Restarting Binghamton and other initiatives, fall 2020

The Division of Communications and Marketing continued to inform its audiences through statements, stories, Dateline, B-Line, social media and the web of critical information about what restarting the campus for the fall semester would entail, as well as about the University’s and president’s response to reports of past sexual violence on campus and issues of racism and social justice.

Statements from President Harvey Stenger/others

• July 3: a message from President Stenger about social media posts about sexual violence
• July 8: a message from President Stenger and Provost Donald Nieman about the status of international our students
• July 13: a message from Provost Nieman about rescinded guidelines for international students
• July 14: a message from President Stenger about actions to be taken to address sexual assault policies
• Aug. 24: a message from President Stenger about the current estimate of the University’s financial situation
• Aug. 26: a message from President Stenger and Student Association President Khaleel James about establishing a Campus Citizen Review Board to review University Police policies
• Sept. 4: a message from Present Stenger and SA President James about obeying COVID-19 safety guidelines
• Sept. 18: a message from President Stenger and Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Karen Jones about social injustice and racism issues

In early July, the Restarting Binghamton Plan was approved by SUNY and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The University’s Restarting Binghamton website became very active, with the addition of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that have been updated 380 times since they were originally developed and posted on June 18. The FAQs are a major go-to source for students, faculty and staff, as well as the University’s Call Center, lessening the number of calls to various offices on campus.

As offices across campus geared up for the fall semester and the COVID-19 testing of on-campus students over a seven-day move-in week, our communications managers developed and wrote stories to explain to students and other campus members what to expect. These stories and those that have been written and posted since the beginning of the semester have covered topics as wide-ranging as dining and transportation issues, on- and off-campus student issues, COVID-19 testing, CARES Act funding, Bingflex course models, students working on the frontlines, the SUNY chancellor’s visit, the George Floyd Scholarship for Social Change, the University’s first-ever Common Read and more. To date, these stories have resulted in more than 100,000 pageviews and more than 95,000 unique pageviews.

For the Common Read project: Diversity, Unity and Justice ─ Building a Bearcat Perspective Together, our division developed a website, wrote stories and messaging for the collegiate professors to connect with first-year students who would be participating and supported the initiative through photography and social media.

SUNYCUAD Awards for Excellence

A number of Binghamton University communications and advancement offices were recognized by the SUNY Council for University Advancement (SUNYCUAD) on Sept. 24, during its annual education conference. Binghamton University won five communications awards.

The University won four “Best of Category” awards, including: Best Social Media Strategy for Celebrating M. Stanley Whittingham, Binghamton University’s First Nobel Prize Winner; Best Magazine for Binghamton University Decker School of Nursing Magazine – Decker Connect; Best Multi-page Publication (Excellence on a Budget) for Binghamton University School of Management 50th Anniversary Gala Invitation; and Best Cover for Binghamton University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences magazine cover. This is the second year in a row that the pharmacy school publication won the award for best cover.

Binghamton also received a Judges Citation - Multi-Page Publication for Confucius Institute 10th-anniversary Book.

SUNYCUAD represents all professionals employed in a cross-section of institutional advancement areas at every SUNY campus and exists to promote understanding and support of SUNY, providing professional development and networking opportunities for advancement of professionals in the areas of public relations, alumni relations, publications, electronic communications, development, government relations and marketing.

Creative Services activities

The creative services arm of the Division of Communications and Marketing touches virtually every project on campus, and the third quarter of 2020 was no different. Working remotely, the office supported restarting efforts in a way no other office on campus could — by designing, managing the production of and fulfilling more than 150 orders for the more than 30 different signs needed to assist with the return to campus during COVID-19. These signs ranged from posters to support the social norms campaign encouraging compliance with safety guidelines to social-distancing decals for floors to entrance and exit signs. Orders continue to be placed and filled.

While signage continues to play a key role in campus operations, creative services also continued to design school magazines, and also assumed responsibility for design of the Binghamton University Magazine for the first time. In the third quarter, Harpur Perspective was completed and mailed, and though not yet in the mail, the bulk of the design work for the School of Management’s Reaching Higher and Binghamton University Magazine was completed.

Additional major documents and website work completed by creative services included:

• Binghamton University Foundation summer donor newsletter
• Middle States accreditation document and website
• Undergraduate Admissions – New York state brochure, out-of-state brochure, transfer student brochure, international student brochure
• Digital Commencement programs and emails for the Class of 2020
• Code of Student Conduct document
• 2020-2021 University Bulletin (edited, corrected, published online)

Miscellaneous initiatives for creative services included:

• Creating a virtual Class of 2024 photo that allowed students of the incoming class to upload their photos into a mosaic picture of the B-logo
• Graduate program promotional pages for Harpur College and the College of Community and Public Affairs
• Support for the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science name change, finding and replacing on binghamton.edu and creation of new lockups
• Maintaining the health of binghamton.edu by reviewing/updating it, checking for broken links, meta data, spelling, grammar as well as OU account training, account creation, account deletion and handling requests from campus partners

Undergraduate Admissions enrollment marketing efforts

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.

We send the first issue a few days after the May 1 enrollment deposit deadline and it runs weekly until classes begin. This cycle, these unprecedented times meant we needed to insert additional communications that conveyed to students that their first semester would be different, but it would still be the college experience they had been looking forward to.

We met weekly with representatives from the divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs to ensure Orientation and other processes that had to be adjusted due to COVID-19 were communicated effectively and accurately, and that the messages were consistent across the various offices.

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

COVID-19 and recruitment strategy

The driving strategy for fall 2020 is to find ways to offset the lack of in-person contact between Admissions staff and prospective students. Here are a few of the higher-level projects to connect with students during the admission cycle:

• Virtual Fall Open Houses
  At the beginning of September, we brainstormed how we would execute fall open house in the year of COVID-19. Since students will not be on campus, Communications and Marketing staff created a landing webpage that not only houses the registration forms, but has videos from current students, descriptions of sessions, a welcome from President Harvey Stenger, social media and photos that show a vibrant but safe campus. Knowing we all suffer from the “Zoom fatigue” phenomenon, we are incentivizing students to participate. When students attend they will be automatically entered into a contest to win Binghamton merchandise. At the end of the week, if they share our open house graphic on their Instagram, they will be entered in an additional contest.
  
• Recruitment materials
  In June and July, C&M was busy designing the publications admissions counselors take with them during travel season. This year, admissions counselors will present virtually to high-school students and school counselors. The Creative Services team converted the print publications to e-brochures and high-end presentations conducive to the virtual sphere. We have also updated and added to our email communication streams that are sent daily to prospective students, parents and high-school counselors.
  
• Interactive Admissions website
  The Admissions website — always essential — has become an even more vital component to recruitment efforts. This cycle, Communications and Marketing created interactive quizzes which have been added to various pages to increase engagement. For example, on the student life page we posted a quiz called “Find Your Club Match.” On the page with application requirements and instructions, students can find an aesthetically designed page on “tips on how to write a stellar essay.”
  
• Social media
  The Undergraduate Admissions Instagram and Facebook accounts both saw a steady gain in followers this quarter (Facebook: +3%, Instagram: +4%). The pages have been sharing content linking to apply.binghamton.edu and also visit.binghamton.edu encouraging fans and followers to attend one of our virtual info sessions. In August, our Instagram page held a contest prior to Move-in-Week. The contest received 871 likes and 739 comment entries. One incoming student was the winner of a Binghamton swag bundle, courtesy of the Bookstore. We have started utilizing the Instagram stories feature to create engaging, interactive and visual content. Our page insights show that followers enjoy seeing photos of campus such as the Peace Quad and Nature Preserve so we plan to continue using scenic, in-house images in future posts.

Media and Public Relations activities

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, much of our social media output and strategy during the summer months revolved around plans to restart the University safely for the fall semester. We created and shared content (articles, videos, Instagram stories, etc.) that offered information to students, faculty, staff, parents and community members about the University’s plans to test students, move them safely onto campus and hold in-person and online classes during the fall semester.

To encourage responsible mask use within our community, we started the #MaskUpBing campaign across social media. We posted a series of social norm graphics on our accounts on everything from avoiding large groups to monitoring your health. We also held a #MaskUpBing Contest, encouraging students to decorate masks and have their photo taken. We put the best entries into a blog and held a vote across social media, which received many responses. We also created a special #MaskUpBing face filter for Instagram, which has been used thousands of times.

With COVID-19 affecting the fall semester, we had to make sure that our community was aware of all of the changes and procedures going into effect to safely and effectively re-open campus and kick-start the school year. We ran a series of news articles and videos across our social accounts, highlighting updates on everything from food to transportation to testing protocol. Our “Restarting Binghamton” video was well-received on social, with more than 10,000 views on YouTube alone. We also posted a number of Bearcat Chats, which featured interviews with staff, parents, etc. discussing how campus would restart.

Each year, the incoming class comes together to form a giant “B.” Due to social distancing guidelines, we were unable to hold this in person this year, so we organized a virtual B. Using photos submitted by the Class of 2024, we put together a virtual B mosaic, where individual students’ photos could be located by email. We premiered the virtual B with a new video featuring President Harvey Stenger live across social media. The video was well-received across our accounts and helped to welcome students to the University in a safe and celebratory way.

Binghamton in the News – June 1 – Sept. 15, 2020

Anne Bailey, history professor, author and director of the Harriet Tubman Center for the Study of Freedom and Equity, was featured in Time Magazine, The New York Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, MSN.com, YahooNews! and other publications, where she discussed the public debate about Confederate statues and how their very presence in prominent public locations effectively dilutes the history of the North’s victory over the South and the fight to save the United States of America. Total circulation: Over 343 million.

Nicole Hassoun, professor of philosophy and co-director for the Institute of Justice and Well-Being, has been featured in numerous publications, discussing several topics related to COVID-19:

● The Conversation, The Houston Chronicle, Yahoo!com and other publications: Philosophy and psychology agree ─ yelling at people who aren’t wearing masks won’t work.

● The Conversation, Houston Chronicle, Yahoo.com! and other publications: Who should get a COVID-19 vaccine first?

● The Conversation, Yahoo!.com, Fast Company, San Antonio Express News and other publications: Ending the pandemic will take global access to COVID-19 treatment and vaccines - which means putting ethics before profits. Total circulation: Over 276 million.

Nadia Rubaii, co-director of the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, and associate professor of public administration, was featured in Forbes Mexico, The Houston Chronicle, The Conversation, The Medium, The Hour and other publications, where she discussed how engaging Colombia’s students may be key to long-term peace. Total circulation: Over 166.3 million.

Kaiming Ye and Guy German, professor and associate professor of biomedical engineering, respectively, were featured on NPR, Healthline, WSKG and PBS for receiving a $182,728 grant to look at how germicidal ultraviolet light technology can sterilize contaminated masks, making them reusable by hospital staff. Total circulation: Over 151 million.

Pegor Aynajian, associate professor of physics, applied physics and astronomy, was featured in The Conversation, Yahoo.com, The Houston Chronicle and other publications for research which indicates that physicians hunt for room-temperature superconductors that could revolutionize the world’s energy system. Total circulation: Over 136 million. https://theconversation.com/physicists-hunt-for-room-temperature-superconductors-that-could-revolutionize-the-worlds-energy-system-80707

Adam Laats, professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational Leadership, was featured in The Washington Post and other publications, where he discussed how religious animus did not drive the Supreme Court’s ruling that states with voucher programs must allow private religious schools to participate, but rather that Americans have never wanted to use public money for schools teaching controversial religious ideas. Total circulation: Over 84.9 million.

Steven R. Ortiz, associate professor of history and author of Beyond the Bonus March and the G.I. Bill, was featured in The Washington Post for his contribution to an article discussing that long before “Trump’s troops,” the U.S. Army attacked WWI veterans with tanks and tear gas. Total circulation: Over 84.9 million.

Kim Brimhall, assistant professor of social work, was featured in The Conversation, The Houston Chronicle, Scribd and other publications, where she argued that inclusion in the workplace begins with better management. Total circulation: Over 65.6 million.

Celia Klin, professor of psychology and interim dean of Harpur College of Arts and Sciences, was featured in NPR News, The New York Post and other publications for her expertise regarding “textisms.” Zeroing in on punctuation, Klin and her collaborators found that the inclusion of a period in a text message can convey negativity. Total circulation: Over 64.8 million.

Plamen Nikolov, assistant professor of economics, was featured on NPR, WSKG, Yahoo! Finance, Science Daily, Health Medicine Network and other publications, where he discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing our behavior. Total circulation: Over 61.4 million.

Ryan Yarosh, senior director of media and public relations, was featured in Bloomberg, where he discussed how Binghamton researchers developed 3D simulations to study indoor and outdoor movements and behaviors of students during high-traffic times at the school’s busiest locations to help develop guidelines. Total circulation: Over 34.2 million.

Craig Polizzi, graduate research coordinator and doctoral candidate in clinical psychology, and Steven Jay Lynn, distinguished professor of psychology, were featured in The Conversation, The Houston Chronicle, The Hour, Psychology Today and other publications, where they discussed how coping and resilience strategies might need to shift as the COVID-19 crisis continues. Total circulation: Over 30.9 million

Carl Lipo, professor of anthropology and associate dean for research and programs, was featured in National Geographic, Travel MSN, Science News and other publications for his genomic research which showed that Native Americans and Polynesians were in contact across the Pacific Ocean centuries before Europeans entered Polynesian waters. Total circulation: Over 18.9 million.