August 30, 2007
AQIP Communications Action Project – Final Report
The charge of this action project was to improve communication across the institution. In
preparation for the start of this project, a survey was constructed to solicit members of the
institution as to their preferred mode for receiving information. Several modes were
offered for consideration and the opportunity to include alternative modes was made
available. The vehicle to be used as the subject of this project was NCState Our College,
the President’s newsletter. Current institutional information was shared and the
opportunity to ask questions directly to the President was offered in this newsletter. In the
early distribution, the newsletter was sent via email, posted on the President’s webpage,
via interoffice mail, and via the U.S. Postal Service. As following issues were published,
all institutional members received the publication through both an electronic medium as
well as a physical medium and were invited to communicate a primary mode preference
if they wished to do so. Many took the opportunity to select the electronic mode only,
while others chose to continue receiving it via both modes or offered no reply at all.
Throughout this project cycle most comments received were extremely positive while
almost all of any criticisms received were more focused on the message than they were
on the mode of delivery. Still, this occurrence would suggest that communication was
occurring and NCState Our College was effectively serving as a delivery vehicle for
institutional communication. As the academic year drew to a close, a follow-up survey
was distributed to solicit institutional feedback on the effectiveness of the newsletter’s
modes of delivery as well as the content of its message. Of the responses received, only
10% addressed issues of delivery (specifically more frequency of publication and limiting
modes of delivery to one with online archival) while the remaining 90% addressed issues
of message/content.
#1 Describe the past year’s accomplishments and the current statues of this Action
Project.
Response: Over the past year communication has improved through the increase in
frequency and the repetitiveness of message. Still, while communication within the
institution has improved, we also acknowledge that there is still much work to be done in
order to reach the desired level. We have ascertained which modes of communication are
most effective for each group of institutional members (i.e. email works best for most
full-time staff and faculty, U.S. Mail works best for adjunct faculty and other community
members; archival on the President’s webpage works well for all who wish to review past
editions). Finally, we have discovered more of the kinds of information the college
community wants to hear dialogue about (although this vehicle may not be the
appropriate mode for some of the topics requested). The primary charge of this action
project -- evaluating and improving the modes of communication – has been adequately
satisfied through this past year’s activity. Therefore, this action project is complete and
has set the stage for further improvement in communication, i.e. developing the message,
evaluating varying levels of sensitivity and relativity, and matching those different types
of messages (based on their content) to the appropriate mode of communication for that
type (an informative message is fine for the President’s Newsletter while it is not what
1
August 30, 2007
the college community hopes to hear at an open forum or a face-to-face discussion where
a strategic message, an explanatory message, or an emotional message may be more
desirable).
#2 Describe how the institution involved people in the work on this action project.
Response: The team for this action project included four members: one from
administration, one from faculty, one from adjunct faculty, and one from staff. Each
member was encouraged to contribute to the publication of each NCState Our College
newsletter, and charged with championing the follow-up on the effectiveness of the
communication with their respective constituent groups. As the time neared for the
conclusion of the action project, the team prepared the final survey, completed the
survey, tabulated and published their report to the AQIP Core group.
#3 Describe your planned next steps for this action project.
Response: This project is complete. It has satisfied the charge to determine if the
mechanics of communication is occurring, and showed ways to improve the effectiveness
of communication across the college by employing multiple forms of delivery to convey
information to our faculty, staff, and other internal stakeholders (i.e. Board of Trustees,
Foundation Board members, etc.)
Outside of the AQIP arena, we have determined to continue publishing NCState Our
College. It has proven itself an effective tool to communicate news and information
regarding topics of interest to our college and community.
Looking ahead within AQIP, if the subject of communication is chosen for another
Action Project, it might be beneficial to pursue the non-mechanical aspects of
communication – the emotions, feelings, thoughts, morale, etc. that communication
generates.
#4 Describe any “effective practice(s)” that resulted from your work on this Action
Project.
Response: We have developed a systematic method of publication that enables us to
achieve a publication turnaround of NCState Our College from content development to
distribution in a single day (while a two-day turnaround was typical). This effectiveness
was primarily due to keeping the publication down to a single page on a common
template and through the establishment of routine publication/distribution procedures.
When soliciting for topics on which the college community would like the President to
respond, requiring identification with the submission tended to stifle the initiative to ask
poignant/pertinent questions of the President which was definitely not the case when
allowed to submit questions for consideration anonymously. Soliciting and receiving
topics for discussion and dialogue was much more effective when offering anonymity
than it was when requiring personal identification.
2
August 30, 2007
#5 What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?
Response: The challenges associated with completing this Action Project were mainly
scheduling meetings, soliciting and receiving survey responses, and preparing the
publication for distribution. Over time, we developed a routine (described in response
#4) that streamlined the publication process so that each team member knew the task they
needed to complete for the publication to be delivered in a timely manner. This process
could be replicated by anyone wanting to communicate with the various constituents
throughout the College.
#6 Optional question: regarding involvement from AQIP to facilitate the completion
of the Action Project.
Response: Not necessary at this time.
AQIP Communications Action Project Team:
Keith Stoner – Action Project Team Leader (Staff Representative)
Paula Cohen – (Adjunct Faculty Representative)
Molly Hockenberry – (Faculty Representative)
Steve Williams – (Administration Representative)
3