I came across this via my Google news feed, but it’s also here on the EMU page: “Top 10 improvements over the past 10 years at Eastern Michigan University include beautification of campus, new Student Center, safety and security, according to campus poll.” According to the press release:
Working with the Division of Communications, the Institutional Accreditation Team asked members of the campus community to vote on what they thought the top 10 improvements are over the past 10 years. More than 300 responses were received in the online poll.
That’s a methodology that makes me wonder, but okay. What’s the top 10, you ask? In no particular order:
- EMU Student Center
- Ethos Week-College of Business
- Improved IT
- Campus Beautification
- Online Business Services
- Need-base Financial Aid
- Academic Projects Center
- University Marketing and Branding
- Service EMU
- Campus Safety and Security
It’s kind of a curious list to me. Some of this stuff I know almost nothing about, some of this stuff I would agree are significant (I would probably put the student center on a list like this), and some of these are things that, well, I don’t agree with. And then there are other things that aren’t on the list that are probably pretty significant changes.
Anyway, what would folks out there put on a top 10 or so list?
Some of these are dumbfounding. Such as: need based financial aid and campus safety & security. As though we didn’t have these before? (Actually I’m well aware of the problems in both depts – but this list tries to turn an embarrassment into a virtue, and that seems like a bad strategy.) Similarly, when I arrived here over a decade ago, my dept head encouraged me to keep a private email account for use at work because the EMU system was so unreliable. Yes, things have improved greatly, but only because we started from such an embarrassing position. Is this something to trumpet about?
Yeah, I mostly agree. I think DPS and safety on campus in general has improved a great deal in the last 3-5 years, but only because huge fines and scandal after the Dickinson murder cover-up. I would put EmuMail and maybe even emuonline as IT improvements, but I agree, only because some of what had been going on before was so bad and also only because these services are essentially outsourced.
I’m also kind of surprised that renovations in Pray-Harrold, Mark-Jefferson, and some other building projects like the Marshall building aren’t on the list more specifically. Those have been big deals.
This is not a true “poll” of scientific reliability. Rather, it’s a image marketing device, based on having done what they call a poll. Otherwise, the claimed improvements in university Marketing – one of the top features – wouldn’t possibly have made the list. The marketing staff of course want to get their bread buttered, but in doing so, they water down the actual mission of the university.
What about the President’s Mansion? That’s obviously one of the most impactful additions…
As much as I appreciate the emails provided by the Public Safety Dept, I certainly don’t agree that campus safety and security has been drastically improved. We all know that there was a serious lack of judgement with the previous administration regarding certain events. Because of this, the Emergency Management Department was created (mainly due to grant funds), but it is not being sustained. I know that the EMD is not taken as seriously as it should be by the administration. It has been cut down to one full time staff and one grad asst. How can any dept be run in this capacity? Is this the direction EMU is headed in? I’m sure other departments are struggling with the same thing after cuts from last year because universities have fallen on hard times. I think EMU is a great college, but with decisions like these, it makes me think twice as to how effective the university is being managed.
Germ,
Thank you for this post. It’s interesting no one responded it. I would just like to add that in addition to the one full time staff member and part-time GA, EM also has a part-time Undergrad student staff member. That’s me.
I’ve watched our office grow in 2009 from 3 full time staff, myself, our GA and two interns to where we are now. Our progress has been slowly declining as their is just too much to do and not enough time. I appreciate the University working to get up started and I’m sure that they would love to have us at full staffing. However, on paper, we look like a waste. But i urge campus administration and those who we serve, the students, faculty and staff, to think of this. When you are in your office or in class and the fire alarm goes off, do you always know what to do? Now ramp that up to a tornado strike or hazmat release. Would you know?
We in emergency management want to help you know and want to help you survive. We’re going to keep fighting but it is scary for someone like me that relies so heavily on the school to know how little the school administration seems to care.
Btw, I’m speaking on a personal note not as an employee of the University.
Here is a video that describes the particulars that represent these listed improvements. The campus community was asked via EMU TODAY to first nominate various improvements, and then later to vote on the list. It was indeed a voluntary poll. http://www.emich.edu/video/index.php?id=P189_recent
I really wish we had something better than EMU Today to share information and gather opinions. No one reads it and I believe that is because the design is flawed.
Hi Peon:
We really try to put useful campus info on EMU Today, along with new items (such as obits, etc). So let me know what improvements you would suggest, or other venues. Our goal is just to keep people informed. Just email me at my campus address.
Whatever happened to Focus EMU? I enjoyed those.
I’m a big fan of blogs for this sort of thing…
FOCUS EMU is no longer published, but we try to put key news items on the news release page of the emich.edu website, or list items in EMU TODAY.
So…as the architect of this survey and subsequent video series (read: not Marketing, I’m a faculty member who also works on some institutional accreditation projects and some other happenings…but I digress) I’d like to even better clarify (if that is possible…) Geoff’s explanation on this ‘List’ and video series.
We launched an event entitled EMU Snapshot on January 26th. (this link gives info on the event http://www.emich.edu/better/snapshot.html). It’s intent was to tell EMU’s story as viewed through our accreditation process, specifically the 9 AQIP Categories (i.e. Leading & Communicating, Helping Students Learn etc. ), and get feedback on our Systems Portfolio. Our accreditation process supports a continuous improvement model (CI) , and though we do practice or embrace a common University-wide continuous improvement process there have been projects, processes, programs, etc on campus which followed some CI approach and could and should be highlighted. There were also projects, processes and programs and some projects which were indeed improvements and bettered our campus and did not follow any CI model and we thought why not highlight some.
Just because something was noted as ‘improved’ doesn’t mean it’s finite, there is always room for improvement. It’s..continuous. As my yoga instructor says, “There is no perfect pose, there is always room for growth. ”
We spend a lot of time on this campus pointing out what is wrong..wrong..wrong, and rarely point out what works, what is better or has been improved upon. Many of us (myself included) feel that things were left off this list and other improvements should have been highlighted. Still others (and I agree) see some of those on the list as improved only because the process or project that proceeded it was not making our campus better at all. Just because something changes is that an improvement? Bottom line–there have been things that have improved the quality of life here at EMU. What they are? Well… that is up for discussion and blogging, I’m sure.
And one more thing (not that the prior post was not long enough), okay two.
Regarding the process of collecting possible improvements..we could definitely have improved in this area. Where EMU Today may be a good source of information for some ..it is not for all. To be more inclusive and representative of the many stakeholders/ groups/peoples/ on this campus we needed another medium or process to gather possibilities.
Lastly, I re-read the prior post and do not want to seem like I’m ‘dissing’ my friend & colleague Geoff. Where I am wordy and verbose, he is concise and succinct. To answer Sitedad’s question–my improvement–Larcom. He makes sure that the EMU story is not the story of how we report or don’t report something he works to tell our story and for that I am grateful.
Enrollments continue to decline, so who cares?
Genuine surveys disclose what N is, and disclose the percentage answers given for each item. Marketing “surveys” do not usually disclose such data, and marketing surveys are frequently manipulated. The lack of this data disclosure did suggest this was not a true survey. Surely, too, a real survey wouldn’t produce a list in an undifferentiated order like this is presented as.
Decky is a long-time friend and colleague, so no disrespect to her or Larcom or anyone else here. I know both of them are trying their best to do good things. However, three different criticism about all of this that might help make this better in the future:
* When you’re doing a survey at a university, you end up dealing with a lot of academics who take surveys seriously as a research methodology (and I count myself in that group). All surveys have problems that are generally acknowledged in the research itself, but there are some significant problems here, IMO. Besides a pretty small “N,” there was no attempt to get a broad cross-section of response from students, faculty, staff, etc. And frankly, it wouldn’t have been that hard to get this survey out to everyone via email. Heck, Larcom sends an all-campus email every couple of days about various things; why not send out a survey like this?
* I think one of the big problems I have with the results is the only thing on this list that qualifies as “academic” is the Academic Projects Center– which, btw, is a great thing indeed and is something I’m familiar with since there’s a lot of tie-in with the first year writing program and the University Writing Center. To me, that is probably the result of who responded to the survey (see previous point), and I think it is something that makes it not necessarily as effective as it could be for either marketing or for accreditation. This might be naive on my part, but I like to think that one of the ways EMU ought market itself is by promoting the quality of its main “product,” which is education.
* EMU Today is a waste of time and something I haven’t read/looked at in years. Why? Well, it isn’t easy to read, for starters. It’s a link I get in my email which I then have to open up in a browser. Second, the daily reminders are very repetitive– the same announcements will run for days and days– which is one of the reasons why I stopped reading it. And third, there’s no hierarchy to these announcements as far as I can tell.
So, what would I do differently with this? For starters, I’d use a blog software like wordpress because that’s something that can be easily updated as announcements come in, and it’s something that people can subscribe to with some sort of RSS feed. If EMU wants to generate discussion, it’d have to allow for comments, which has potential problems with it obviously, but it does drive traffic to the site (at least that’s what has happened here). It’d probably be pretty easy to put some kind of “tease” on the EMU homepage instead of a link to “EMU Today;” in other words, a headline to a new story or something that might actually be worth clicking on. And then there’s also the other social media tools many people use to get their news nowadays– Facebook and Twitter in particular.
Sitedad…I really love the idea of a blog software to engage more people in virtual and everyday conversations. Communicating via email is not the way a majority of our students communicate. Many of them left email behind along with Tab ( I kid) and Nike high-tops. As a friend who works at U of M told me, ‘you better get on Twitter, if want to stay/be relevant.’
Quickly…whereas our collecting of possible improvements was a result of the EMU today posting, the ‘survey’ was communicated by Walter Kraft to the University community in an all-campus email. So, we did an email blast, and hoped that people would vote if not for the ones listed add (which they did in droves) their own write-ins. Many areas or groups I understand launched write-in campaigns, which may have led to the listed results. Skewed? Imbalanced? Possibly. But as I look at the list I would argue that several of them focus on our division’s progress including Ethos Week, Academic Project Center (which is a great example of cross-divisional and departmental collaboration) IT-smart classrooms, ecollege, etc. There are other ones highlighted on the site including: Historic Preservation Program, Pray-Harrold and Mark J (building improvements) that received many mentions or votes.
Additionally, I and a GA went to various meetings (Academic Affairs, Strategic Planning, Student Affairs and Enrollment Management) explaining the event as well as the online-survey. We were unable to get ourselves onto the Faculty Senate agenda, however we did communicate with its leadership on several occasions, and send materials over that were distributed with a narrative on how this event benefits faculty. We also had a facebook page and invited hundreds to ‘join’ so they could get updates on the survey and event.
To me the problem was in the gathering of the initial list in the first place (which I think you listed here..and a link for people to enter possible improvements to be voted on). EMU TODAY is (I agree with you) not intuitive, and could use some priority-type of organization.
As much as we have improved external communications and some internal communications we are indeed decentralized and communicating to a university-wide audience from snow days to surveys is challenging.
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Folks: EMU TODAY was redesigned a year and a half ago for easier editing, and is updated daily with new events. The most important events of the day, or key news items, are listed on the “Special Notices” section on the first page.
You can access it off the link you are sent each day, or from the bottom right of the Emich.edu homepage. Give it a shot if you haven’t. We’ll keep looking at improvements, and thanks for the input, Sitedad and Decky.
BTW, I would say this blog is a meaningful improvement that arose during the last ten years. It offers a venue for comment, as well as another pipeline for what is going on at EMU. Are there any other similar, independent university blogs such as this in the state?
“I and a GA went to various meetings (Academic Affairs, Strategic Planning, Student Affairs and Enrollment Management) explaining the event as well as the online-survey. ”
Decky, with respect: the above is far from a representative slice of the campus community. In fact I’d say there is a good chance you actually decreased the representativeness of the results by doing that, as those who received your presentations were probably much more likely to participate in your survey than those who didn’t. (and while you didn’t get on their agenda I think it is worth mentioning that Faculty Senate represents a crucial part of the campus community, sure, but they do not represent the approximately 700 non-tenure faculty, the PTs, the clericals, the police, or the students, at all. )
The resulting list is a reflection of the process by which it was compiled, nothing more or less. It is not, and should not be billed as, an accurate read on what the campus community as a whole actually thinks. Maybe some of the same items would have ended up on a list that is more representative – but maybe not – and there’s no way to tell based on the process used. That’s the point.
I should add Student Org Group, we went there as well.
Our hope is that those who attend such meetings share such information with their organizations, colleagues, departments,etc. In most of them we specifically provided ’3 take-aways’ regarding this event including voting on the online survey.
If you have suggestions on how to better disseminate material or information in addition to outreach, (talking tours,etc), email blasts to the entire University community, EMU Today, conversations with Category teams, and a facebook page those would be most welcome. Thanks!
I think the hating on EMU Today is nonsense – its like a newspaper delivered to your door each morning and you only have to click to read it. Like a paper, some days it gets read and other days it becomes trash. The re-design helped but I agree that there could be a bigger emphasis (and design) on what is happening TODAY and a few days in advance. But if people won’t read a link that is emailed to them every day why would they read a blog instead?
The trend is obvioulsy towards Social Media but there are too many pages to follow so EMU Today is a central depot for information. Perhaps if EMU Today was morphed into a Facebook Page it would be read more?
Is it perfect – no – but to claim “I have not read it in years” and then trash it at the same time is childish.
Actually, I think that’s one of the problems with EMU Today: it’s published as if it were a newspaper, as if it were a “daily” that had to be “put to bed” every morning. That’s thinking about this as if it were simply an electronic version of print, but that’s not what media on the ‘net is about. Which, btw, is one of the other reasons IMO that newspapers are tanking.
The redesign of the web site is fine, but what it lacks is social media functionality. When you have a blog like this, people can subscribe to it via an RSS feed and thus be alerted to new things. Or, for those who come to it on a regular basis, they can see what’s new because it’s at the top of the page. I mentioned before that commenting clearly draws people to EMUTalk, but I can imagine why you wouldn’t want it for EMU Today. Still, some interactive functions would be better than none. And I think when EMU shares/posts stuff on EMU Today, whoever is doing this (is that Larcom?) should also post it to Facebook and Twitter.
Oh, and as I think about it more, I used to at least glance at EMU Today on a regular basis when it showed up as an email in my inbox. I read my email frequently enough, but am I going to bother to click a link that repeats the same old information over and over? No, not really.
EMU TODAY is changed daily, but events/items run for several days, to ensure folks see them. The Today/Special Notices page is meant for things happening that day, or key notices of broad interest to campus. We will keep sharpening that front page approach.
On another note, please follow EMUNews on Twitter! That is the address I post news releases, etc on. I then retweet them on my own Twitter, which you can also do on your own Twitter accounts.
On a final note, what do you call it when you are too quick to relay someone else’s message or post on Twitter?
A: a hasty retweet.
I’m surprised the General Education requirements overhaul didn’t make it on this list, unless it was restricted to solely physical additions like offices and buildings.
ET,
I think nobody who was invested in creating this “poll” was invested in bragging about the General Education overhaul…..and nobody really regards it as a success. It’s key creators were, of course, the appointees of the university’s two worst presidents ever, Kirkpatrick and the felon Fallon. It’s a failure except for protecting the student credit hours of a few departments.
It seems many want EMU Today to be something it is not — Social Media — instead of focusing on what it is.
Carl: And what is it now? Something that very few people pay attention to. It might worth considering that if you hear from “many” that they want it to be something else, and also that they aren’t using it in present form, then it is not working in its current format and something needs to change. Or, you can rail at those who are open about why they don’t currently use it, and tell them how wrong they are.
Geoff invited people’s thoughts about how to make it more effective; my answer is that it should be killed off. It would take a lot of work to re-brand it as something useful. It would probably be easier to scrap it and start up fresh with something that doesn’t have the negative baggage that EMU Today carries.
@licorice
So you don’t like it — I do — is your position more valid than mine?
People generally don’t rave about things that are good/decent but how is EMU today measuring success?
Do they track clicks/opens do determine what a successful ROI is for the effort? You can rail that it needs to be killed (and that is fine) but you are assuming the model is flawed because it does not fit what you want (or perceive others need) and for many it serves its purpose just fine. The valued opinions of those academics on talk.org is not scientific fact nor is it marketing research.
I do not feel it has baggage but you (and a few of your brethren) seem to think it does.
That does not make it fact – any more than me to claim the format works makes it fact.
The difference is, I realize I am one person and many others (as in the norm on this page) assume their opinion is gosphel.
Another vote here for EMUToday. It’s useful to me as a communication tool, and I manage to click through it two to three times a week. That usually suffices to keep me up to date.
It’s been my experience that it takes several different media to effectively communicate anything to a large, diverse audience. I would expect Geoff and his team to use EMU Today, Facebook, Twitter, posters and electronic message boards, at the minimum, to reach as many people as possible. That said, it’s silly to say that because you prefer one means of receiving information, the other ones should be killed off.
So Carl, will you find out and share with us how EMU Today measures readership? I’d be fascinated to see the data. And if the data shows that a large percentage of people who receive it are actually regularly clicking through and reading the thing, then a) you will be able to knock me over with a feather, and b) I’ll change my view.
In the meantime I don’t really care if you kill it or not. Geoff invited responses on what would make it more effective, and my response is that I think it would be a lot of effort for little gain, to try to revise people’s views of it.
I’m glad it works for you. I suppose some people must read the thing. I just haven’t met of them in a pretty long time, except for a few folks in charge of IT and marketing, and a few over in Boone and Welch, who may or may not have a clear read on the pulse of many other parts of the campus. And you’ll note that I didn’t claim scientific evidence here. I’m just relaying what I frequently hear (and what I, myself, think) about EMU Today from an awful lot of different people around campus. But go ahead and shoot the messenger – that’s a pretty common administrative response around here.
I may be reiterating what someone else has already said, but as a student, my first impression is that there is a lot of useful and valuable information in EMU Today and so it’s shame that most don’t utilize it. It seems to me that there are some layout and access issues with this. I think if it had more (not completely) of a news publication layout, there would be better response. As it is, it just looks like a memo with a bunch of links included. If that was the intended goal, however, then that has been accomplished. But, if not, then consider revising the layout. I think how you visually arrange online information is crucial to drawing your reader in. Maybe consider something like MSU’s campus news page: http://news.msu.edu/
Hope that helps!
licorice
I dont have the numbers. I am not administration nor marketing. I stated that there are likely ways to measure the impact of the service. Only then can its impact truly be judged. Opinions and word of mouth are nice but measurables are important as they take emotion out of the mix. Because when one is judging a campaign the opinions from “an awful lot of different people around campus” do not add value unless the opinions are measured and compared to others.
Agreed, Carl, that anecdotal evidence is only that. I’ve never claimed otherwise. (In fact my comments on the survey that produced the top 10 list were motivated by the fact that those results aren’t reliable representations of campus attitudes or opinions either, and shouldn’t be presented as if they were.) At the least, we may hope that maybe those who are involved with EMU Today will have an internal look at the same data and reach their own conclusions. It would be moderately interesting to see that data, but I’m sure we all have other things to do.
Honestly it isn’t that big a deal to me, one way or another. I just shake my head though, when some folks in some corners of administration say “oh but we published [notice of some event or policy change] in EMU Today! Why doesn’t anybody seem to know about it?” Hmmm.
Have a great weekend!
Stay dry!