Public
Relations holds ice cream drop-in
It was a cold afternoon for ice cream, but that didn’t chill the line that
formed outside room 107 in the Library Administration Building Nov. 30.
Swensen’s Café on Market Street donated 13 containers of ice
cream, the stock they had left after closing their doors for the last time.
The Office of Public Relations couldn’t eat it all (it crossed our minds).
So we broadcast e-mailed our invitation to the campus and used our creamy-sweet
windfall to show MUSC ice cream lovers what we do. Some of them were gracious
enough to tell us what they think of what we do. Here are their comments
and our responses:
The Catalyst:
“Please [can’t we] have a “Letters to the Editor” column in every
issue?”
Write to us. Short and to the point is best, otherwise they will be
edited to make them short and to the point. We’ve tried to encourage a
‘letters’ section in the past but the only topic that seems to motivate
letter writing is parking.
“Can we have The Catalyst on the MUSC Web Site? Let’s save paper.”
Go to <http://www.musc.edu/catalyst>.
It’s been there since February 1996.
“Please continue with the feature stories. Please offer to the MUSC
community the opportunity to write pieces.”
The Catalyst welcomes articles from students, faculty and employees,
subject to editing and rewrite, of course. In fact, anyone who would like
to represent their department as a regular contributor to The Catalyst
would receive focused attention from the staff here. It’s been an unfulfilled
dream of ours for years.
“Every issue has a front page devoted to Children’s Hospital stories.
How about featuring the Medical Center, Storm Eye Institute, Hollings Cancer
Center, Institute of Psychiatry? Anything else?”
Anybody in Children's Hospital want to touch that one? The photos
on The Catalyst front page are chosen to show activity on campus, not to
highlight one department over another. Got something going on that’s suitable
for the front page? Tell us about it. The more action and story behind
it, the better.
“You waste a lot of paper with multiple copies going to each department.
Cut back and save forests.”
Advertising pays for The Catalyst. Advertisers like to know that every
faculty/employee at MUSC receives The Catalyst hand-delivered. Besides,
there must be a million re-uses for The Catalyst. Maybe you'd like to offer
some ideas more creative than bird cages and fishwrap.
“The Catalyst has helped me make money, so I think its great!”
Me too, it's a job.
“The Catalyst’ best feature is the notification of research areas
needing volunteers. Please expand this if possible.”
The Catalyst lists Research Studies on request. They run until we are
asked to remove them.
“Provide more details. For example, for a story about blood drives,
please provide more statistics.”
That does deserve more thought. Thanks.
“Use more graphs for financial information.”
Hmmm, okay. That too.
“That title, ‘The Catalyst,’ is awful. Any way to change it? Say,
‘MUSC News’?”
It's been ‘The Catalyst’ for 19 years, and you want to change
it to ‘MUSC News?’ I don’t think so.
Broadcast Messages:
“I like the new broadcast messages format.”
See below.
“Me too.”
See below.
“New way is better for skimming and opening by itself from e-mail.
Thanks.
See below.
“Very difficult to get to new broadcast messages from basic e-mail
page.”
See above.
“I appreciate them.”
See below.
“Reading ‘broadcast messages’ has become less user friendly.”
See above.
“I agree.”
Go to the top.
General Public Relations:
“Great work on the public relations videos and working with all
the colleges.”
Cindy Tew is the producer. We think she does great work, too.
“Many people still don’t know Ray Greenberg. How about doing a ‘Lunch
with Ray.’ Select people from various grassroots areas to discuss with
him once a week things to improve MUSC.”
Dr. Greenberg is eager to hear your ideas. He conducts regular townhall
meetings with various MUSC departments and will be exploring new avenues
to enhance communication in the future.
“Thanks for a job well done.”
We’ll pass that on to Dr. Greenberg.
“Last year’s very glossy annual report was beautiful, but probably
very expensive! Why not cut costs in this area, as well as hiring freezes
and salaries?”
These are austere times, to be sure. One of the dilemmas we face
each year is getting the best possible product for the lowest possible
cost. Ellen Bank, who ramrods annual report production each year, cut the
publication cost in half the first year she took over, and has been a faithful
steward of the project ever since. Her quest is for the highest quality
in copywriting, design, photography and printing by careful selection of
vendors and a competitive bidding process. To further increase cost efficiency,
the number of copies printed this year will be reduced and mail distribution
will be drastically cut. Rather than automatically mailing to all employees,
copies will be made available on request. Also, the annual report will
be available on the MUSC Web site again this year.
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