Covenant College Communications Officer

Faculty and staff,

I'd like to update you on what's happening in our college communications office. We've recently completed a college-wide communications audit by a highly-respected integrated marketing communications firm, Stamats. Thanks to all of you who met with them during their visit to campus. Stamats provided us with an in-depth report, and we have been taking their recommendations under advisement and moving ahead.

Communications is now under the umbrella of advancement, and Jen Allen and Tad Evearitt report to me. They have relocated to Belz 121 in Founders so that they can work in the same office suite. In the near future we will be posting two new positions: a webmaster and a chief communications officer. We will look to hire a webmaster as soon as possible, and at that time Tad Evearitt will shift his primary focus to design. Until then, he will be updating the College's current website. We will conduct a national search for a CCO, who will be a senior-level communications strategist, and expect to fill that position in six to nine months. We would be grateful for your help in getting the word out about these two openings and for any candidate recommendations you would like to offer.

While we are in the process of expanding our communications office, we are strategically prioritizing the College's communications needs. Please consider your communications plans for the next year and the human resources they will require. When you have a communications request, e-mail it to Jen Allen and copy your VP. We will review and prioritize requests in our weekly meetings and then respond to you with an answer. Due to the amount of work, we may not be able to meet all requests. If there is a request that we are not able to meet in-house and you would like to outsource it, e-mail your VP and copy Jen. As budget officers, VPs will evaluate these requests for outsourcing and will be the ones to give budget approval. If you receive budget approval, Jen will provide you with a list of approved vendors from which you may choose.

We also want you to know that we are in a year-long process of redesigning Covenant's website. It is quite a project, and we are looking forward to going live with the new site next summer.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in prioritizing our communications needs even as we are beginning to expand our communications staff.

Troy A. Duble

Before Covenant needs another Chief-anything-officer, they need to spend some time pondering three little words Nike made famous: "Just do it!" President Nielsen claimed that his motto was "Communicate, communicate, communicate." ... but I was told that over 1.5 years ago, and there's no indication that the college's tactics in any way reflect that strategy. Strategy and tactics out of sync is NOT a good thing.

Meanwhile, I learn from the ByFaith website the freshman numbers, NOT from the college's website itself. Bizarre.

Tad's a great guy, stretched beyond reason most often IMHO. And Troy is a great guy. It's obvious (to me) they've been doing what they can to "fix the problem". But (again IMHO) a "national search for a CCO" isn't going to change the bottleneck constriction that the college has traditionally placed on any real communications. And hiring a person to communicate won't solve that problem. Just who will have "veto power" over what that person can say? All it will take is one or two prominent names on THAT list and the office is effectively neutered!

Just my opinion, probably worth exactly what I was paid to express it! :-)
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RDS

Randy I agree with you for the most part. My hope is that the President Nielson and Wallace will actually trust/use/respect whomever they get for that position.

I do think though that filling this position WILL help with the public communication issues of the College. What it wont help with is the interal PR/communications/relational issues of the College.

Hiring a Communications Officer isn't going to mean that the Faculty, Staff, and Students are going to feel (or actually BE) any more listened to or valued as part of the College. That's something which needs to be an inherent part of the vision of the College, which starts with the President on down. It's about having that kind of Culture.

So Josiah, ... are you going to ask Jeffrey for a brief LOA from Coptix in order to apply? You won't need long... a few "open communications" and your new job would be toast. :-) Then you could return back to your current job knowing you tried.

I was thinking about press secretaries for presidents, trying to recall the candid ones and the "party line guys", and realized just what a tough job they have. Covenant needs someone to come in and say things straight to the point of getting fired, and then maybe the college would reach a reasonable balance of open communications.
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RDS

Heh. Now that'd be hilarious.

Right now I think a the College will take an huge step forward when it stops playing the "but Jesus says love me!" card the second someone complains/speaks up/questions.

It's like I'm back in fundamentalist middle school; except without the demerits and protracted discussions about how Bill Clinton is the Anti-christ.

"Right now I think a the College will take an huge step forward when it stops playing the "but Jesus says love me!" card the second someone complains/speaks up/questions."

Could you expand on this a bit? I probably agree with you, although not in all cases. The tone of one's criticisms and questions is important, since it can show something important about the attitude of the person doing the criticizing.