2 Table of Contents Introduction 3 Goals of the Process 4 Communicators 4 Media 7 On-Campus Communication 7 External Communication 8 Digital 8 Emergency Communication Plan 11
3 The Lone Star College-Tomball Office of College Relations aims to focus on enhancing transparent communications and providing organizational clarity to all members of the college community. Through the guidance of the Director of Communications and Media, College Relations must be a good steward of the finite resources and tools available and provide far-reaching value in the communication it deploys. College Relations should set a standard of high-caliber, on-brand communications to serve as a model for all campusrelated messaging. The purpose of the Lone Star College-Tomball Communication Process is to provide a set of guidelines, goals, and strategies to generate increased awareness among college stakeholders of information important to their positive experience with LSC-Tomball. It will guide all those who wish to participate with segmented populations or the college community at large and will do so with guidelines that are reasonable, transparent, and efficient. This process is designed to complement and support the LSC-Tomball strategic plan, in order to enhance the college’s goals and priorities. NOTE: It is recommended that this communication process be reviewed regularly and adjusted if necessary to reflect changing college priorities as well as to accommodate the fluid emergence and recession of communication tools and social habits in our ever-evolving society.
4 The process was designed to achieve four main goals: Goal 1: Improve relationships with internal and external stakeholders by consistently providing them with relevant information in a format that facilitates complete understanding by each recipient Goal 2: Allow subject matter experts to deliver messaging about which they are the most informed. This will ensure that the most accurate, relevant information is being relayed. Recipients will, in turn, come to rely on and respect particular messaging coming to them from particular senders. Recipients are more likely to read and/or heed messaging delivered to them by a source they trust. Goal 3: Eliminate both messaging overlap as well as messaging gaps that may exist when all senders attempt to reach all recipients independently. Goal 4: Improve the LSC-Tomball experience for all audience stakeholders by striving to cultivate a culture of ‘active awareness.’ While complete satisfaction with communication is a struggle all institutions must face, a goal of this process is to move the LSC-Tomball community ever closure to a state of communication satisfaction among a majority of stakeholders.
5 OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT Messaging from the Office of the President will be of a universal nature, directed, in most instances, to all LSC-Tomball employees and/or all LSC-Tomball students. This might include but is not limited to emergency messaging regarding closures or schedule adjustments, announcements about college-wide events such as the employee H.O.W.L. Awards or the Phi Theta Kappa inductions, the status of college GRIT work, strategic planning correspondence designed to engage the entire employee body in planning the college’s short and long term future, etc. Also included would be official messages sent on behalf of the president such as welcome letters to newly admitted students and the president’s quarterly newsletter, sent to both college constituents as well as professionals and dignitaries in the community. OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT OF INSTRUCTION Messaging from the Office of the Vice President of Instruction will be directed to faculty. This includes adjunct faculty. These messages will be related to academics, curriculum, and instruction. The VPI will inform faculty of opportunities and resources both for themselves and for their students. OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT OF STUDENT SUCCESS Messaging from the Vice President of Student Success will inform stakeholders about events, resources, and opportunities that fall under the auspices of student services. Examples may include Student Life or TRiO events, tutoring or counseling resources, or advising changes. The purpose of this messaging may be to recruit volunteers or simply to inform the campus body that these events are taking place. The Office of the Vice President of Student Success will be the source of all messaging related to the annual commencement ceremony. Traditionally, the VPSS has been the source of email communication to All Students. Departments wishing to share information with All Students send their messages to the VPSS
6 who approves the message and then dispenses it. The VPSS may delegate this responsibility to the Director of Student Life who may also reach out to All Students regarding Student Life and/or registered student organization messaging. NOTE: Other offices, including The Office of the President and the Office of College Relations have the ability to send messages to All Students. It is as a courtesy and to avoid duplication that messages are sent through the VPSS for approval. However, in certain situations, direct messaging to All Students may come from these other departments. OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES The Office of the Vice President of Administrative Services will message All Employees on matters that fall under his auspices. Maintenance or facility issues, reminders about utility shutdowns prior to campus closures, emergency preparedness and drill schedules, etc. On behalf of the Business Office, the VPAD may also send messages regarding budget trainings or deadlines, as well as the Business Office newsletter. COLLEGE RELATIONS The Office of College Relations is the fountainhead for most general messaging to the college community. Departments may request that messages be sent to All Employees via email. This includes departmental newsletters, but departmental newsletters may also be distributed by the department’s respective vice president. Messaging will also be conveyed via College Relations in the weekly Connecting the Pack email, the monthly Cabinet Connections, and the restroom flyer Timberwolf Times. To preserve the integrity of the Lone Star College brand as well as to avoid redundancy with System-level communications, College Relations is the only department (outside that of the Office of the President) that may send external communications of any kind.
7 On-Campus Communication CONNECTING THE PACK / TIMBERWOLF TIMES Connecting the Pack (weekly email) and Timberwolf Times (weekly restroom flyer) are regular communications compiled by the Office of College Relations to keep the campus body informed about upcoming events and important announcements. To appear in these communiques, events must be entered onto the Web calendar by the responsible department by the previous Wednesday. CABINET CONNECTIONS Cabinet Connections will be a monthly email with updates from each member of LSCTomball President’s Cabinet. Content will be shared with (via a shared One Drive folder) and compiled by the Director of Communications by a deadline each month. A draft will then be reviewed by President’s Cabinet before being tweaked and then sent to the college. POSTER STANDS Departments around campus such as College Relations, the Office of Student Life, and the Center for Organizational and Teaching Excellence own and maintain their own poster stands around campus. It is the owning department’s responsibility to produce the posters for these stands as well as rotate the content so that it remains timely and relevant.
8 External Communication To preserve the integrity of the Lone Star College brand as well as to avoid redundancy with System-level communications, College Relations is the only department (outside that of the Office of the President) that may send external communications of any kind. MONUMENT ROADSIDE SIGN College Relations will create and deploy content for the roadside LED screen at the Baker Road entrance. Content will be general college and registration awareness. The occasional campus event may be advertised here if a) it has broad community appeal; and b) it’s possible to convey its message/meaning in the simplest of formats. The final decision about what may or may not be displayed on the monument road sign will lay with President’s Cabinet. Digital EMAIL Emails may be sent to All Employees via the parameters outlined in the Communicators section of this process. No All Employee emails should be sent from individuals other than the president or the president’s assistant. • Departments should obtain departmental email addresses (e.g. LSC-Tomball Office of the Vice President of Student Success) for All Employee correspondence. These addresses can be set up as proxy Outlook inboxes by OTS in the personal Outlook of those sending these messages. • Those with messages to share are encouraged to use the regular digest type publications disseminated by the Office of College Relations. Our hope is that our audience will become trained to read this regularly and carefully and will trust them as a comprehensive source of reliable information. To that end, Connecting the Pack, unless in special circumstances, should be the only email about events on campus to be sent on Mondays. Organizers are able to request that a single reminder email, only about their event, be sent at some point. To send this message also on Monday would be redundant as well as not serve the purpose of a reminder. If reminder emails are requested of division offices other than College Relations, those email administrators are encouraged to coordinate with the Director of Communications to
9 discuss the most effective timing for these reminders. • Themed strategic messaging may be necessary in situations such as the construction on SH 249 or the development of our annual ACE process. In these situations, internal email headers will be developed and deployed above the messaging so that recipients will know immediately the subject matter of the email. These messages should only be deployed by the Office of the President or the Office of College Relations. TEXT Currently, the Student Success via Outreach and Recruitment use text messaging to communicate with students. Active coordination should take place about these efforts and individual campaigns made readily known between departments to avoid overlap and redundancy. The LSC Office of Technology Services now offers individuals the ability to request that a text message be sent to students. We prefer that this service not be utilized by members of the LSC-Tomball community. Because this service is not integrated with either the Salesforce modules being rolled out at the campuses nor with any of the tools already in use, chances are high that messaging will be requested outside of our strategically planned communications at the campus level. This is anathema to our goals. Therefore, College Relations should be made aware of all student messaging by LSC-Tomball personnel and that messaging should be made at the campus level. THANK VIEW College Relations will use the platform Thank View to send video email and text messages to various constituents. Requests may be made for messages sent via this platform by contacting the College Relations office. SOCIAL MEDIA The Office of College Relations maintains all college-level social media channels. College programs and divisions are allowed to set up social media accounts, after careful consideration of audience, staffing resources, and potential content. For the most part,
10 departments are encouraged to send their messaging through College Relations to be shared on the college-level accounts in order to leverage the established large followings they have. For those who do wish to create social media accounts for their specific department or program, it is important that they heed the LSC-Tomball social media guidelines enumerated here: http://www.lonestar.edu/tomballsocialmedia. DIGITAL DISPLAY Departments around campus maintain their own vertical digital posters (Viewsonics). It is the owning department’s responsibility to produce content for these machines as well as to rotate the content so that it remains timely, accurate, and relevant. In addition to Viewsonic screens, College Relations also populates the horizontal Digital Media Signage screens around campus. College constituents may request that their content be included on the College Relations digital screens. If the media is not designed by College Relations, it will need to be submitted with the correct specifications for each device. The interactive wayfinding screens have space for digital marketing content. College Relations will create and place this content.
11 OBJECTIVE In situations when a campus closure is necessary, the primary objective is to communicate the pertinent details to as many stakeholders as possible. This will require timely, accurate messaging on a variety of platforms. EXECUTION Because circumstances may vary (e.g. messaging is required outside of business hours, but key personnel lack power at their home), it is key that multiple personnel members have access and knowhow required to send messaging on each available platform. AUDIENCES On Campus • Employees • Students • Library Patrons Off Campus • Employees • Students • Community Members COMMUNICATION LINES Social Media Multi-Platform On Site Email • College Facebook • College Twitter • College Web site • LAN Twitter • LSC Alert • News Media • PA in the Building • PA in library • Driveway Signage • Email to employees • Email to Students
2 SCENARIO ONE Delayed Opening – Decision Made Before/After Hours • Decision made by / comes through President prior to building opening • President notifies President’s Cabinet and Police Captain of the decision • President notifies Communications Officer o Determined in conversation who will execute which of the following Social Media Multi-Platform On Site Email • College Facebook • College Twitter • College Web site • LAN Twitter • LSC Alert • News Media • Gate Closure • Email to employees • Email to Students • President’s Cabinet members notify their direct reports of the situation SCENARIO TWO Weather – Decision Made During Business Hours • Decision made by / comes through President while the buildings are occupied • President notifies President’s Cabinet and Police Captain of the decision • President notifies Communications Officer o Determined in conversation who will execute which of the following Social Media Multi-Platform On Site Email • College Facebook • College Twitter • College Web site • LAN Twitter • LSC Alert • News Media • PA in the Building • PA in library • Gate Closure • Email to employees • Email to Students • President’s Cabinet members notify their direct reports of the situation • Facilities personnel and police walk through the buildings to notify and assist • Deploy DMS Alert messaging where possible
3 CURRENT PERMISSIONS PER PLATFORM (as of October 2021) • College Web site o Jennifer Richardson o Donielle Miller o System Web Team (SO[email protected]; Jeff Lyons; John King) • LSC Alert o System Dispatch • College Facebook o Jennifer Richardson o Donielle Miller o Nicole McGathon o SO • College Twitter o Jennifer Richardson o Donielle Miller o Nicole McGathon • College Instagram o Jennifer Richardson o Donielle Miller o Nicole McGathon • LAN Twitter o LAN • News Media o System: Bill van Rysdam • PA in the Building o Police Dispatch o President’s Office • PA in library o HCPL personnel: Janna Hoagland • Email to employees o LAN o Jennifer Richardson • Email to Students o LAN o Jennifer Richardson o Office of VPSS • Driveway Signage o Facilities o Campus Police