Communications and Marketing, winter 2021

Shaping messages to the campus community continued to be key to a successful fourth quarter, as the University held several large events while also navigating COVID protocols. A number of direct communications went to exempted and/or unvaccinated students, faculty and staff about their responsibilities to be tested weekly. Dateline and B-Line were used to support communications to the entire campus that addressed how to schedule on-campus surveillance tests (faculty, staff, students) or diagnostic tests (students).

Featured in BingUNews — stories written by the division’s communications managers — ran in every Dateline and B-Line during the quarter, updating the campus on research projects, the governor’s visit, the success of Academic Assessment Day and many other topics. In addition, BingUNews stories continued to be sent every Saturday morning to a growing list that now includes nearly 6,700 subscribers. With assistance from Creative Services, the Saturday morning news send developed a new template, enabling the distribution to include four stories each week, up from three. The most recent distribution of the Saturday morning news (Dec. 18) had an open rate of 45%.

New employees joined the division this quarter: Greg Schuter was hired as a videographer to support Road Map Strategic Priority 1 to boost the reputation of faculty; Melissa Tinklepaugh was hired as a digital content strategist; and Anthony Borrelli joined the division as the new communications manager for the College of Community and Public Affairs. The search for a communications manager for the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will restart after the first of the new year.

Statements from President Harvey Stenger

• Oct. 8: A Homecoming message to Binghamton University students
• Nov. 24: A message from President Harvey Stenger and Vice President Karen Jones about the Ahmaud Abery verdict
  
• Dec. 23: A message from President Harvey Stenger about the spring semester start
• Dec. 29: Required vaccine booster for residential students

Creative Services activities

The Office of Creative Services continues to support the work of the communications managers and the editor of Binghamton University Magazine, completing the fall issue of the University’s premier publication as well as the school magazines for the School of Management and Harpur College of Arts and Sciences. The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences also reinstated its magazine and the design work was completed at the very end of the quarter, with printing and mailing scheduled for early to mid-January.

In addition, a number of web-based projects were completed that will advance initiatives for admissions at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including:

• Undergraduate/graduate recruitment email development and support
• Undergraduate/graduate landing page development and support for ongoing online advertisements
• Maintaining the health of binghamton.edu (reviewing/updating broken links, meta data, spelling, grammar, OU account training, account creation, account deletion) and handling requests from campus partners
• Undergraduate application status checker
• Chinese website

In support of other departments on campus, Creative Services worked with partners to complete the following print projects:

• Foundation Annual Report
• Watson College Annual Report
• Campaign launch invitation
• Forum Gala material
• Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony booklet
• Five Union banners for admissions
• Forum Fall Speaker Series Program
• 2020 and 2021 Excellence Awards material
• Admissions transfer travel banners

Undergraduate Admissions enrollment marketing efforts

Union banners

Five banners that reflect Undergraduate Admissions’ core messages (value, outcomes, academic excellence and “bragging” rights) were completed this quarter and are now displayed outside the Union facing the Admissions Center. The theme is Binghamton is #1.

The Buzz

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

This quarter, spring 2022 first-year and transfer students received the Buzz beginning in early November. A separate Buzz stream is sent to international students through coordination with International Student and Scholar Services.

Acceptance piece (You’re the 1 we want)

Communications and Marketing redesigned the brochure that admitted students receive in the mail to make it more social-friendly to encourage students to post it on social media.

Communication streams

We continue to update and add to our email communication streams that are sent daily to prospective students, parents and high-school counselors.

Chinese website update

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 worked with a Chinese vendor (Sinorbis) to launch an admissions site in Chinese. It was completed and translated this quarter and we are now planning how to promote it.

Interactive Admissions homepage

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

Fall Open House

Last year, Fall Open House was completely virtual. This year, we promoted both virtual sessions and two in-person events.

Social media

The Undergraduate Admissions Instagram and Facebook accounts both saw a steady gain in followers this quarter (Facebook: +3%, Instagram: +8%). The pages have been sharing a final push to apply.binghamton.edu and a few video tours were created in November for Instagram stories with a plan for them to be shared in December. In November, our Instagram page held a tag-a-friend contest to help get the account to its 5k-follower milestone. At the end of the contest, we grew 300+ followers, bringing our total to 5,210 followers. The contest received 400+ likes and 200+ comment entries. For the next quarter, we will focus on showing more video Instagram stories versus still images as they seem to get more consistent views. Our fall interns have completed their required hours and we are now beginning the hiring process for our spring program.

Media and Public Relations

The Office of Media and Public Relations announces a new addition to the team, Video Producer and Website Coordinator for Faculty Activities Greg Schuter. An award-winning video producer, Schuter is embedded in the day-to-day operations of communications and marketing, working closely with writers and editors as well as media relations specialists to develop strategically significant, faculty-centered research stories well in advance of publication or distribution that can most benefit from high-quality B-roll and/or the production of short but powerful news videos.

Binghamton faculty were spotlighted during an exclusive “Binghamton Week” on the popular “Academic Minute” on WAMC, an NPR station. They offered insight on everything from protecting skin from UV rays to the opioid crisis. Faculty included Guy German, associate professor of biomedical engineering; Jennifer Wegmann, lecturer in Health and Wellness Studies; Amber Simpson, assistant professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership; William Eggleston, assistant professor of pharmacy practice; and Kenneth McLeod, professor of systems science.

For the holiday season, we put the final touches on a number of projects ranging from the president’s holiday video, the Annual Holiday Sweater Contest as well as the Year in Review and more.

The Binghamton Buzz video series, in which student host Owen Holland conducts “man-on-the-street” interviews with students about various topics was relaunched for the fall. This semester, Holland asked students how they spent their summer, what their plans were for the fall semester and what their favorite things are about fall (e.g. apple picking, donuts, etc.). The University also produced and promoted a welcome-back video from President Harvey Stenger to kick off the semester.

This fall, the University celebrated the accomplishments of the Class of 2020 by hosting an in-person Commencement ceremony on campus. The event was livestreamed, and photo highlights and a video recap were posted to the University’s social media channels following the event. In addition, a plethora of content was posted to celebrate and promote Family Weekend and Homecoming.

The University held its first-ever #PumpkinSpiceBing Photo Contest to encourage the Binghamton community to take photos of the stunning fall foliage around campus. Many submissions were received. When the Binghamton community was asked to share which photos they liked best, thousands of comments were posted to our social channels.

National news coverage

Total circulation in numbers: Over 1,542,000,000

Binghamton in the News

Binghamton faculty were spotlighted during an exclusive “Binghamton Week” on the popular “Academic Minute” on WAMC, and a variety of NPR stations. They offered insight on everything from protecting skin from UV rays to the opioid crisis.

Faculty included:

• Guy German, associate professor, biomedical engineering: Reminds us to take care of our skin in the sun.
• Jennifer Wegmann, lecturer, health and wellness studies: Explores how to fight back against stress.
• Amber Simpson, assistant professor, teaching, learning and educational leadership: Examines failure as an important learning tool in STEM fields.
• William Eggleston, assistant professor, pharmacy practice: Says we already have the tools to fight the opioid crisis, we just need to use them better.
• Kenneth McLeod, professor, systems science: Explores how staying warm can mean staying healthy at the office.
• Atrocity Prevention (I-GMAP): Shares an example of how dealing with the past can be crucial to moving forward.

Adam Laats, professor of education, was featured by various news outlets, where he discussed several topics related to education. Total circulation: Over 507.6 million.

• The New Yorker, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post: In an article that examines how school board meetings have become “war zones” in which parents fight over hot-button issues.
• USA Today, The New York Times, Yahoo!.com: In an article about the growth of small, conservative Christian colleges.
• The Atlantic: In this article, Laats discusses the conservatives’ attempt to ban evolution in the 1920s and how they set the pattern for school-ban campaigns: noise, fury, rancor and fear, but not much change in what schools actually teach.
• Slate: In an article that discussed the history of conservative colleges and whether the newly announced University of Austin will last.

Olga Shvetsova, professor of political science, was featured in Business Insider, Forbes, Yahoo!.com, MSN.com and other publications for research that showed that the spread of COVID-19 was lower in Democrat-led states. Total circulation: Over 318 million.

Lina Begdache, assistant professor of health and wellness studies, was featured in Yahoo!.com, Health News Digest, The Conversation, The Hour, Entrepreneurship Magazine and other publications for research that indicated that customization of diet may promote mental well-being in young adults. Total circulation: Over 265 million.

Elizabeth DiGangi, associate professor of anthropology, was featured in The New York Times, Science and other publications, where she urged forensic anthropologists to abolish the practice of ancestry estimation. DiGangi worries that these estimations could suggest to the police that biological race is real, increasing racial bias. Total circulation: Over 243.8 million.

Nicole Rouhana, director of the graduate nursing program, was featured by NBCNews.com, Yahoo!.com, and other online sources and publications in an article about how rural hospitals are losing hundreds of staff to high-paid traveling nurse jobs. Total circulation: Over 138.6 million.

David Campbell, associate professor of public administration, and colleagues, were featured in Yahoo!.com, The Hour, The Conversation and various other publications and online sources, where they discussed what the 100 nonprofits that raised the most money in 2020 indicate about charity today. Total circulation: Over 91 million.

Anne Bailey, professor of history and director of the Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity, was featured in a BBC News article about grim echoes of history in images of Haitians at the U.S.-Mexico border. Bailey explained that while the images are “difficult regardless of history,” they are reminiscent of historical “slave patrols.” Total circulation: Over 67.5 million.

Jennifer Lynn Stoever, associate professor of English, general literature and rhetoric, was interviewed by the NPR news station WYPR, where she discussed the racial politics of sound. Total circulation: Over 57 million.

Cynthia Maupin, assistant professor of organizational behavior and leadership, was featured in Forbes, Psychology Today, Yahoo!.com, Phys.org, ScienceDaily, and other publications for research that showed that people prefer friendliness and trustworthiness in teammates over skill competency. Total circulation: Over 52.5 million.

Lindsey Swierk, assistant research professor of biological sciences, was featured by Earth.com and the National Science Foundation for research that showed that climate change makes wood frogs more vulnerable to salt pollution. Total circulation: Over 9 million.

Jennifer Wegmann, lecturer for health and wellness studies, was featured in an article for Martha Stewart Living on how to practice self-care during the frenetic holiday season. Wegmann recommends focusing on fostering connections rather than just beelining to the buffet. Total circulation: Over 8.17 million.

Adriane Lam, a paleoceanographer and Binghamton University doctoral fellow, was featured in The Science Times, Salon and other publications for research showing how a major Pacific current system is poised to heat up, with potentially devastating repercussions. Total circulation: Over 4. million