February 19, 2004

Internal communications being examined

A group of Northwestern faculty, students and staff is reviewing internal communications at the University in an effort to develop ways to communicate more effectively with students, faculty and staff.

A working group, chaired by Alan Cubbage, vice president for university relations, has been asked to examine the University’s existing communications, research how internal audiences use those communications, explore technological capabilities and recommend any changes, if needed, in internal communications.

“Like all large organizations, Northwestern’s internal audiences communicate with one another in a wide variety of ways — printed materials, e-mail, the Web and many others,” Cubbage said. “What we’re interested in finding out is what sort of things those audiences are interested in and how effective are the communications currently in use.”

As part of that effort, the group is surveying students, faculty and staff in an online survey. The survey asks such things as how often people check their e-mail, whether they read the student newspaper and the Observer and what sort of information they would be interested in receiving. The survey for faculty and staff is located on the Web at http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?L2234A64XVHZDYQLJHHS9AGD.

“We hope that we get a number of people responding to the survey,” Cubbage said. “What our audiences tell us will be very helpful in developing any changes to our current communications.”

The group is expected to make recommendations to the provost and other senior University officials this spring.