissions counselors take with them during the travel season, they requested that Communications and Marketing produce a “brag piece” that visitors could take home with them after touring campus.

The piece showcases all the ways Binghamton is #1. The theme will carry over to the Union banners that face the Admissions Center to reinforce the message.

Pre-infosession presentation

Communications and Marketing put together a visual slideshow (trivia, animation, fun facts) that now plays in the Admissions Center to entertain guests as they’re waiting for the counselor presentation to start.

Social media

The Undergraduate Admissions Instagram and Facebook accounts both saw a steady gain in followers this quarter. At this point in the cycle, the pages have been sharing content linking to apply.binghamton.edu and also visit.binghamton.edu, encouraging fans and followers to sign-up for a visit. In August, our Instagram page held a contest prior to Move-in Week. One incoming student was the winner of a Binghamton swag bundle, courtesy of the Bookstore. The IG account will begin sharing weekly stories about where admissions counselors will be traveling for the following week.

Media and Public Relations activities

The Office of Media and Public Relations was thrilled to start off the quarter with the announcement of a SUNY Council for University Advancement (SUNYCUAD) Award. The #MaskUpBing Campaign was awarded a Best of Category Award for Excellence in Digital Media/Social Media Strategy. The campaign combined elements of video, photo and social media to encourage students to mask up during the 2020 academic year.

We highlighted the start of the semester by organizing a press conference with President Harvey Stenger and distributing a news release about move-in and the return of students, which received considerable local media coverage.

Students were welcomed back with a fun video from Stenger, who toured campus, greeting students and highlighting some of the new offerings this semester, including the updated Hinman Dining Hall and FitCourt outdoor gym. We also brought back our Binghamton Buzz video series, where we caught up with students and found out what they did during the summer and what they were looking forward to in the fall.

We also worked with New Student Programs, the Alumni Association and Creative Services to compile and premiere the Virtual B, a compilation of new student photos turned into a B mosaic that premiered via social media to much fanfare.

Finally, our office hosted a media training workshop for faculty and staff interested in publicizing their research and/or learning more about various opportunities in working with the media. During the session, participants learned more about ways to publicize their research and techniques for working with the media. They also heard from a local journalist and a faculty member who has raised the profile of his research by working with our office and the media.

National/local news coverage

Total circulation in numbers: Over 1,580,600,000.

Binghamton in the news

Robert Ji-Song Ku, professor, Asian American Studies, was featured in The Washington Post, USA Today, Today.com, NBCNews.com, Christian Science Monitor, The Hour, Forbes, ABC News, Yahoo!Lifestyle.com, MSN.com, the Associated Press, The New York Times and other various news sources and publications, for an article about how New Asian American bakeries are finding their bicultural sweet spot. Total circulation: Over 795 million.

Lina Begdache, assistant professor of health and wellness studies, was quoted in publications, including Prevention, Yahoo!.com, NDTV, MSN and others where she discussed pandemic-related stress, diet, mental well-being and more. Total circulation: Over 177.8 million.

Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy and co-director of the Institute for Justice and Well-Being, was interviewed by various news outlets where she discussed several topics related to COVID-19. On CBS News, she spoke about “vaccine tourism” packages being used to help kick-start some economies. Total circulation: Over 148 million.

Saligrama Agnihothri, professor in the School of Management, was featured in The Boston Globe, Yahoo!.com, The Conversation, The Philadelphia Voice and other news sources and publications, in an article which features his research: How health apps track vital health stats for millions of people, but doctors aren’t using the data — here’s how it could reduce costs and patient outcomes. Total circulation: Over 129.9 million.

Anne Clark, associate professor of biological sciences, was featured in The New York Times in an opinion piece about how the birds on her balcony have taught her a lot about the pandemic. Total circulation: Over 120.6 million.

Kerry Whigham, assistant professor of genocide and mass atrocity prevention, was featured in The Conversation, The Hour, Yahoo!.com, The Pennsylvania Capital-Star and other news sources and publications, for an article about why reparations are always about more than money. Total circulation: Over 90.9 million.

Jeremy Blackburn, assistant professor of computer science, was featured in numerous news sources and publications, discussing several topics related to social media platforms. In Forbes, he addressed How Twitter, Facebook May Let Taliban Control Afghan Government Social Media Accounts. Total circulation: Over 81.9 million.

Adam Laats, professor of education, was featured in The Guardian, Yahoo!Lifestyle, Teen Vogue, MSN.com and other various online news sources and publications, for the article: Masks off: how school boards became ‘perfect battlegrounds’ for vicious culture wars. Anti-mask parents are protesting at School Board Meetings Nationwide. Total circulation: Over 18.9 million.

Rolf Quam, associate professor of anthropology, was featured in the New York Post and other publications for his involvement in the discovery of a prehistoric skull, which could be the “missing link” in human evolution. The research study was the cover story in the journal Science. Total circulation: Over 15 million.

Michael A. Little, professor emeritus of anthropology, and William D. MacDonald, professor emeritus of geological sciences, were featured in The Conversation, Economic Times and other publications, for their research which features information about what the Earth will be like in 500 years. Total circulation: Over 2.6 million.