|
A new administrative communications tool is debuting Feb. 18, with a goal of
enhancing and streamlining communications to Dartmouth’s faculty, staff, and
students.
Dartmouth Daily Updates, also known as D2U, is aimed at centralizing and
making more readily available administrative announcements and communication.
The system, which utilizes e-mail and a Web site, comes in response to the 2006
McKinsey & Co. study of administrative operations at the College and
McKinsey’s recommendations. President James Wright
convened three Administrative Working
Groups following the McKinsey report; D2U responds to recommendations made
by the Administrative Communications and Culture Working Group in fall
2006.
“Staff want and need easily accessible and more information as they seek to
understand and implement priorities, decisions, and policies,” the
Communications and Culture group wrote in its report. “We need to encourage a
culture where information is shared appropriately.”
The Communications and Culture group specifically recommended the
establishment of a “daily briefing” section of the Dartmouth home page, devoted to employees
that features administrative notices, announcements, and other
information—internal and external—of interest or import to employees. That’s
where D2U comes in.
“The McKinsey study and the subsequent Administrative Working Groups told us
a lot about the need to communicate more efficiently and effectively,” says
Interim Vice President for Communications Sheila Culbert. “Dartmouth Daily
Updates is one tool that we believe can help us address those needs and move us
toward a goal of creating new and enhanced mechanisms for administrative
communication.”
Dartmouth communicates internally in a number of ways: BlitzMail bulletins,
paper mailings, bulk e-mails, or specialized e-mail lists. But all of these
systems have some downside: Blitz Bulletins are not accessible by e-mail
clients other than BlitzMail, bulk e-mails are often discarded as spam, and
paper mailings have costs for printing and distribution. D2U is seen as a more
accessible way of communicating across the campus.
Based on a system developed at the University of Richmond and refined at
Brown University, D2U is made up of two components: a daily e-mail digest of
administrative information to all staff, faculty, and students, and a Web site
where the full text of information in the digest is posted and viewed. The
daily e-mail digest is scheduled to begin distribution on Monday, Feb. 18.
“D2U will provide the campus with an easy and streamlined method to share
important information,” says Vice President for Information Technology Ellen
Waite-Franzen. “And it won’t clog e-mail inboxes because each individual will
get only one message that will have all of the relevant information in the
digest format.”
D2U will be accessible, without need for special posting privileges, to
submitters in administrative and academic offices across the campus. A D2U
editor will review submissions each afternoon and approve postings to be sent
daily. The system is designed primarily for announcements and administrative
news; events postings are discouraged and posters will be referred to the
online Dartmouth Events
Calendar for posting of events.
D2U will be managed by the Office of Public Affairs,
with e-mails sent Monday through Friday. To see the prototype, visit the site or via e-mail.
By RICK ADAMS
|
RSS/XML Feed