Reaching Out

A few years ago, I was asked to contribute to a newsletter distributed by Academic Impressions, Inc. The title of the article was "Reaching Out to the Town During Campus Expansion."  The article makes five very important points related to finding success in gaining the support of stakeholders for campus development. They are as follows with my comments in quotes:

1.  Engage Your Community Early and Often.  "It's not so much what you do to engage your community, but how you do it." 

2.  Active Communication Can Create Excitement. "It's not enough to simply post information online or send out a newsletter. Communication efforts need to be active and two-way." 

3.  Schedule regular public meetings on campus... (and) invest in an attractive (paper and online) newsletter and send it out on a regular basis.  "There can be no shortage of communication. You can't do too much PR in your community to inform people of what is happening and why. Put a human face on the issue.

4.  Address Difficult Issues. "Identify hot spots early on, decide which ones you are willing to address, and which ones you need to fall on your sword for." 

5.  Leverage Community Champions. "People who get to know the campus well enough and you well enough are often those who can help you identify where the hotbed issues will be, ahead of time.... You have to go forward with realistic expectations. Just because everyone is around a table and seems to be getting along, that doesn't mean that members of that group won't question or object to what you're doing."

The article points out that institutions should "avoid reliance on leveraging legal authority when forging ahead with expansion plans. Engaging the community in the planning process not only creates important buy-in and support (and gives you the opportunity to avoid the negative media attention that results from surprising a community late in the process), but also brings new ideas to the table that might have otherwise been overlooked. Creating an inclusive process creates goodwill that can be leveraged in the future for many other important university initiatives."