#12. Communication Plan
Updated: Apr 16, 2018
Don’t Wait: Leverage Today.
We’ve got practical steps and tools to get you started all month in the Carnegie Caravan. Is every single person on your campus already a community engagement champion? If not, you need a communications plan. You were going to talk anyway; here’s how to make it count.
Why do I need a communication plan and what if I don’t have one?
Classified institutions integrate the community throughout all of their work. That’s radically different than how most of higher ed operates. And because getting to this point challenges the status quo, plenty of people on our campuses need things spelled out for them before they jump on board. And who can blame them?
A “communications plan” is just another way of referring to how you will inform your campus about the Carnegie application process in a way that encourages cooperation, rather than fuels resistance.
With a little forethought, you can...
Get the campus on the same page
Shine a spotlight on CE partnerships, programs, practitioners
Build morale and recognition for people contributing to application/institutionalization process
Correct some common misunderstandings about CE
... it’s only for students - nope!
... it’s all fluff and kumbaya, not rigor and results - not by a long shot!
... it only benefits the people who do it - in your dreams!
Grease the wheels for any changes you may want to make before and after app submitted
Prepare the campus to leverage the classification when the application is submitted
What’s at stake if you don’t communicate?
Consequences experienced by some campuses were that member of campus...
Drew uninformed, inaccurate conclusions about the classification and application process
Made it harder to complete the application
Left some folks thinking that CE was competing with other institutional priorities, rather than supporting them
Confounded some to confuse the classification with accreditation or with a cash award
Frustrated some who came to see the transactional/transformational approach as wasteful and time consuming
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