Welcome back to school. This year looks like another difficult one for those of us trying to defend public, accessible, quality education. Public higher education is under attack all over the country: Texas, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, and right here in California.
This year CUCFA and its associated FA chapters are joining the CSUs and Community Colleges of California in the “Campaign for the Future of Higher Education” [CFHE], a national campaign that includes the voices of the faculty from our universities, colleges, and community colleges, students, and our communities — not just administrators, politicians, foundations and think tanks. The aim is to ensure that curriculum, pricing, and structure of our nation’s higher education systems are good for our students and the quality of education they receive.
For faculty to bring our message to the public, we need to communicate with the media. So, as a service to our members and our community, our sister FA chapter at UCSC, the Santa Cruz Faculty Association is sponsoring an excellent workshop on the UCSC campus taught by Alice Sunshine, Publicity Director for the California Faculty Association (the organization that represents the faculty of the twenty-three campuses of the California State University system). While we realize it is unlikely that Davis faculty will be able to find time to attend, we wanted to let you know that the SCFA has invited all interested DFA members to come.
The workshop will be September 30, from 1 to 4 pm, at the UCSC Bay Tree Conference Center (also called the Career Center, in the same building as the Bay Tree Bookstore). A box lunch will be served starting at 12:15, but you’ll need to RSVP for both lunch and the workshop. By gathering a little early and breaking bread (sandwiches from Emily’s, actually) together, we can strategize and discuss and socialize before the workshop begins. Please RSVP to this event by clicking on the link near the end of this letter, the SCFA needs to know how many people will be attending in order to plan accordingly.
UCSC FA chair Shelly Errington attended Alice’s program “Can You Hear Us Now? Earned Media and Other Communications Strategies” at the AAUP Summer Institute in 2010. She says she learned so much that she had not been aware of concerning media availability, how to create events and visuals that the media will cover, organizing yourself and your group for media coverage, and other topics. The following is a description of Alice’s program at the summer institute, which will give you an idea of what topics will be covered at the SCFA workshop. The program will be somewhat modified to meet the current needs of the FA’s.
Can You Hear Us Now? Earned Media and Other Communications Strategies
The fast pace and sheer volume of news today means your chapter or conference media communications strategy needs to be both smart and realistic. This hands-on workshop will train you to be a media “organizer” and effective spokesperson. Learn how to evaluate your message’s news potential and craft a media outreach program that attracts attention. Participants will discuss tactics for feeding stories to local media markets and generating “media availability” opportunities. It’s not enough to get noticed, though — before grabbing the media’s attention, you need to plan what to do once you’ve got it! In small teams, participants will practice the “nine-second sound bite” and other techniques for making the most of your media moment. Playback and constructive critique will be part of the drill.
This workshop is a public service for faculty who may be involved involved with programs and outreach that they’d like to publicize, having to do with their research and teaching. That’s fine! We want to provide knowledge of these tools that can then be used for any project you’re involved with.
If you are interested in more information, here is a link to an article by Alice Sunshine about media outreach: http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2011/MJ/Feat/suns.htm
If you wish to attend the workshop, please RSVP to this event by clicking on this link:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGJ6aVNQZXJqaEVuNHlJYlpVVlVhOEE6MA