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Now that NC State is starting to work on an updated strategic plan, I thought it would be interesting to review some of the plans from our peer universities.  Not as easy as it sounds.  Try it.  Go to Google and type in strategic plan university of XYZ.  You’ll be amazed by what comes up.  And what doesn’t.

I found the strategic communications plan for my alma mater quite easily (I actually have a copy in my file).  I’ve used the UF communications plan and sections of the plan to describe what we do (or I think we should do) at NC State  since I arrived in Raleigh.

UF does not have a written strategic plan for the entire university, or it didn’t when I left almost a year ago. Each unit (16 colleges ++) develops its own plan. The goals and objectives of the university president are established in conjunction with the UF Board of Trustees and the president reports on his progress toward those goals and objectives during the quarterly meetings of the BOT.

If you haven’t already visited the site, he’s a link to the UF Strategic Communications plan.  It’s good work and well considered.  UFStrategicCommunicationsPlan2009.  You should also check out the University of Florida Communications Network Website (UFCN.)  More good stuff.  http://ufcn.urel.ufl.edu/

To demonstrate the importance of strategic communications planning at Florida, the plan and work schedule of the planning committee can be found on the UF President’s Web site.  http://www.president.ufl.edu/committees/strategiccommunication/ The committee also makes regular reports to the External Relations sub-committee of the Board of Trustees.

Support from the top is critical if a plan is to be taken seriously and by placing the committee agenda, work plan and results on the President’s Web page, the “support from the top” can’t be missed.  Try not cooperating with a presidential committee. [Read more →]

NC State Student Body President Kelly Hook and her team have been collecting comments from students about what it means to be a member of the Wolfpack.  Here, in five paragraphs, is a synopsis of what they have heard.  Some of the responses have been edited

• Going to NC State means you are a member of a tradition that has been committed to innovation, exploration and having the desire to increase mankind’s knowledge not for personal gain, but for universal benefit (because we are a pack). –John Peterson

• Being a part of the Wolfpack means that I will enter the workforce equipped with so much more than just the tools I need to succeed. I also have a pack of friends, supportive professors and future colleagues. NC State is unique because we are a Pack. A Wolfpack. This Pack involves everyone from the faculty and staff to the students- and we are only getting tighter. No other University has the “Pack Mentality.”  -Kelly Hook

• It means always being part of a group. It means having a family of friends that will never go away. It means cheering the loudest your voice can hold at any game-even if we’re losing. It means late night study sessions in a huge library. It means having your pick of majors and minors with great professors for all. It means never being alone. You are a part of the Pack. –Megan Matal

• Going to NC State and being part of the Pack means everything to me! Personally it has meant the discovery of who I truly am as an individual, student, and a friend. Academically NC State has pushed me farther than I ever dreamt I could go. Looking back at long nights spent high in the stacks of D.H. Hill Library, I smile; I now know it was worth it. Also, you don’t have to be on campus very long to know NCSU is really so much more than just studying, classes, and grades. The always accepting and diverse environment on campus has taught me that it’s perfectly okay to be myself and by being true to who I am, I’ve formed friendships here that are sure to last a lifetime. Life at NC State is everything to who I am now, and who I will be in the future. –Jenna Jones

• Wolfpack of One. Living in a state of innovation. –Matt Woodward

No one would dare argue that with this group,

Passion Rules!

Now this is the Law of the Jungle — as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back —
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.

“The Law of the Jungle” is a poem from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

Passion Rules!

Taking the 4th of July as an opportunity to take some time off.  A good time to reflect on the key messages we’ve created, the strategic communications plan we still have to write, the reorganization of University Communications,  chancellor installation and the university strategic planning process.

And what better way to reflect than to paint!  You got it, paint.  I promised my daughter that I’d help paint her house in Gainesville before Hurricane Season.  Missed the deadline a bit, but green paint will be flying next week.  All four circus dogs will be at the same location too.  Drop me a line, folks in Gainesville, if you’d like to help or just want to visit.

When I get back we’ll begin work on the university’s marketing campaign for the coming season. We’ll be creating a new :30 second television commercial, new print ads, and more.

As always, your ideas and suggestions are encouraged.

Happy 4th of July!

Passion Rules!

Hard to believe it’s already July.  Even harder to believe (or so I’m told) that the merger of University Communications and CALS Communications Services is official as of today.  Creative Services and Web Communications moved to the Butler Communications Services Building about two months ago and we’ve been working together as a team since then, but there’s something to be said for the “official” beginning of anything.

http://www.ncsu.edu/university-communications/

I’m excited about the reorganization and believe the new structure will help us provide superior creative work and memorable solutions to the many communications “opportunities” that arise on a campus this large.  I also believe we’ll achieve our goal of exceeding customer expectations.  We want you to have the best possible experience with the new group and we’re determined to deliver.

It goes without saying that this reorganization would not have been possible without the courage of Dean Johnny Wynne from the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences as well as key staff members on both sides.  Charlie Leffler and Nevin Kessler also played key roles as did former Chancellor Jim Woodward.

Passion Rules!

By Randy Proto, American Institutes school group:

The great economic upheaval of the past few years has spawned many new, provocative public policy discussions in which long-held assumptions are being challenged. That’s a good thing. Perhaps if some of the Wall Street “assumptions” had been challenged sooner, we’d have all been better off.

Recently, articles in Time, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Wall Street Journal, and discussions by policy leaders in Washington, raise questions regarding the cost, associated value and affordability – the utility, really – of a degree.

Simply put, is a college degree really still worth the cost given a job market that seems less able to provide jobs today?

Put in perspective, the answer is an unequivocal “yes.” [Read more →]

From my alma mater.

Dog lovers know the feeling. Their pets seem human. The way they lick a tear-stained face or gaze adoringly, sometimes even more so than friends or, um, spouses.

But that’s a misperception, says animal behaviorist, author and contrarian Clive Wynne. People may behave like animals, but dogs, he says, are just good at being dogs.

With new discoveries about animal intelligence announced practically every day, there is growing sentiment that dogs, parrots and ark-loads of other creatures share the essential qualities of Homo sapiens. This yanks Wynne’s chain. A professor of psychology and author of “Do Animals Think?” he contends that while animals may appear uncannily human, it is strictly an appearance. Their perceptions and cognitive abilities are radically different from ours.  http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/six_pro/ca.html

Wynne, who earned degrees from University College London and the University of Edinburgh, researches pet dogs at his Canine Cognition Laboratory at the University of Florida in Gainesville and captive wolves at Wolf Park, a research park in Indiana. There, he explores what might be termed the meaning of ‘dogness,’ delving into such questions as whether dogs have become genetically programmed to respond to human cues. The answer seems to be no. The wolves in Wynne’s experiments follow human points and other doggy directions. [Read more →]

As noted yesterday, when you’re reviewing the Key Messages, remember that we still need to develop themes for the supporting facts — themes that show impact [preferably involving multiple colleges] on issues that matter.  The supporting material that follows is grouped around areas that seem to make sense, but we need your input.

KEY MESSAGE II

Driving the economy every day

NC State provides results that drive the economy – bringing critical thinking skills and discipline-based knowledge to all sectors of society through education, dynamic discoveries, and solutions to real-world problems.

Fueling economic development

Producing leaders for the state, nation and world

$1 in state funding for NC State generates nearly $8 in total income for the state

Patents and products

680 U.S. Patents  (as of May 2010)

676 International Patents  (as of May 2010)

>110 better world products from lab to market

Start-ups and business incubator

The Technology Incubator has been worth $85 million to the local economy, by creating new companies, according to a RTI study completed in 2008

72 start-up companies, developed at NC State, representing more than $750 million in venture capital investment and more than 3,000 jobs in North Carolina.

Research conducted by students and faculty in the College of Engineering helped launch the highly successful North Carolina-based companies such as Cree, Red Hat, Nitronex, HexaTech, Silicon Semiconductor Corp., MiCEL, Kyma Technologies and many others. [Read more →]

Today’s home page feature at NCSU.EDU is an interview with student body president Kelly Hook, who will be blogging for us during the term of her presidency. In this era of social-media supremacy, we were looking to find a way to help connect Student Government leaders with not only their fellow students, but future students as well. In Kelly’s column, “Off the Hook,” she’ll keep everyone aware of what she and Student Government are up to, all while serving as a sounding board for readers. (Feel free to ask her questions here – some of the questions & answers will be featured in future posts.)

On a related note, we’ve added a couple of student writers – Amaris Hames and Candace Jones – to our Web editorial team, which we hope will add an air of authenticity to our student-focused stories like our recent feature on Mr. Wuf tryouts or the iPad Test Drive. Our full-time writers are great at what they do, but students have a way of capturing the passion of student-centered topics, events and news like we older folks can’t. Not that I’m saying we’re older, but you know what I mean.

Passion Rules!

When you’re reviewing the Key Messages, remember that we still need to develop themes for the supporting facts — themes that show impact [preferably involving multiple colleges] on issues that matter.  The supporting material that follows is grouped around areas that seem to make sense, but we need your input.

KEY MESSAGE I

Everything you can imagine

NC State, the largest university in North Carolina, provides big-school opportunities in a global innovation hot spot while fostering a tight-knit community in one of the nation’s most desirable places.

Producing leaders for the state, nation and world

Creating educational innovation

Our faculty members are thought leaders in their field—for example, Ann Ross, Walt Wolfram and Mike Walden are very NC focused. Find other faculty members who work internationally—maybe anthropology profs or engineering profs who collaborate with colleagues overseas.

Location and opportunities

To apply education through internships, research, co-ops and study with some of he world’s leading scientists and industry partners—locally, nationally, internationally.

Students’ senior projects involve real problems and collaboration with companies: Ex. College of Textiles, Engineering, Design

NC State’s Centennial Campus is home to industry, private-sector, non-profit, and governmental organizations, working alongside university faculty, staff and students.

NC State has 57 Centers & Institutes with 158 industry members including global partners such as DuPont, ExxonMobil, General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Qianjiang Group Co., Ltd., RWTH Aachen University, Germany, Samsung, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Texas Instruments [Read more →]